Show all images on one page	#008816 Title: Ring of the Nibelungs Artist: Zhiryakov Alexey Size: 28x25x8 Size (inches): 11x9.75x3 Price : $4950 SOLD!

Another spectacular master piece from Top Palekh Master Alexey Zhiryakov!
The term Nibelung (German) or Niflung (Old Norse) is a personal or clan name with several competing and contradictory uses in Germanic heroic legend. It has an unclear etymology, but is often connected to the root nebel, meaning mist. The term in its various meanings gives its name to the Middle High German heroic epic the Nibelungenlied.
The most wide-spread use of Nibelung is used to denote the Burgundian royal house, also known as the Gibichungs (German) or Gjúkings (Old Norse). A group of royal brothers led by king Gunther or Gunnar, the Gibichungs are responsible for the death of the hero Siegfried or Sigurd and are later destroyed at the court of Attila the Hun (called Etzel in German and Atli in Old Norse). This is the only use of the term attested in the Old Norse legends.
In medieval German, several other uses of the term Nibelung are documented besides the reference to the Gibichungs: it refers to the king and inhabitants of a mythical land inhabited by dwarfs and giants in the first half of the Nibelungenlied, as well as to the father and one of two brothers fighting over a divided inheritence. This land and its inhabitants give their name to the "hoard of the Nibelungs" (Middle High German der Nibelunge hort). In the late medieval Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid, the name, in the form Nybling or Nibling, is given to a dwarf who again gives his name to the treasure.
In Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (1848-1874), Nibelung denotes a dwarf, or perhaps a specific race of dwarfs.
There is a lot of information about this interesting nation, but some of it contradicts to each other.
The composition is framed with the beautiful gold original pattern. The painting is continious on the sides of the box.
The box is constructed from paper-mache. The exterior of the box is painted with black lacquer while the interior is completed with dark red lacquer. A hinge is fastened to the top of the composition and the box rests on a flat bottom. The artist writes his name, title and the village name of Palekh at the bottom of the composition.