The traditional technology of Khokhloma painting on wood. How did the golden Khokhloma appear

ancient art Khokhloma painting is now experiencing a renaissance. Sparkling gold, flaming with cinnabar patterns, wooden utensils and furniture are world famous. The wonderful Russian art craft, which arose back in the 17th century in the Volga region, near the trading village of Khokhloma, from which it got its name, has become one of the largest centers of folk art in our country. In the last century, Khokhloma spoons and bowls were part of everyday peasant use.

Khokhloma entered the life of a Soviet person in a new way: magnificent sets decorated the festive table, decorative vases and panels fit into the ensemble of a modern interior and enlivened it; small things - boxes, ladles - became favorite souvenirs, painted beads, brooches and bracelets - an elegant addition to a women's costume.

And yet, among the various products of the Khokhloma craft, which sometimes have a purely decorative purpose, the most important place is occupied by dishes. Today, along with traditional cups, spoons, flasks, supplies, Khokhloma artists offer beautiful and easy-to-use kitchen sets, sets for fish soup, berries, honey, milk, consisting of several items. From this bright colorful dish it seems to breathe generosity, Russian hospitality.

But the growing fame of Khokhloma is explained not only by the fact that Khokhloma products are practical and pleasant in the household, they can serve as decorative ornament or an original souvenir. In our time, the significance of Khokhloma painting as an original area of ​​Russian folk art, a unique phenomenon of national culture, is becoming clearer. Artistic experience of many generations of talented wood turners, carvers and painters comes to life in the works created by the hands of modern masters.

When you look at cups carved from light wood, cups, cupboards, salt boxes, you never get tired of admiring the strict beauty of the forms, the sonorous decorativeness of the painting, which turned these modest household items into genuine works of art.

The motives of Khokhloma painting are simple and poetic. They are limited to floral and simple geometric patterns. Flexible grasses or twigs with golden elastic curls-leaves gently creep along the convex surfaces of objects. Flowers, clusters of berries are woven into the pattern. The compositions, sometimes strict and laconic, sometimes refined and lush, embodied the love of the Russian people for nature, their desire for beauty.

The cheerful structure of the painting acquires a festive solemnity thanks to the magnificently found colorful range: sparkling gold, scarlet cinnabar and deep black tone. Strict color combinations and the bright sheen of gold give wooden bowls a resemblance to precious dishes. This is all the more remarkable because the Khokhloma "gold" is a product of the ingenuity of Russian artisans.

And getting the effect of gold on a tree is not so easy: unpainted products are primed, covered with drying oil, rubbed with aluminum powder (in the past - tin, less often silver). The dishes “silvered” in this way are painted with heat-resistant oil paints, varnished and tempered in an oven. From heating, the varnish turns yellow, turning "silver" into "gold", softening the brightness of the color of the painting with an even golden tone.

The secrets of technology, the wonderful traditions of this type of folk art are kept and improved by two large art enterprises located in the Gorky region: "Khokhloma painting" in the city of Semenov and "Khokhloma artist" in the villages of Semino, Kuligino, Novopokrovskoye, Koverninsky district. Illustrious teams unite about a thousand masters. The work of many of them has received high awards.

It was not by chance that the Trans-Volga region became the birthplace of Khokhloma painting. The forest region in the northeast of the former Nizhny Novgorod province has long been famous for its skilled craftsmen. Here, until the end of the 19th century, numerous artistic crafts were preserved, among which, due to the abundance of forests, woodworking occupied a special place. Khokhloma was only the only branch of the art of carving, turning and painting on wood that was widespread here.

Peasant utensils were generously decorated with carving and painting: sledges, horse arches, spinning wheels, rollers, weaving mills, dishes. Intricate patterns were carved by folk craftsmen on gingerbread and heeled boards, and a chipped and chiseled toy was made for children. Especially sophisticated in the Volga region was the carved outfit of the huts. The pediment, walls, gates were covered with decorative boards depicting lush floral ornaments and fantastic creatures - birds-Syria, mermaids - "shorelines", lions with a flowering branch instead of a tail.

To enhance the impression of elegance, the house carvings, as well as the carvings on the utensils, were highlighted. But the desire of peasant artists for bright colors was even stronger in the painting of wooden toys, bast boxes, birch bark, Khokhloma dishes and Gorodets spinning wheels.

Gorodets painting, which arose in the second half of the 19th century next to Khokhloma painting, is completely different from it. In the villages near Volzhsky Gorodets, famous for the noisy bazaars, the peasants depicted funny pictures on the wide bottoms of the spinning wheels: elegant “couples”, dashing riders on steep-necked horses framed lush roses or colorful bouquets, fun treats.

And today this peasant painting delights us with its impudently bold painting style, sonorous harmony of rich blue, yellow, black and pink-red tones. Everyday scenes indicating the late origin of Gorodets painting, the flamboyance of the colorful range, the technique of “cold” coloring in contrast emphasize the unique originality of Khokhloma’s purely ornamental motifs, its strict solemn coloring and unusual technology, generated by the artistic culture of the 17th century.

In the history of the folk crafts of the Volga region, the Khokhloma craft has taken a special place not only in terms of the breadth of distribution, the number of employed workers, the volume of manufactured products, the scope of trade, but also in terms of amazing vitality. The method of Khokhloma coloring arose, in all likelihood, in the 17th century. In any case, even then, metal powder in the decoration of wooden utensils was widely used by Nizhny Novgorod craftsmen, for example, in the estates of the boyar Morozov, who in a letter to his clerks in 1659 demanded to send him "a hundred dishes of quick red (i.e. dyed. - i.e.) and for the tin business". But whether this dish was similar to gold is unknown.

It is quite possible that the icon-painting craft developed in the schismatic hermitages of the Trans-Volga region had an influence on the addition of Khokhloma technology - silver powder for drying oil was used to gild the background of the icons. In this technique, close to Khokhloma, local icon painters also tried to create purely ornamental compositions. The Gorky Art Museum has 17th-century icon cases painted with lush floral patterns reminiscent of precious oriental fabrics. Fantastic golden flowers and oddly shaped leaves gleam against red and green backgrounds.

The spread of the method of imitation of gold in the coloring of peasant dishes was apparently caused by the desire to imitate expensive utensils carved from precious woods, painted with cinnabar and painted with real gold. It existed among the boyars, and was made in monasteries and, in particular, in the Tronza-Sergius Lavra, to which the Trans-Volga villages of Khokhloma and Skorobogatovo were assigned in the 17th century. From the documents of the monastery it can be seen that the peasants from these villages were called to work in the workshops of the Lavra, where they could get acquainted with the production of festive bowls and ladles. Interestingly, it was the Khokhloma and Skorobogachovo lands that became the birthplace of the original folk painting, dishes that looked like precious ones.

The abundance of forests, the proximity of trade routes contributed to the development of fishing. In 1810, the Russian geographer Yevdokim Zyablovsky reported that in the villages of the Nizhny Novgorod province, located on the left bank of the Volga, “peasants sharpen and varnish various wooden utensils. Their goods are light, clean, strong, and both their yellow and black varnish, which they brew from linseed oil, is very strong and bright.

