Show all images on one page	#002571 Title: From Beyond the Island to the River/Stepan Razin Artist: Fomichov Lev Alexandrovich(b.1932) Size: 16.5x10x4 Size (inches): 6.5x4x1.5 Price : $495 SOLD!

Lev Fomichov of Mstera is the artist who painted this magnificent piece. He is one of the founders of the modern Mstera lacquer miniature painting style. Still painting, this prominent master left a brilliant legacy that can be enjoyed not only in books and museums, but in collections around the world.
The work shows a fragment from the Russian folk song "From Beyond the Island to the River". The main hero of this song is Stenka Razin, Ataman of the Don Cossacks, who was the leader of the great rebellion of the Russian peasants in the years 1667- 1671. He was caught in the end, and cruelly put to death in Moscow. But he stayed alive in the legends of the poor people, in novels, tales and movies, in the symphonies by Glazunov and Shostakovitsh.
In this song, Stenka Razin in a very drastic way shows his fierce determination to give everything, his love and his life, for the fight against slavery and oppression. To restore trust of his soldiers, Razin throws his sweetheart, the beautiful Persian Princess, into the waters of Volga River.

"I will give you all you ask for-
Head and heart and life and hand.
And his voice rolls out like thunder
Out across the distant land.

Volga, Volga, Mother Volga
Wide and deep beneath the sun,
You have never such a present
From the Cossacks of the Don.

So that peace may reign forever
In this band so free and brave
Volga, Volga, Mother Volga
Make this lovely girl a grave." (the melody to this song you can listen here: http://www.kaikracht.de/balalaika/english/songs/izza_mel.htm)

The palette is a very interesting blend of blue, olive, brown, green and red tones; there is an interesting fact that the paints the artist has used here are all homemade by Fomichov himself from natural materials like stones or plants. Each face is highly detailed, and motion is everywhere.
The scene is thinly outlined in gold. Fomichov has then demonstrated his master hand and painted a unique gold pattern around the composition, and on the box's sides.
The box is constructed out of paper-mache. Black lacquer covers the exterior and red lacquer covers the interior of the box. The lid is hinged at the top, and the box rests on four legs. The artist wrote Mstera, 2006, the title, and his name at the bottom of the composition in gold paints.