Show all images on one page	#009307 Title: Pan-cake week/Shrovetide Artist: Kuzmenko Galina Size: 21.5x16.5x4.5 Size (inches): 8.5x6.5x1.75 Price : $495 SOLD!

This is another spectacular lacquer box from well-known Palekh Artist Galina Kuzmenko!
The work is called "Pan-cake week" and the artist has chosen to depict one of the ancient Russian Orthodox feasts, which is called "Maslenitsa" or "Pancake-week".
This feast is arranged to send off the cold winter and welcome the beginning of warm spring. It usually takes place the week before the Lenten fast. In ancient times Maslenitsa included different magic and religious rites that afterwards transformed into traditional folk customs, such as burning of a woman of straw that embodies the winter, baking of sacrificial bread - pancakes, dressing masquerades, various games, driving in a sledge at high speed and many others. Celebration is in full swing as people are having a good time inside and out of doors.
On the right top corner the artist have depicted a moment when people are burning the figure of Maslenitsa.
On the left corner we can see a girl carrying two buckets of water on a sholder yoke and a village lad is trying to talk to her.
In the foreground we can see a guy and a girl in the the sleigh drawn by three horses.
The painting is framed with a gold dot ornament. The edge of a lid is decorated with the beautiful golden dots pattern, while the sides of a base of the box are decorated with intricate pattern painted in gold and silver colours.
The box is constructed from paper-mache. The exterior of the box is painted with black lacquer while the interior is completed with dark red lacquer. The lid is hinged to the top of the painting and the box rests on a wavy platform with legs. The artist writes her name and the village name of Palekh at the bottom of the composition.