By the middle of the 19th century, the industry had grown significantly. “The activity in the Khokhloma volost is unusual,” wrote Nizhny Novgorod Gubernskiye Vedomosti in 1855, “in some villages buckwheats are prepared, in others cups are sharpened from buckwheaters, in others they are painted ...”

Ten villages of the Semyonovsky district (Vikharevo, Koshelevo, Sivtsevo, Berezovka and others) in 1870 painted 930 thousand pieces of dishes. Skorobogatovskaya volost of the neighboring Kostroma province competed with them, where they were engaged in painting in Big and Small Khryashchi, Semin, Rossadina, Mokushino, Vorotnev and the village of Bezdeli, which got its name because its inhabitants did not sow bread, like other peasants, but lived only on income from the industry.

In the second half of the 19th century, all kinds of cups, caviar dishes of five varieties, chiseled mugs, barrels, lacquer canes and snuff boxes were made here. The furniture with Khokhloma patterns, which was made in Bezdely by the Krasilnikov family, was also famous. By this time, Khokhloma painting had accumulated certain traditions, its characteristic techniques and types of compositions had developed.

The art of Khokhloma in its origins is closely connected with the ancient Russian decorative culture. In Khokhloma ornaments, one can see a connection with the floral patterns of icons and frescoes, manuscripts, fabrics and utensils of the 17th century. In the process of development, peasant painting experienced various influences, but, having reworked them, it created its own special style, largely determined by the tasks of mass production of cheap dishes for peasant households.

The principles of decorating it are varied and depend on the shape, size and purpose of the object. The cheapest bowls that could be found in any village hut had a simple ornament. The master, having dipped a stencil made of a piece of felt, a dry raincoat mushroom or a porous sponge into the paint, confidently applied black and red rhombuses, stars, spirals to the surface of the bowl. They alternated on a golden background in a strict rhythmic order, sometimes combined with light strokes, either scattered along the side, or forming a semblance of a flower at the bottom. Already in these primitive compositions, the remarkable decorative flair of the village artist, his ability to fill the surface of an object with a pattern, leaving no voids anywhere, but without clogging the golden background with paint, was reflected. Using stingy means, the master created an elegant, eye-pleasing painting.

Things large or more complex in shape were painted with the so-called grass ornament. It was executed with quick, laconic strokes of the brush, similar to blades of grass or feathery leaves. A light openwork pattern covering the golden dishes, casks, and utensils emphasized the beauty of their proportions and the plasticity of the silhouette.

In this regard, the painting of the "artel" bowls is noteworthy, huge, "up to one and a half arshins in diameter," from which it was possible to feed an entire artel. Sometimes they were inscribed with: This bowl is for barge haulers, it’s nice to eat them to their health. We serve the owner, we sing a song.

At the bottom of such a bowl, the master, as a rule, placed a rosette of "herbs". This composition was popularly called "saffron milk cap", either because of its resemblance to a forest mushroom, or because it resembled the sun - red Yarilo. Often the socket fit into a rhombus, forming, as it were, a gingerbread.

The drawing in the center, emphasizing the bottom, was framed by a plant branch. She lay down on the side of the bowl with a magnificent wreath and seemed to bloom before our eyes, throwing out elastically curled shoots with clusters of berries one after another. It is convenient to distribute such an ornamental motif on the spherical surface of an object, and thanks to repeated repetition, its drawing becomes clear and complete.

In another case, the composition is built on the principle of contrast - the “gingerbread” is enlarged, and along the side, like the feathers of a fabulous bird, swirling strokes are boldly thrown, running in one direction. Their impetuous rhythm exacerbates the immobility of the “carrot”. Khokhloma carefully preserves herbal patterns taken from antiquity, and sometimes unexpectedly boldly recycles, creating endless and diverse options: a wavy branch on a bowl, lush bushes on a pot-bellied barrel or a squat salt cellar, graceful “sedges” on a slender stand, and on its lid - a steeply curved branch-spiral.

The fantasy of a peasant artist is inexhaustible: the ornament never repeats exactly, and each new version of it is a skillful improvisation performed without a preliminary drawing. That is why the methods of “riding” writing, which are used to perform “grass”, are so expressive: flexible strokes - blades of grass - lie like silhouettes on top of the Golden background. The rhythms of painting are determined by the movements of the brush, sometimes bold, energetic, sometimes smooth and unhurried, but always confident and precise.

The manner of writing, worked out by more than one generation of artists, combines the accuracy of techniques with spontaneity and apparent simplicity: we see how the paint hardened at the touch of a brush, giving life to wonderful leaves and herbs. Juicy strokes and light flourishes are extremely arbitrary and contain only a hint of form, but they immediately evoke in our imagination a lively and vivid image flowering plant.

In these fiery bursts of cinnabar - the generosity and richness of the soul of a Russian person, in them - a living sense of nature and the peasant's dream of beauty, his desire to turn a modest blade of grass into an outlandish plant, winding with bizarre curls. The same is sung in folk wedding songs: “golden yar-hops” curl, “azure flowers” ​​bloom on the way of the groom to the bride, “silk grass” leans.

The grass ornament was the most favorite among the peasants, but there were also compositions without “grass”, “under the leaf”, an image of leaves on branches that were simple in pattern, or those where “grass” was an addition to the main pattern. For example, a "pole" with large flowers and leaves, curly antennae.

“Horse” writing is one direction of Khokhloma painting, associated with the tradition of free brush paintings that existed in the Volga region in the 17th-18th centuries. Other techniques and decorative principles are developed by the “background” writing that emerged in the middle of the last century.

Its execution is more complex: the artist outlines the contours of the drawing with a thin black line, then paints over the red background, and unsubscribes the left silver pattern, i.e., enlivens with light strokes, sets off with hatching. After varnishing and hardening in the oven, golden flowers and leaves will sparkle against a festive scarlet or deep black background.

So they wrote “kudrin - an ornament formed by golden curls. They, following each other, like crests of waves, create an elegant golden border. Such a strip was liked to be placed along the edges of bowls and stands.

Often the motif of the "curl" is a large branch with succulent leaves, reminiscent of the floral patterns of house carvings. These patterns, according to the stories of the old master N. G. Podogov, Khokhloma artists altered in their own way, changed the composition, adapting it to the convex surfaces of chiseled dishes, giving the leaves a more rounded shape.

"Kudrina" was liked by its generality, the play of flat golden spots. Bowls and spoons were decorated with such a painting, but it was especially good on large objects - large bowls, arcs, round stools. On arcs made in the middle of the last century, there are also patterns with smaller branches, intercepted rings and curly leaves. They resemble the ornaments of ancient handwritten books preserved by the Old Believers.

Obviously, these drawings influenced the composition of the “curly hair” motifs, and possibly determined the graphic nature of its techniques: instead of juicy strokes of “grass”, giving rise to the impression of picturesqueness, volume, a contour line, a flat golden spot, a subtle stroke in the elaboration of details dominate here. However, the complex and time-consuming "background" letter was apparently executed only on gift items or on special order. Few such things have come down to us, and often they were signed or had inscriptions: This arc of the peasant Simeon Ivanov Grishina der. Retkino 1853.

