Artist Kaleria Kukulieva created this panel “The Mountain Craftsman” in the traditional technique of Palekh miniature in 2000. This work was inspired by two fairy tales from Pavel Bazhov’s collection “The Malachite Box”: “The Mistress of the Copper Mountain” and “The Mountain Craftsman”.

Sometimes the Mistress looked very different — as a lizard with a crown on its head. Presently, this character adorns the coat of arms of the city of Polevskoy, Sverdlovsk Oblast, and was previously depicted on the coats of arms of Sysert and Sverdlovsk (modern Yekaterinburg).

It was believed that the Mistress of the Copper Mountain was at feud with the owners of factories and bailiffs, but helped ordinary workers. However, Pavel Bazhov repeatedly mentioned in his works that her mystical help never brought happiness to his heroes.

Kaleria Kukulieva in her panel painted the Mistress of the Copper Mountain in bluish-green tones. Even her skin has a green sheen. This is how the artist emphasized the supernatural origin of the heroine. Her figure is contrasted with the image of Danila, the craftsman, in the foreground, who is depicted in warm bright colors.

Kaleria Kukulieva was born in 1937 in Palekh. She graduated from the Palekh Art School at the age of 20 and worked at the Palekh Artistic Production Workshop. In 1990, she joined the artistic workshop “Paleshane”, where she created traditional lacquer miniatures, theater decorations, jewelry and book illustrations. The “Sadko”, “Hello, brothers!”, “Son of Russia”, “Ruslan and Lyudmila” books were illustrated by her.