Anna Kotukhina is one of the first women in Palekh art. In the early days of her artistic career, she was creating reproductions of artworks by Ivan Golikov, who created the famous illustrations for The Tale of Igor’s Campaign. It was at that time that she was inspired by the battles painted in Palekh style.
In her 1956 lacquer miniature, the artist took on a challenge of painting a traditionally male-dominated theme head on and created her own original artwork based on The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.
The composition on the casket’s lid is The Eclipse. The scene shows the prince and his army observing the solar eclipse with great unease — a real historical event, corroborated by the Russian chronicles: ‘the sun stands [amidst the sky] like the moon.’ Igor and his army thought this phenomenon a bad omen.
The artist created a tense and dynamic composition. Igor’s army is moving from right to left, but suddenly stops its movement as horses stop and bend their necks sharply. Black ravens fly ominously across the sky. The Polovtsy in the distance are also looking up at the sky where a black disk has overshadowed the blood red sun. Anna Kotukhina painted the landscape in great detail: the dense grass entangling the legs of horses and the strong low-growing trees feel very true to life in the steppe expanses.
The remaining four compositions are painted on the walls of the casket. They depict the most memorable scenes from the Tale. On the front wall of the casket, Russian warriors are fighting the Polovtsy, and Igor is captured. Yaroslavna’s Lament on the city wall is depicted on the right wall of the item. The rear wall is depicting Svyatoslav talking about his prophetic dream and calling for unity. It also contains the scene of Polovtsy dancing. The artist placed the scene of Igor fleeing his captors on the left wall.
Anna Kotukhina chose a rather odd casket to paint. It has a high trapeze-like lid with curved surfaces, a profiled base and carved legs. Even though it is large, there area suitable for painting is rather small. Most of its surfaces are more suited for ornate decorations.
The artist took full advantage of this shape. A lush herbal ornamentation, made with gold and aluminum, filled the empty spaces. Stylized silhouettes of wolves and birds are interwoven into its wavy patterns, as well as medallions with minor painting compositions. In the medallions the artist placed the figure of the prophetic Boyan with his harp, the scene of Igor’s farewell to Kiev, the battle of the Russian warrior with the Polovets, and the yearning Yaroslavna. These complex, oversaturated ornaments were typical for the Palekh miniature in the 1950's.
In her 1956 lacquer miniature, the artist took on a challenge of painting a traditionally male-dominated theme head on and created her own original artwork based on The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.
The composition on the casket’s lid is The Eclipse. The scene shows the prince and his army observing the solar eclipse with great unease — a real historical event, corroborated by the Russian chronicles: ‘the sun stands [amidst the sky] like the moon.’ Igor and his army thought this phenomenon a bad omen.
The artist created a tense and dynamic composition. Igor’s army is moving from right to left, but suddenly stops its movement as horses stop and bend their necks sharply. Black ravens fly ominously across the sky. The Polovtsy in the distance are also looking up at the sky where a black disk has overshadowed the blood red sun. Anna Kotukhina painted the landscape in great detail: the dense grass entangling the legs of horses and the strong low-growing trees feel very true to life in the steppe expanses.
The remaining four compositions are painted on the walls of the casket. They depict the most memorable scenes from the Tale. On the front wall of the casket, Russian warriors are fighting the Polovtsy, and Igor is captured. Yaroslavna’s Lament on the city wall is depicted on the right wall of the item. The rear wall is depicting Svyatoslav talking about his prophetic dream and calling for unity. It also contains the scene of Polovtsy dancing. The artist placed the scene of Igor fleeing his captors on the left wall.
Anna Kotukhina chose a rather odd casket to paint. It has a high trapeze-like lid with curved surfaces, a profiled base and carved legs. Even though it is large, there area suitable for painting is rather small. Most of its surfaces are more suited for ornate decorations.
The artist took full advantage of this shape. A lush herbal ornamentation, made with gold and aluminum, filled the empty spaces. Stylized silhouettes of wolves and birds are interwoven into its wavy patterns, as well as medallions with minor painting compositions. In the medallions the artist placed the figure of the prophetic Boyan with his harp, the scene of Igor’s farewell to Kiev, the battle of the Russian warrior with the Polovets, and the yearning Yaroslavna. These complex, oversaturated ornaments were typical for the Palekh miniature in the 1950's.