The technique of "riding" writing, due to the ease and laconicism of its techniques, remained the main one in decorating mass-produced dishes, which were sold in lots of a thousand pieces. Light, durable, elegant and cheap Khokhloma bowls, spoons, setters and dishes were widely dispersed in Russia and exported abroad. The main trade route was the Volga.

In the spring, as soon as the river was cleared of ice, barges loaded to the top with "chip goods" sailed to Gorodets or to Nizhny Novgorod and Makariev, famous for their fairs, and from there to the Saratov and Astrakhan provinces. Through the Kyrgyz steppes, Khokhloma dishes were delivered to Persia, India, and Central Asia. From Nizhny Novgorod she went to Siberia, to the White and to the Baltic Seas. The British, Germans and French bought it in Arkhangelsk. Travelers met Khokhloma cups in remote cities of America, Africa and Australia.

Despite the growing popularity of Khokhloma painting, in late XIX At the beginning of the 20th century, the craft experienced a severe crisis caused by the rise in the cost of timber and increased competition for factory-made dishes. Handicraftsmen had to develop the cheapest types of dishes, the painting degenerated into rough, careless strokes. Professional artists sent by the Nizhny Novgorod Zemstvo to teach handicraftsmen new drawings introduced an element of cold stylization into the painting.

The Great October Socialist Revolution opened a new page in the art of Khokhloma. In the first decrees of the Soviet government, concern for the protection and development of folk art was felt. An important role in his fate was played by the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. signed by V. I. Lenin and M. I. Kalinin on April 25, 1919. "On measures to promote the handicraft industry." Khokhloma handicraftsmen, as well as masters of other crafts, received the necessary financial support and raw materials. They united in artels and went to work from cramped dye houses to bright and spacious public workshops. In 1918, a Khokhloma painting school was opened in Semenov.

An exhibition of works of peasant art, arranged in 1921 in the halls of the State Historical Museum, showed its true beauty and significance, prompted Khokhloma artists to turn to the study of the rich heritage of the past. The time of the revival of the truly folk character of the painting was the 1920-1930s. Her best traditions preserved and passed on to the younger generation of artists by the old masters: S. S. Yuzikov, the Krasilnikov brothers, A. M. Serov, P. F. Raspopin, the Pologov family and others.

However, the traditions of the pre-revolutionary art of Khokhloma were rethought in the spirit of the times. As a result, at the Exhibition of Folk Art, which took place in 1937 at the State Tretyakov Gallery, new original works by Khokhloma artists appeared. In these works, on the basis of the old "grass" writing, various variants of floral patterns were created. Artists began to place flowers, patterned leaves, strawberries, currants, raspberries, spikelets of rye among flexible grasses, to depict birds, and sometimes fish in stains of algae grasses. For the first time, the joyful feeling of life was vividly embodied in the Khokhloma ornament, and its content became rich and emotional.

The following decades were full of intense searches: the art of Khokhloma was enriched with new discoveries. The highest creative achievements are associated with modern stage in the life of the industry. Excellent results are brought by the work of Khokhloma masters in collaboration with employees of the Moscow Research Institute of the Art Industry - V. M. Vishnevskaya. 3. A. Arkhipova, A. V. Babaeva. E. I. Vorontsova.

In the experimental laboratories opened at the Khokhloma factories, artists create a rich assortment of products that are becoming increasingly popular today. There is a variety of dishes, and decorative vases, ladles, panels, and sets of collapsible children's furniture, light and comfortable coffee tables. Among the novelties of souvenir products are graceful vases, powder boxes, a set of three miniature sets nested one inside the other and painted with “grass”, “curly” and “under the background”.

In developing the plastic qualities of new products, the authors strive to make fuller use of the specifics of wood. Taking as a basis the types of traditional Russian wooden utensils - bowls, brothers, setters, tubs, large mugs for kvass, artists interpret the form in their own way, giving it a sharper expressiveness, emphasizing slenderness and lightness, or, on the contrary, massiveness and squatness. This is achieved by changing the proportion, silhouette, original solution details - handles, covers.

Thanks to the new decorative purpose of Khokhloma products, the aesthetic basis of Khokhloma received further development. Khokhloma painting today has become unusually subtle, virtuoso, emotional. Perfectly mastering all types of writing, artists create endlessly diverse options for ornaments. And in any composition one can feel the bright individuality of the master. Even, it would seem, in monotonous, at first glance, herbal patterns, we can easily distinguish large juicy "grass" by A. I. Kurkina from the delicate "grass" by N. A. Denisova or light dynamic, as if bowed by a gust of wind, scarlet "herbs » E. N. Dospalova.

The colorful gamut of painting became more complex and richer. Masters are looking for new interesting combinations within the limits of the traditional coloring, decomposing the main colors into similar shades: yellow-orange highlights appear on red berries, and greenish-brownish tones play on the leaves, softly combined with gold. The Khokhloma palette seems to absorb the colorful richness of the autumn forests, among which the painting was born.

The saturation of the Khokhloma patterns is set off by the artists with golden stripes, chiseled decorative rings, grooves, which give the product a special elegance. In modern Khokhloma art, two directions have been determined.

In the Koverninsky district, where craftsmen work in villages lost among dense forests, the figurative structure of the painting is largely determined by direct life impressions. The prevailing motifs here are “grass”, modest wildflowers, birch leaves and catkins, lindens, wild berries. The rhythms of the drawing are smooth, unhurried, but the brush strokes are picturesque and bold. "We love living berries, freedom in painting", say kavernnian artists.

Each of them has its own special style of performance. Fine lyricism distinguishes the work of L. I. Maslova. The gentle, friendly image of nature is embodied by her in compositions with a gooseberry motif. On flexible branches, she depicts patterned pale green leaves, striped golden yellow berries. Through their shaggy skin, golden veins-strokes seem to shine through in the sun.

Paintings by K. V. Mosnnaya with raspberries, mountain ash and currants are akin to a cheerful peasant song. It emanates from them a freshness of feeling, a purely folk understanding of color - sonorous, bright, full-blooded. Thin lines coexist here with a daring stroke and a “poke”, (“bobblehead”), which is applied with the end of the brush. With such “pokes” the craftswoman writes blackberries and raspberries, the crown of a tree, clover flowers.

O. P. Lushnna stands out among other craftswomen with her picturesque temperament. She often builds compositions on the play of large spots of color, abandoning the traditional flexible stem or bush. On the golden background of bowls and vases, the artist boldly scatters fiery red leaves. These bright juicy spots, like sonorous musical chords, give the figurative structure of the painting a special elation and major.

Modern "background" writing has become extraordinarily effective. The floral patterns that are performed in this technique, thanks to special techniques, received a new original interpretation: either in A.T. sky, golden flowers-rosettes in the works of O. L. Veselova. Master P. A. Novozhilova loves the red background, which gives the image a special festiveness. The drawings of Kovernin's "curl" are soft and plastic. True, they are performed less frequently here than in the city of Semenov.

