Show all images on one page	#001888 Title: Pushkin's Tales Artist: Shalaev Vladimir Ivanovich Size: 33.5x26x5 Size (inches): 13.25x10.25x2 Price : $1950 SOLD!

This is a composition that attracts the eye because of its beauty, while attracting the mind because of the artist's intellectual ability to craft elegance through miniature. Vladimir Shalaev from the village of Mstera is the established master responsible for this wonderful work. The colors produce a sense of romance while the decoration builds tradition and compliments the whole. Shalaev conducts an orchestra of recognizable music, music that has been applied as a painted work of art.
The work is entitled "Pushkin's tales" and features fragments from various Pushkin's tales. In the middle of the composition there is the beautiful Princess Swan and a little below we can Prince Gvidon extending his arms to the beauty and Gvidon's mother. This is the fragment from the well-known fairy-tale "The Tale of Tsar Saltan". This scene is surrounded by the large arch filled with the depictions of angels that gradually transform to thirty-three handsome young knights and their uncle old Chernomor who are the characters of the same tale. From right of the central scene at the top of the composition there are two scenes from the fairy-tale "Ruslan and Luydmila". One of them shows Ruslan's battle with the wicked wizard Chernomor, another one shows Ruslan's battle with the Giant Head. A little below we can see the fragment from the fairy-tale "The Priest and His Workman Balda". Then follows the scene featuring the author of all these tales, Alexander Pushkin, reading his poetries to his nanny, Arina Rodionovna. From the left of the central scene at the top of the composition there are two fragments from the tale "Sleeping Princess". One of them shows Prince Yelisey asking the wind where he can find his bride, while another one features the Sleeping Princess and seven bogatyrs. A little below the artist depicts the fragment from the fairy-tale "The Tale of a Fisherman and a Golden Fish". Here we can see the fisherman catching the magic fish and his greedy wife spinning yarn. Then follows the fragment from the Pushkin's poetry "The Mermaid".
The composition is originally designed and very colorful. Some elements of the composition are detailed with gold and aluminum paints.
A thick band of olive green decorated with a gold floral pattern accented with aluminum runs all the way around the composition. The similar decoration can also be found on all four sides of the box.
The box is constructed from paper-mache. Black lacquer is used to paint the exterior of the piece while a sharp red lacquer completes the interior of the work. A hinge has been fastened to the top of the composition and the box rests on a flat bottom. The title, the word 'Mstera' and the artist's signature can be found just under the composition. Beautifully done!