Show all images on one page	#004270 Title: Winter in Zvenigorod Artist: Kozlov Sergey Size: 14x11x3 Size (inches): 5.5x4.25x1.25 Price : $4600 SOLD!

Fedoskino Grand Master Sergey Kozlov is a creator this splendid winter scene. Kozlov is a live Legend in the Lacquer Miniature World. His unique works are displayed in every catalogue on the Russian Lacquer Art, as well as in many Museums and in private collections. It is a success to any collector to acquire a work of such prominent Artist.
On this box the Master has painted one of the beautiful places of Moscow suburbs—town of Zvenigorod.
The community of Zvenigorod has existed since the 12th century, although its first written mention is dated 1338. The town's name is derived from two roots, meaning "to ring bells" and "town". It may be translated as "the town where they ring bells". Indeed, when they rang bells in Zvenigorod, the sound was heard in Moscow, which is located in about 40 miles to the east from Zvenigorod.
Zvenigorod rose to prominence in the late 14th century, after it was bequeathed by Dmitry Donskoy to his second son Yuri, who founded his residence on the steep bank of the Moskva River. The local Kremlin, called Gorodok (or a little town), contains the only fully preserved example of 14th-century Muscovite architecture, the Assumption Cathedral (1399). The cathedral's interior features frescoes by the famous icon painter Andrey Rubleov.
Zvenigorod is primarily remembered for internecine wars waged by Yuri's sons for control of Moscow during the reign of their cousin Vasily II (1425-1462). After their party was defeated, the town was incorporated in Moscow.
Zvenigorod was granted municipal rights in 1784. By the late 19th century, the town gained popularity among intelligentsia as a fashionable banlieu of Moscow. Many extravagant dachas(summer houses) were built in the neighborhood. Some of these houses become the museums of well-known Russian writers and artists such as Sergey Taneev, Anton Chekhov, and Isaac Levitan.
One of the famous places in town is Savva-Storozhevsky Monastery.
In 1398, Prince Yuri asked St. Savva, one of the first disciples of Sergii Radonezhsky, to go to Zvenigorod and to establish a monastery on the Storozhi Holm (Watching Hill). St. Savva of Storozhi was interred in the white stone cathedral of the Virgin's Nativity in 1407. This diminutive, roughly hewn church still stands, although its present-day exquisite look is the result of recent restoration. The frescoes in the altar date back to the 1420s, but the rest of interior was painted in 1656. A magnificent iconostasis in five tiers and the Stroganov-school heaven gates were installed in 1652.
In 1650, the monastery was chosen by Tsar Alexis as his suburban residence. In five years, they constructed a white-stone royal palace and a festive chamber for tsaritsa. The cloister was encircled with stone walls and towers, patterned after those of the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra. Particularly noteworthy is a large belfry, erected in four bays in 1650 and crowned with three tents and a clock tower. A church over the holy gates was consecrated to the Holy Trinity in 1652.
After the death of Feodor III, who spent most of his time there, the monastery declined. In May 1918, when the Bolsheviks tried to seize the relics of St. Savva, several persons were shot dead. In 1985, the cloister was assigned to the Danilov Monastery in Moscow. St. Savva's relics were returned to the monastery in 1998.
Snowy expanses of Russian countryside and the white-stoned church that rises above a small town are brilliantly painted on this box. Kozlov paints with a fine brush, achieving almost invisible transitions of colors. Refined oil-painting techniques give this scene depth and life!
Various shades of gray and blue help to reproduce atmosphere of a winter day. Aluminum powder that highlights the rippled surface of river and the trees, some areas of the sky and the snow, tones beautifully with the main snowy palette. A cleverly added inlay of mother-of-pearl shines through the skies. Gold paint is used to paint the church's domes and crosses!
The scene is framed with a gold scan pattern composed of shapes hand punched from gold metal sheets and then painstakingly affixed by hand to the box.
The box is constructed from paper-mache. The box is white from the exterior and its interior as well, which is only give to this winter scene additional charm!
It has a hinge from the top of the composition and rests on a flat bottom. The box is signed, dated (2008) and it is signed as painted in Fedoskino under the composition.