The city of Semyonov is another major center of Khokhloma, where this art develops somewhat differently. Although both Semenov and Kovernin artists are fine connoisseurs of all types of writing, both have their favorite motives and techniques. Differences in the nature of their painting have been outlined for a long time. In 1937, at the exhibition "Folk Art" in the Tretyakov Gallery, two decorative panels. One of them belonged to the Koverninsky master A. G. Podogov.

Using the ancient motif of the “polewood” composition, he depicted screaming starlings among fresh greenery and fluffy bird cherry flowers. He managed to create a poetic and at the same time lifelike image of spring Russian nature. The work of the Semenov artist A.P. Kuznetsova fascinated with its fabulousness: on a lush branch with magic apples, an elegant Pava bird with fiery golden-orange plumage.

Semenovtsev were also later attracted by complex and lush compositions with fantastic birds, flowers and bizarre leaves, which they performed in a light graphic manner.

Recently, the Semenov masters have been working a lot and willingly on the Kudrina ornaments, writing them in small, with jewelry subtlety.

Peculiar, unusual motifs of "curly hair" by M. F. Sineva. They vary the image of an exotic flower formed by golden curls and reminiscent of an oriental fan.

If the craftswomen of Kovernnia each try to preserve their individual "handwriting", then in the city of Semenov talented artists A.P. Savinova, N.P. Salnikova, N.V. Morozova, N.I. Ivanova, M.M. Gladkova, creating new compositions often work together. Each can always continue or finish the work of the other. Especially good are the table sets made by a team of craftsmen under the guidance of I. K. Sorokin.

Rare in beauty patterns are painted on various objects. You can endlessly admire the filigree ornament of small golden leaf curls on a flexible stem. Whimsically curving, golden branches lie on the red background of cups, brothers and ladles with elegant openwork lace. The magnificent solemn painting corresponds to the purpose of the festive dishes. The works of Semyonov and Kovernino artists perfectly complement each other, giving an idea of ​​the rich and varied possibilities of modern Khokhloma painting.

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The painting looks bright, despite the dark background. To create a picture, paints such as red, yellow, orange, a little green and blue. Also in the painting there is always a golden color. The traditional elements of Khokhloma are red juicy rowan and strawberry berries, flowers and branches. Birds, fish and animals are also often found.

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Products with Koverinsky Khokhloma painting

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A set of products with Khokhloma painting

Khohloma box.JPG

Casket painted under Khokhloma

Story

It is believed that Khokhloma painting originated in the 17th century on the left bank of the Volga, in the villages of Big and Small Bezdel, Mokushino, Shabashi, Glibino, Khryashchi. The village of Khokhloma was a major sales center, where finished products were brought, and the name of the painting came from there. Currently, the city of Semyonov in the Nizhny Novgorod region is considered the birthplace of Khokhloma.

To date, there are many versions of the origin of Khokhloma painting, here are the two most common:

First version

According to the most common version, unique way the coloring of wooden dishes “under gold” in the forest Trans-Volga region and the very birth of the Khokhloma craft were attributed to the Old Believers.

Even in ancient times, among the inhabitants of local villages, securely sheltered in the wilderness of forests, there were many "Old Believers", that is, people who fled from persecution for the "old faith".

Among the Old Believers who moved to the Nizhny Novgorod land there were many icon painters, masters of book miniatures. They brought with them ancient icons and handwritten books, fine painting skills, freehand calligraphy and samples of the richest floral ornament.

In turn, local craftsmen excellently mastered turning skills, passed down from generation to generation the skills of making dishware molds, the art of three-dimensional carving. At the turn of the XVII-XVIII centuries, the forest Trans-Volga region became a real artistic treasury. The art of Khokhloma inherited from the Trans-Volga masters the "classical forms" of turning utensils, the plasticity of the carved forms of ladles, spoons, and from the icon painters - the pictorial culture, the skill of the "thin brush". And, no less important, the secret of making "golden" dishes without the use of gold.

Second version

But there are documents showing otherwise. A method of imitation of gilding on wood, related to Khokhloma, was used by Nizhny Novgorod artisans in coloring wooden utensils as early as 1640-1650, before the appearance of the Old Believers. In the large Nizhny Novgorod handicraft villages of Lyskovo and Murashkino, in the Trans-Volga "selishka Semenovskoye" (the future city of Semenov - one of the centers of Khokhloma painting), wooden utensils were made - brothers, ladles, dishes for the festive table - painted "for pewter", that is, using tin powder. The method of painting wooden utensils “for pewter”, probably preceding Khokhloma, developed from the experience of icon painters and the local Volga traditions of utensil craft.

Factors that gave impetus to the development of Khokhloma painting

The production of Khokhloma utensils was held back for a long time by the high cost of imported tin. Only a very wealthy customer could provide the craftsmen with tin. In the Trans-Volga region, monasteries turned out to be such customers. So, the villages of Khokhloma, Skorobogatovo and about 80 villages along the rivers Uzola and Kerzhents worked for the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. From the documents of the monastery it is clear that the peasants of these villages were called to work in the workshops of the Lavra, where they could get acquainted with the production of festive bowls and ladles. It is no coincidence that it was Khokhloma and Skorobogatov villages and villages that became the birthplace of the original painting of dishes, so similar to precious ones.

The abundance of forests, the proximity of the Volga - the main trade artery of the Trans-Volga region - also contributed to the development of fishing: loaded with "wood chips" goods. ships were sent to Gorodets, Nizhny Novgorod, Makariev, famous for their fairs, and from there - to the Saratov and Astrakhan provinces. Through the Caspian steppes, Khokhloma dishes were delivered to Central Asia, Persia, and India. The British, Germans, French willingly bought up the Trans-Volga products in Arkhangelsk, where they were delivered through Siberia. The peasants turned, painted wooden utensils and took them for sale to the large trading village of Khokhloma (Nizhny Novgorod province), where there was a bargain. Hence the name "Khokhloma painting", or simply "Khokhloma".

There is also a legendary explanation for the appearance of Khokhloma painting. There was a wonderful icon painter Andrei Loskut. He fled from the capital, dissatisfied with the church innovations of Patriarch Nikon, and began to paint in the wilderness of the Volga forests wooden crafts, yes, paint icons according to the old model. Patriarch Nikon found out about this and sent soldiers for the recalcitrant icon painter. Andrei refused to obey, burned himself in a hut, and before his death bequeathed to people to preserve his skill. Sparks went out, Andrey crumbled. Since then, the bright colors of Khokhloma have been burning with a scarlet flame, sparkling with golden nuggets.

Khokhloma craft centers

Currently, Khokhloma painting has two centers - the city of Semyonov, where the Khokhloma Painting and Semyonov Painting factories are located, and the village of Semino, Koverninsky District, where the Khokhloma Artist enterprise operates, uniting craftsmen from the villages of the Koverninsky District: Semino, Kuligino, Novopokrovskoye etc. (the factory is located in the village of Semino). AT this moment the activity of the enterprise is reduced to almost zero. In the village of Semino there is also an enterprise that has been producing wooden caskets with Khokhloma painting for 19 years (Promysel LLC).

