Show all images on one page	#001767 Title: "Angel above the City"(St. Petersbourg) Artist: Dmitriev Sergey Size: 23.5x18x6 Size (inches): 9.5x7.25x2.5 Price : $1350 SOLD!

Kholuy's artist Sergey Dmitriyev has depicted this glorious bird's-eye sight of St. Petersburg. It is called "The Angel hovering over the City". The figure of this angel is depicted in the left part of the composition. It repeats the famous statue of the angel attached to the high spire erected on the roof of the St. Peter and Paul Fortress. It is one of main symbols of the city. The first figure of gilded angel hovering over St. Petersburg was created in the beginning of the eighteenth century in the reign of the city's founder, Peter the Great. Unfortunately, because of the adverse weather conditions this beautiful statue was ruined for several times, and the angel that we have now is the fourth copy of the original version of this statue. It was created in 1858, and hovers over St. Petersburg for more than a century, being the keeper of the city and one of it's main symbols.
In the foreground, in the left bottom corner we can see the Stock Exchange and the Rostral Columns. In the middle of the composition extends the Neva River with big sailing ships and small boats floating on its surface. In the background we can see another famous monuments of St. Petersburg. Among them we can easily recognize the Hermitage, the Admiralty, the St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Savior on the Blood Cathedral, and many other world famous buildings.
The composition looks strikingly decorative because Dmitriev has used here many supplementary materials such as gold metal foil, gold paints and aluminum powder. Gold metal leaf has been used to paint the angel and the cross to which it is attached as well as to paint the images of flying ribbons depicted in the upper and low portions of the composition, the burning sunset masterfully reproduced in the background, and some of the roofs that reflect the gilded sunrays. Gold paint is used to detail the architecture and the ships, while aluminum powder is abundantly used to paint the river and to detail some of the compositional elements but in minimal amounts.
The box is made out of paper-mache made in Kholuy. Black lacquer covers the exterior and red lacquer covers the interior of the box. Gold and aluminum scrollwork frames the scene on the lid, while highly complex ornamentation also painted in gold and aluminum makes it way around the sides of the box. The box has a hinge above the scene and rests on four legs. Along the ribbon depicted in the upper part of the composition the artist writes St. Petersburg in Russian and English, and also the year of its foundation: 1703. The work is signed with the artist's name, the title, the village at the bottom of the composition. This inscription is repeated on the lid's interior, with the addition of the year when the box was finished (2005), and the confirmation that it is the artist's original work.