Show all images on one page	#001616 Title: Scarlet Flower Artist: Vlasova Ye. Size: 10.5x5.5x3.5 Size (inches): 4x2.5x1.5 Price : $195 SOLD!

"The Scarlet Flower," is a fairy tale written by Sergei Aksakov (1791-1859) who was a contemporary of Alexander Pushkin. The tale is very similar to what we know today as "Beauty and the Beast." A beautiful girl is trapped inside a beast's home, because she has no choice, and the beast is afraid to show himself due to his appearance. They live in fear of not being loved by the other, until the curse is lifted at the end of the tale and the beast turns out to be a handsome prince.
The plot device that gets the girl to the beast's castle is a scarlet colored flower. She asks her father to come back from his travels with a flower of unsurpassed beauty. He comes across it in a castle that he flees into and picks it. The beast appears and at first wants to kill him for picking the flower, but the man pleads his case that he was getting this as a gift for his youngest daughter. The beast agrees to let him go, but only if he sends one of his daughters back. If one does not agree in three days he will have to go back and face death. When the man returns he explains his fate and his youngest daughter agrees without hesitation.
The palette is extremely radiant, using greens, reds, browns, golds to form the scene. On the black background the man and his daughter seem like they are the only people left on the planet. It also achieves a depth in the scene that brings the characters in the foreground even closer to the viewer. The detailing is executed with the utmost delicacy and done so using gold paint within the clothing. Aluminum powder is also used for an internal glow in the scene.
The box is made out of paper-mache from Fedoskino. Black lacquer covers the exterior and red lacquer covers the interior of the box. The edges of the lid and the box's sides are decorated with intricate gold patterns. The box has a hinge to its left and rests on a flat bottom. The Fedoskino "troika" insignia can be found on the interior of the lid. The box is signed with the artist's name (Vlasova E.), village and year (2003).