Technology

For the manufacture of products with Khokhloma painting, first they beat baklushi, that is, they make rough wood blanks. Then, on a lathe or milling machine, the workpiece is given the desired shape. The resulting products - carved ladles and spoons, supplies and cups - the basis for painting, are called "linen".

After drying, the "linen" is primed with liquid purified clay - vapa. After priming, the product is dried for 7-8 hours and must be manually covered with several layers of drying oil (linseed oil). The master dips a special tampon made of sheep or calf skin turned inside out into a bowl with drying oil, and then quickly rubs it into the surface of the product, turning it so that the drying oil is evenly distributed. This operation is very responsible. The quality of wooden utensils, the strength of the painting will depend on it in the future. During the day, the product will be covered with drying oil 3-4 times. The last layer will be dried to a “slight touch” - when the drying oil slightly sticks to the finger, no longer staining it. The next stage is “tinning”, that is, rubbing aluminum powder into the surface of the product. It is also performed manually with a sheepskin swab. After tinning, the objects acquire a beautiful white-mirror shine, and are ready for painting. Oil paints are used in painting. The main colors that determine the character and recognizability of Khokhloma painting are red and black (cinnabar and soot), but others are also allowed to revive the pattern - brown, light-colored greens, yellow tone. Painting brushes are made from squirrel tails so that they can draw a very thin line.

There is a “horse” painting (when a drawing is applied on a painted silver background (kriul is the main line of the composition, elements such as sedges, droplets, antennae, curls, etc.) are “planted” on it in red and black) and “under the background” (first outline of the ornament, and then filled black paint the background, drawing of a leaf or flower remains golden). In addition, there are various types of ornaments:

• "gingerbread" - usually inside a cup or dish, a geometric figure - a square or a rhombus - decorated with grass, berries, flowers;
• "grass" - a pattern of large and small blades of grass;
• "kudrina" - leaves and flowers in the form of golden curls on a red or black background;

Masters and simplified ornaments are used. For example, “speck”, which is applied with a stamp cut from the plates of a raincoat mushroom, or with a piece of fabric folded in a special way. All products are painted by hand, and the painting is not repeated anywhere. No matter how expressive the painting is, as long as the pattern or background remains silvery, this is not yet a real “Khokhloma”.

Painted products are coated 4-5 times with a special varnish (with intermediate drying after each layer) and, finally, they are hardened for 3-4 hours in an oven at a temperature of +150 ... +160 ° C until a golden oil-lacquer film is formed. This is how the famous “golden Khokhloma” is obtained.

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An excerpt characterizing Khokhloma

- Oh my god! My God! How bad he is! mother exclaimed.

When Anna Mikhailovna went with her son to Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhy, Countess Rostova sat alone for a long time, putting a handkerchief to her eyes. Finally, she called.
“What are you, dear,” she said angrily to the girl, who kept herself waiting for several minutes. You don't want to serve, do you? So I will find a place for you.
The countess was upset by the grief and humiliating poverty of her friend and therefore was not in a good mood, which was always expressed in her by the name of the maid "dear" and "you".
“Guilty with,” said the maid.
“Ask the Count for me.
The count, waddling, approached his wife with a somewhat guilty look, as always.
- Well, Countess! What a saute au madere [saute in Madeira] of grouse will be, ma chere! I tried; I gave a thousand rubles for Taraska not for nothing. Costs!
He sat down beside his wife, valiantly leaning his hands on his knees and ruffling his gray hair.
- What do you want, countess?
- Here's what, my friend - what do you have dirty here? she said, pointing to the vest. "That's sauté, right," she added, smiling. - Here's the thing, Count: I need money.
Her face became sad.
- Oh, Countess! ...
And the count began to fuss, taking out his wallet.
- I need a lot, count, I need five hundred rubles.
And she, taking out a cambric handkerchief, rubbed her husband's waistcoat with it.
- Now. Hey, who's there? he shouted in a voice that only people shout, confident that those whom they call will rush headlong to their call. - Send Mitenka to me!
Mitenka, that noble son, brought up by the count, who was now in charge of all his affairs, entered the room with quiet steps.
“That’s what, my dear,” said the count to the respectful man who entered. young man. “Bring me…” he thought. - Yes, 700 rubles, yes. Yes, look, don’t bring such torn and dirty ones as that time, but good ones, for the countess.
“Yes, Mitenka, please, clean ones,” said the countess, sighing sadly.
“Your Excellency, when would you like me to deliver it?” Mitenka said. “If you please, don’t worry, don’t worry,” he added, noticing that the count had already begun to breathe heavily and quickly, which was always a sign of anger. - I was and forgot ... Will you order to deliver this minute?
- Yes, yes, then bring it. Give it to the Countess.
“What gold I have this Mitenka,” added the count, smiling, when the young man left. - There is no such thing as impossible. I can't stand it. Everything is possible.
“Ah, money, count, money, how much grief they cause in the world!” said the Countess. “I really need this money.
“You, countess, are a well-known winder,” said the count, and, kissing his wife’s hand, went back into the study.
When Anna Mikhailovna returned from Bezukhoy again, the countess already had money, all in brand new paper, under a handkerchief on the table, and Anna Mikhailovna noticed that the countess was somehow disturbed.
- Well, my friend? the countess asked.
Oh, what a terrible state he is in! You can't recognize him, he's so bad, so bad; I stayed for a minute and did not say two words ...
“Annette, for God’s sake, don’t refuse me,” the countess suddenly said, blushing, which was so strange with her middle-aged, thin and important face, taking money from under her handkerchief.
Anna Mikhaylovna instantly understood what was the matter, and already bent down to deftly embrace the countess at the right time.
- Here's Boris from me, for sewing a uniform ...
Anna Mikhaylovna was already embracing her and crying. The Countess was crying too. They wept that they were friendly; and that they are kind; and that they, girlfriends of youth, are occupied with such a low subject - money; and that their youth had passed ... But the tears of both were pleasant ...

Countess Rostova was sitting with her daughters and already with a large number of guests in the drawing room. The count ushered the male guests into his study, offering them his hunter's collection of Turkish pipes. Occasionally he would come out and ask: has she come? They were waiting for Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, nicknamed in society le terrible dragon, [a terrible dragon,] a lady famous not for wealth, not for honors, but for her directness of mind and frank simplicity of address. Marya Dmitrievna was known by the royal family, all of Moscow and all of St. Petersburg knew, and both cities, surprised at her, secretly laughed at her rudeness, told jokes about her; yet everyone, without exception, respected and feared her.
In an office full of smoke, there was a conversation about the war, which was declared by the manifesto, about recruitment. No one has yet read the Manifesto, but everyone knew about its appearance. The count was sitting on an ottoman between two smoking and talking neighbors. The count himself did not smoke or speak, but tilting his head, now to one side, then to the other, he looked with evident pleasure at the smokers and listened to the conversation of his two neighbors, whom he pitted against each other.
One of the speakers was a civilian, with a wrinkled, bilious, and shaven, thin face, a man already approaching old age, although he was dressed like the most fashionable young man; he sat with his feet on the ottoman with the air of a domestic man, and, sideways thrusting amber far into his mouth, impetuously drew in the smoke and screwed up his eyes. It was the old bachelor Shinshin, the cousin of the countess, an evil tongue, as they said about him in Moscow drawing rooms. He seemed to condescend to his interlocutor. Another, fresh, pink, officer of the Guards, impeccably washed, buttoned and combed, held amber near the middle of his mouth and with pink lips slightly pulled out the smoke, releasing it in ringlets from his beautiful mouth. It was that lieutenant Berg, an officer of the Semyonovsky regiment, with whom Boris went to the regiment together and with which Natasha teased Vera, the senior countess, calling Berg her fiancé. The Count sat between them and listened attentively. The most pleasant occupation for the count, with the exception of the game of boston, which he was very fond of, was the position of the listener, especially when he managed to play off two talkative interlocutors.
“Well, how about it, father, mon tres honorable [most respected] Alfons Karlych,” said Shinshin, chuckling and combining (which was the peculiarity of his speech) the most popular Russian expressions with exquisite French phrases. - Vous comptez vous faire des rentes sur l "etat, [Do you expect to have income from the treasury,] do you want to receive income from the company?
- No, Pyotr Nikolaevich, I only want to show that in the cavalry there are much fewer advantages against the infantry. Now consider, Pyotr Nikolaitch, my position...
Berg always spoke very precisely, calmly and courteously. His conversation always concerned only him alone; he was always calmly silent while talking about something that had no direct relation to him. And he could remain silent in this way for several hours, without experiencing or producing in others the slightest confusion. But as soon as the conversation concerned him personally, he began to speak at length and with visible pleasure.
“Consider my situation, Pyotr Nikolaevich: if I were in the cavalry, I would receive no more than two hundred rubles a third, even with the rank of lieutenant; and now I get two hundred and thirty,” he said with a joyful, pleasant smile, looking at Shinshin and the count, as if it were obvious to him that his success would always be the main goal of the desires of all other people.
“Besides, Pyotr Nikolaevich, having transferred to the guards, I am in the public eye,” Berg continued, “and vacancies in the guards infantry are much more frequent. Then, think for yourself how I could get a job out of two hundred and thirty rubles. And I’m saving and sending more to my father,” he continued, blowing the ring.
- La balance at est ... [The balance is established ...] The German threshes a loaf on the butt, comme dit le roverbe, [as the proverb says,] - shifting amber to the other side of his mouth, said Shinshin and winked at the count.
The Count laughed. Other guests, seeing that Shinshin was talking, came up to listen. Berg, not noticing either ridicule or indifference, continued to talk about how, by being transferred to the guard, he had already won a rank in front of his comrades in the corps, how in wartime a company commander could be killed, and he, remaining a senior in a company, could very easily be company commander, and how everyone in the regiment loves him, and how pleased his papa is with him. Berg apparently enjoyed telling all this, and seemed unaware that other people might also have their own interests. But everything he said was so sweetly sedate, the naivety of his young selfishness was so obvious that he disarmed his listeners.
- Well, father, you are both in the infantry and in the cavalry, you will go everywhere; I predict this for you, - said Shinshin, patting him on the shoulder and lowering his legs from the ottoman.
Berg smiled happily. The count, followed by the guests, went out into the drawing-room.

There was that time before a dinner party when the assembled guests do not start a long conversation in anticipation of a call for an appetizer, but at the same time find it necessary to stir and not be silent in order to show that they are not at all impatient to sit down at the table. The owners glance at the door and occasionally exchange glances with each other. From these glances, guests try to guess who or what else they are waiting for: an important late relative or food that has not yet ripened.
Pierre arrived just before dinner and sat awkwardly in the middle of the living room on the first chair that came across, blocking everyone's way. The countess wanted to make him talk, but he naively looked around him through his glasses, as if looking for someone, and answered all the questions of the countess in monosyllables. He was shy and alone did not notice it. Most of the guests, who knew his history with the bear, looked curiously at this big, fat and meek man, wondering how such a lumpy and modest man could do such a thing with the quarter.
- Have you just arrived? the Countess asked him.
- Oui, madame, [Yes, ma'am,] - he answered, looking around.

Russian folk art craft for the manufacture of gilded wooden utensils arose in the second half of the 17th century in the Volga villages. The craft got its name from one of the centers for the sale of products - the village of Khokhloma.
Khokhloma painting is characterized by the original technique of painting wood in golden color without the use of gold. Objects carved from wood were primed with a clay solution, covered with drying oil and tin powder, on the layer of which a floral pattern was made in a free brush style of writing, then covered with linseed oil varnish and hardened at high temperature in a furnace.
Two main types of painting are common - “horse” (red and black on a golden background) and “under the background” (golden silhouette pattern on a colored background).

Khokhloma painting on wood is believed to have originated in the 17th century in the villages of Bolshie and Malye Bezdeli, Mokushino, Shabashi, Glibino, Khryashchi, located on the left bank of the Volga, and reached its peak in the 18th century. The village of Khokhloma, known from the 17th century according to documents and giving its name to the painting, was a major sales center where finished products were brought. Currently, the Koverninsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region is considered the birthplace of Khokhloma.

The unique way of painting wooden utensils “under gold” in the forest Trans-Volga and the very emergence of the Khokhloma craft is often associated with the Old Believers, who, fleeing persecution for the “old faith”, settled in these remote and hard-to-reach places. The Old Believers brought with them ancient icons and handwritten books. Among them were icon painters and masters of book miniatures, who owned fine pictorial brushwork. BUT local population mastered turning skills, the skills of making wooden utensils, which were passed down from generation to generation. At the junction of these two traditions, the Khokhloma craft was born, combining the pictorial culture inherited from icon painters with the traditional forms of turning dishes of the Trans-Volga masters and preserving the secret of making “golden” dishes without the use of gold.

However, there are documents according to which the technology of imitation of gilding on wood was known to Nizhny Novgorod artisans even before the split. They used it in the 1640s and 1650s. In the large Nizhny Novgorod handicraft villages of Lyskovo and Murashkino, “selishka Semenovskoye” (now the city of Semyonov), wooden brothers, ladles, dishes, etc., were made, painted “for tin work”, that is, using tin powder.

There is also a folk legend explaining the appearance of Khokhloma painting. It tells about the outstanding icon painter Andrei Loskut, who was dissatisfied with the reform of Patriarch Nikon and fled the capital. Having settled in the dense Trans-Volga forests, he began to paint icons according to the old model and paint wooden utensils. However, someone informed the patriarch about the whereabouts of Andrei Loskut, and he sent soldiers after him. Fleeing from persecution, Andrei voluntarily set himself on fire, and before his death bequeathed to people to preserve his skill.

The high cost of imported tin slowed down the production of Khokhloma dishes for a long time, because only a very rich customer could supply the craftsmen with tin. And such a customer was the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. The documents of the monastery testify that peasants from the villages of Khokhloma, Skorobogatovo and about 80 other villages along the rivers Uzola and Kerzhents were brought from the 17th century to work in the workshops of the Lavra. This, apparently, explains the fact that it was these villages and villages that became the birthplace of the “golden” painting, and their inhabitants still keep the secrets of their craftsmanship to this day.

The name "Khokhloma painting" or simply "Khokhloma" arose due to the fact that the peasants who made painted wooden utensils brought them for sale to the large trading village of Khokhloma in the Nizhny Novgorod province. Through the Nizhny Novgorod fair, Khokhloma items were distributed throughout Russia, they were exported to the countries of Asia and Western Europe.

The development of the fishery was facilitated by the proximity of the Volga, at that time the main trade artery that connected the Volga cities, which were famous for their markets. It was along the Volga, and then through the Caspian steppes, that Khokhloma dishes were delivered to Central Asia, Persia, and India. European merchants bought it in Arkhangelsk.

Khokhloma painting is a unique Russian folk craft that has been in existence for over three hundred years. Thanks to the Old Believers-icon painters, who owned the ancient secret of “gilding” icons, a peculiar method of turning simple wooden dishes into “golden” ones without the use of precious metal spread in the Trans-Volga region. However, Khokhloma products are valued not only for their beauty, but also for their durable lacquer coating, thanks to which they can be used in Everyday life. Khokhloma dishes will make any table elegant, and the dishes served in it will not harm it.

A set of traditional forms of Khokhloma products has been formed for a long time. These are carved wooden spoons and turning utensils: cups, bowls, setters, bochata, salt shakers. Currently, the range of products has expanded significantly. Craftsmen create wooden sets, kitchen shelves, decorative dishes and panels, and much more.

Khokhloma dishes are made from local hardwoods - linden, aspen, birch. First they beat the buckets, that is, they make rough billet bars from dried wood. From small-sized “chairs”, as well as “ridges” sawn into thick blocks, blanks and “churaks” are hewn out. Then, on a lathe, the workpiece is given the desired shape. Turned products are dried again at a temperature of 22–28 degrees for 3–20 days, depending on the size of the product. Drying ends when the moisture content of the wood does not exceed 6-8%. If the humidity is higher, the product may turn out with bubbles - breaks in the varnish surface.

Then the products are handed over to the finishers, who prepare them for painting. Unpainted carved ladles and spoons, setters and cups are called “linen”.

After drying, the “linen” is puttied with vape. Vapa is a fine-grained elutriated clay, from which a very liquid solution is made, adding from 25 to 50 percent of chalk to it. Then a piece of woolen cloth soaked in a solution is coated with a product. After drying, the operation is repeated again. After priming, the product is placed in an oven for four to six hours, where the temperature is maintained at 40–50 degrees. To dry products using Khokhloma technology, you need a cabinet in which you can adjust the temperature in the range of 30–120 degrees. The dried blanks are cooled to room temperature and lightly polished.

Next milestone- covering the product with drying oil, cooked from linseed or hemp oil. The quality of wooden utensils and the strength of the painting depend on this operation. The product is covered with several layers of drying oil by hand. The master dips a special tampon made of sheep or calf skin turned inside out into a bowl with drying oil, and then quickly rubs it into the surface of the product, turning it so that the drying oil is evenly distributed. After drying for two to three hours at a temperature of 22–25 degrees, when the drying oil no longer sticks to the hands, but the film is not completely dry, the product is dried a second time, applying a thicker layer. If the wood absorbs a lot of drying oil, such as aspen, then the whole process is repeated again, if it is not enough, it is enough to oil the product twice. The last layer is dried to a “slight touch” - when the drying oil slightly sticks to the finger, no longer staining it. As soon as the surface of the product acquires an even sheen, it can be tinned, that is, coated with aluminum powder.

The next stage is “tinning”, that is, rubbing tin (and now aluminum) powder into the surface of the product. To apply the poluda, special devices are used - pupae, which are a sheepskin tampon, to the working part of which a piece is sewn natural fur(preferably sheepskin) with short hair. After tinning, the objects acquire a beautiful white-mirror shine and are ready for painting.

Mostly women work in the dye shops. The artists sit at low tables, on low stools. With such a landing, the knee is a support for the object being painted. Khokhloma craftswomen are characterized by working on weight: a small turning thing, leaning on the knee, is held with the left hand, and with the right hand, an ornament is applied to its rounded surface. This way of holding the painted object makes it easy to turn it in any direction with any inclination. Brushes, paints, a palette and things in work are conveniently placed on the table.

The paints used for painting Khokhloma products are subject to increased requirements, since many of them can fade from high temperatures during the drying and hardening process. Masters take heat-resistant mineral paints - ocher, red lead, as well as cinnabar and carmine, soot, chrome greens, dilute them with purified turpentine. The main colors that determine the character and recognizability of Khokhloma painting are red and black (cinnabar and soot), but others are also allowed to enliven the pattern - brown, light green and yellow.

The drawing in Khokhloma products is based on the use of floral ornaments associated with the painting traditions of Ancient Russia. Flexible, wavy stems with leaves, berries and flowers run around the walls of the vessel, decorate its inner surface, giving the object an exceptional elegance. On some objects, the stems of flowers stretch upwards, on others they curl or run in a circle.

The floral pattern was made in a free brush style of writing. Painting brushes are made from squirrel tails so that they can draw a very thin line. Khokhloma masters master a special technique of holding a brush, in which not only fingers, but the whole hand are involved in the process of writing, thanks to which it is possible to draw long plastic strokes and series of strokes on spherical or cylindrical surfaces in one continuous, inseparable movement. The brush, placed on the phalanges of the index and middle fingers, is pressed against them with a pad thumb, which allows you to slightly rotate it while writing. When painting, they sometimes lightly lean on the little finger, touching it to the product. A thin brush with a hairy tip is placed almost vertically to the surface of the object. It is usually led to itself, slightly rotating in the direction where the smear is bent.

Many types of ornaments have their own names: "gingerbread" - a geometric figure (square or rhombus) decorated with grass, berries, flowers, usually located inside a cup or dish; "grass" - a pattern of large and small blades of grass; "kudrina" - leaves and flowers in the form of golden curls on a red or black background, and so on. Masters also use simplified ornaments, for example, “speck”, which is applied with a stamp cut from the plates of the raincoat mushroom, hat felt and other materials that hold paint well and allow you to print a pattern on the product. When performing the "berry" or "flower" motifs, round "pokes" from rolled nylon fabric are often used.

All products are painted by hand, and the painting is not repeated anywhere. Khokhloma painting is represented by two types of writing - "riding" and "background", each of which has its own variety of ornaments. "Horse" painting is applied with plastic strokes on a metallized surface, forming a free openwork pattern. At the same time, such elements as sedges, droplets, antennae, curls, etc. are “planted” on the main line of the composition - kriul.

A classic example of horse writing is "grass", or "grass painting", with red and black bushes, stems, creating a kind of graphic pattern on a gold background. "Grass painting" reminds us of the usual herbs familiar to everyone since childhood: sedge, white-bearded, meadow grass. This is perhaps the most ancient type of painting. It is written in curls, various strokes, small berries or spikelets on a silvery background. "Grass" drawing has always been popular among Khokhloma masters of painting.

The letter, in which, in addition to grass, the masters include leaves, berries and flowers, is called “under the leaf” or “under the berry”. These paintings differ from the "grass" in larger strokes, forming the shape of oval leaves, round berries, left by the poke of the brush. Folk craftsmen take their motifs by stylizing plant forms. Therefore, it is not surprising that on the products of Khokhloma masters we see chamomile, bells, grape leaves, strawberries, currants, gooseberries, cranberries. The basis of the painting "under the leaf" is made up of pointed or rounded leaves, connected by three or five, and berries, located in groups near the flexible stem. In the painting of large planes, larger motifs are used - cherries, strawberries, gooseberries, grapes. This painting has great decorative possibilities, since it is more multicolored than "grass". If in the "grass" painting mainly black and red are used, then in the painting "under the leaf" or "under the berry" masters paint the leaves in green in combination with brown and yellow. These murals are enriched with a herbal pattern, which is written in green, red, brown colors.

Another, simpler and more conditional, type of painting, “gingerbread”, belongs to the riding letter, where in the center of a geometric figure - a square or a rhombus - the sun with rays curled in a circle is placed.

The "background" painting ("under the background") is characterized by the use of a black or colored background, while the drawing itself remains golden. Before the background is filled, the contours of motifs are preliminarily applied to the surface to be painted. Painting “under the background” begins with drawing a stem line with leaves and flowers, and sometimes with images of birds or fish. Then the background is painted with paint, most often black. Details of large motifs are drawn on a golden background. The forms of large motifs are modeled by hatching. On top of the painted background, “herbal additions” are made with the tip of the brush - rhythmic strokes along the main stem, berries and small flowers “stick” with a poke of the brush. “Gold” shines through in this type of writing only in the silhouettes of leaves, in large forms of flowers, in the silhouettes of fabulous birds. Painting “under the background” is a much more time-consuming process and not every master can cope with such work. Products with such painting were usually intended for gifts and were usually made to order and were valued higher.

A more complex type of background letter is the "curly". It is distinguished by a stylized image of leaves, flowers, curls. The space not occupied by them is painted over with paint, and the golden branches look spectacular against a bright red or black background. No other colors are used in this type of writing. It got its name from the golden curly curls, the lines of which form bizarre patterned shapes of leaves, flowers and fruits. The painting "kudrin" resembles a carpet. Its peculiarity is that leading role plays not a brush stroke, but a contour line.

Painted items are covered with a special varnish four or five times (with intermediate drying after each layer) and, finally, they are hardened for three to four hours in an oven at a temperature of +150–160 °. After "hardening" - the final stage of finishing the product - under the influence of high temperature, the lacquer film covering it acquires a honey hue. Its combination with a translucent metallic layer gives a golden effect.

The craft, which was dying out at the beginning of the 20th century, was revived in the Soviet era, when in the 1920s and early 1930s, craftsmen began to unite in artels. In the 1960s, the Khokhloma Artist factory was created in the homeland of the craft and the Khokhloma Painting production association in Semenov, which became centers for the production of dishes, spoons, furniture, souvenirs, etc.

At present, Khokhloma painting has two centers - the city of Semyonov, where the Khokhloma Painting and Semenovskaya Painting factories are located, and the village of Semino, Koverninsky District, where the Khokhloma Artist enterprise operates, uniting craftsmen from the villages of Semino, Kuligino, Novopokrovskoye and others. In Semino there is also an enterprise (Promysel LLC) engaged in the production of wooden caskets with Khokhloma painting. Semin masters, who continue the traditions of the indigenous Khokhloma, paint mainly traditional, ancient-shaped dishes, they subtly feel the beauty of meadow herbs and wild berries. Semenov artists, townspeople, often use rich forms in painting garden flowers, preferring the technique of painting "under the background". They make extensive use of accurate contour drawing and a variety of shading to model motifs.

One of the most famous paintings in Russia. Perhaps not, there is a person who has not held a painted wooden spoon in his hands or has not seen the beautiful and surprisingly rich Khokhloma products. But where did this fabulously beautiful painting come from? What craftsman came up with the idea of ​​applying silver to a tree, and then varnishing it, achieving a golden glow? This is the focus of the material collected in this section.

The painting of wooden utensils appeared in Russia a long time ago - in the 16th century. They produced it in large quantities, hundreds, thousands of pieces, since the tree wore out quickly, and utensils are necessary in everyday life. It was sold "at Macarius", in Moscow and in Veliky Ustyug.

Art historians attribute the origin of the Khokhloma craft to the second half of the 17th century.

For the first time, this village is mentioned in documents of the 16th century. Even under Ivan the Terrible, Khokhloma was known as a forest area called “Khokhlomskaya Ukhozheya” (Ukhozheya is a place cleared from the forest for arable land).

Wooden utensils have been widely used by Russian people since ancient times: ladles and brackets in the shape of a floating bird, round bratins, dinner bowls, spoons of various shapes and sizes were found in archaeological excavations as early as the 10th-13th centuries. There are samples that date back several millennia.

In ancient times, in the dense Trans-Volga forests near the trading village of Khokhloma, the first settlers hiding from persecution were "leakers", that is, fugitives who took refuge here from persecution for the "old faith", from tsarist arbitrariness, landlord oppression. Among them were both artists and masters of handwritten miniatures. It was not easy to feed on peasant labor on scarce land, and fugitive people adapted themselves to painting wooden utensils, which were sharpened here by local craftsmen from time immemorial. Previously unknown painting fabulously transformed the modest kitchen utensils. But especially beautiful and inimitable were the various sets, bowls and brothers that came out from under the brush of one famous master. It seemed that his painting absorbed the sun's rays - golden, which are at noon, and red - cinnabar at dawn.

It was said among the people that the artist painted his dishes not with a simple one, but with a magic brush woven from sun rays. Bright, festive dishes fell in love not only with the inhabitants of the district, the fame of it spread throughout Russia. Seeing Khokhloma dishes, the king immediately guessed who was painting them, and sent guards to the Volga forests. The warned painter managed to escape, but he taught the locals the tricks of the unusual craft and left them paints and a magic brush. Such is the old legend about the origin of the bright and original art of Khokhloma painting, which is often called golden, fiery, or fiery. And this is no coincidence; the art of Khokhloma could not have been born without fire, without hardening products in a Russian oven.

This legend explains how a close relationship arose between the Trans-Volga and Northern Old Believers, which had big influence on the art of Khokhloma.
Proximity to a large river and a fair created favorable conditions to engage in various crafts and trade. Fairs were held on the banks of the river, to which goods were brought from the north and south of Russia. The territory of the region looked like a large workshop. The inhabitants of the Zavolzhsky villages, scattered in the Nizhny Novgorod and Kostroma provinces, were engaged in various crafts. Peasants who produced the same things settled nearby in nearby villages, and every week they sold their products in a large trading village. Items were brought in from all over the area. They came from Kostroma and Vetluga, brought a variety of painted and carved items. But wood chips were in special demand - wooden spoons, cups, bowls. Dyers at such fairs bought wooden blanks and sold their products. Turners and spoon-carriers exchanged their goods for wood for further work. finished products merchants bought it, loaded it on carts in the summer and sleighs in the winter, and took it to the fair “to Makariy”.

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