Khokhloma painting (Khokhloma) -- old Russian folk craft, born in the 17th century in the district of Nizhny Novgorod.

Khokhloma is decorative painting wooden utensils and furniture, made in red, green and black tones on a golden background. khokhloma painting art

When painting a tree, not gold, but silver-tin powder is applied to the tree. After that, the product is covered special composition and three or four times processed in the oven, which achieves a honey-golden color, giving the effect of massiveness to light wooden utensils.

The painting looks bright, despite the dark background.

To create a picture, paints such as red, yellow, orange, a little green and blue are used.

The traditional elements of Khokhloma are red rowan and strawberry berries, flowers and branches. Often there are birds, fish and animals.

The history of the emergence and development of painting

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 village of Kovernino in the Nizhny Novgorod region is considered the birthplace of Khokhloma.

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

According to the most common version, the unique way of painting wooden dishes “under gold” in the forest Trans-Volga region and the very birth of the Khokhloma craft was 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 "leakers", that is, people fleeing 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 with colorful headpieces, 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.

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 holiday table- painted "on a tin case", that is, with the use of tin powder. The method of painting wooden utensils “for pewter”, probably preceding Khokhloma, developed from the experience of icon painters and local Volga traditions of utensil craft.

For a long time in the Trans-Volga region they have been engaged in the manufacture of wooden utensils.

Wood was the most convenient and affordable material for creating household items. Nimble shuttles - "boots" were hollowed out of tree trunks, figured ladles were cut out, decorating their handles with carved silhouettes of horses, and various forms of dishes were carved.

The proximity of the great Volga route contributed to the fact that wooden utensils were made here early for sale. However, the first utensil crafts of the Trans-Volga region did not differ in any way from the many similar industries that developed on the territory of our country.

Probably, the masters of the Trans-Volga region began to paint dishes long before they mastered the technique of "golden" coloring.

Back in the 19th century, along with "gilded" wooden utensils, cheap cups and salt shakers were also made here, the surface of which was decorated only with the simplest geometric patterns- rosettes, rhombuses, spiral curls and wavy lines applied with a stamp or brush.

The techniques closest to Khokhloma painting are found among icon painters. Masters of ancient Russia knew how to save expensive metal. To paint the background of the icon in a golden color, they sometimes used not gold, but silver powder. After the painting was completed, the icon was covered with varnish prepared from linseed oil and subjected to heating in an oven. Under the influence of high temperature, the lacquer film acquired a golden hue, and the silver powder shining through it became like gold. This technique became especially widespread in the 17th - 18th centuries, when the decoration of Russian churches became especially rich and magnificent. They create tall gilded iconostases with large icons. Icon cases and church furniture are painted in golden color. The techniques of writing with silver instead of gold at that time became known to a wide range of Russian icon painters. (Fig. 1)

Great changes in the art of Khokhloma painting are associated with the first half of the 19th century. At this time, instead of silver, craftsmen learned to use cheap tin, turning it into a powder convenient for applying to the surface of a tree. A new period has begun in the history of fishing. Now the craftsmen could almost completely paint the walls of bratins, cups, salt shakers, and supplies in a golden color.

Drawings of Khokhloma grass, which made it possible to most effectively use the "golden" color, were at that time even more developed. Masters of Khokhloma comprehend the laws of painting on a golden background. In its ornamentation, the techniques of a planar silhouette interpretation of motifs are finally established, which are most appropriate for painting on a golden background. In the painting, whitewashing disappears, creating the impression of a voluminous form. Color gamut is limited. If earlier masters used white, blue, blue, pink, green and brown paints, now red, black and gold become the main colors of the ornament. (fig.2)

The golden color obtained by the masters was inferior to the color of gold in brightness and did not have the desired shade of warmth. The masters tried to make this drawback less noticeable by painting with red and black paint, which created a sonorous color chord with a golden background. The fiery-bright cinnabar gave great warmth to the golden background, and the black paint made it seem lighter and brighter.

The execution of the ornament on a golden background led to the adoption of a type of composition characteristic of grass painting with an openwork pattern covering a significant part of the surface of the thing. It was unprofitable to expose the fake gold background in large areas of a smooth surface. Noticing this, the masters began to perform drawings in which the background only shone through the pattern and in the intervals between the motifs. (fig.3)

For the formation of the Khokhloma ornament, its execution free of hand with a brush was of great importance.

The propensity for the breadth of writing, characteristic of the temperament of the Russian leaf ornament, is more clearly manifested. A bold brushstroke becomes one of the main elements of the herbal pattern. Combining elongated strokes of red and black paint in different ways, the craftsmen created motifs of herbs, flowers, bushes and trees with lush curly foliage.

The pattern was complemented by a motif of berries and flowers, applied with a poke, swab or soft porous sponge. The lightness and ease of the master's ornamental handwriting become the criterion for the artistic merit of the work. Hand-painted with a brush, the craftsmen developed the habit of freely varying the ornament. The features of herbal patterns were also influenced by the forms of chiseled wooden utensils. In the process of their work, for each type of product in Khokhloma, typical painting compositions were found that most corresponded to the nature of their shape and size.

The drawings on bowls and dishes are based on a subtle understanding of the techniques of composing an ornament in a circle. When painting cups and dishes, the craftsmen clearly distinguished their bottom, placing a rosette on it with lines radiating from the center like the sun's rays. On larger objects, a square or rhombus with softly rounded corners was drawn around the rosette, which was called a gingerbread, due to its resemblance to a real patterned gingerbread placed in a cup. A pattern associated with the movement of the brush in a circle was made around the center of the cup. The simplest drawing consisted of vertical or oblique red and black strokes. Complicating it, the masters placed two or three red and black elongated strokes next to each other, connecting their ends below. It turned out the motif of the so-called "paw", resembling a bird's track in the snow. (Fig. 4)

On large cups and dishes, craftsmen often performed one of the types of herbal ornament - "sedge". This is a pattern of stems and elongated grass leaves, as if bowed by a gust of wind.

"Sedges" were located on the sides of cups and dishes, framing a rosette with a "gingerbread". The dynamic rhythm of the stems and herbs on the concave spherical surface of the bowl was especially noticeable due to the static pattern of the "carrot". (Fig. 5)

On supplies and salt boxes, which had a cylindrical shape, the craftsmen created drawings for four "flowers" or "trees", depicting shoots rising from the ground. On a golden background, they placed two red and two black stems with patterned foliage on the branches, as if stretching towards the light and the sun. (Fig. 6)

Knowing traditional motifs and typical compositions, even ordinary painters could create highly artistic works. Their work, and this is perhaps the most valuable, never turned into the work of a copyist. Typical compositions served only as guidelines to facilitate the work.

Floral ornament in the "under the background" technique and "curly" drawings in the 19th century were performed by craftsmen much less frequently than grass patterns, so Khokhloma's artistic heritage in this area is much poorer.

Both of these types of painting were more laborious than grass writing, and they for a long time owned only by the most experienced masters.

Only in the second half of the 19th century, in connection with the development of furniture production in Khokhloma, did the technique of painting "under the background" become more widespread. Ornaments with golden flowers and birds on a black background, which were performed especially often on children's tables and chairs, attract attention with the beauty of the pattern applied with the free movements of the brush. As in grass drawings, in painting "under the background" there appear their own well-developed methods of ornamental cursive writing. Compositions become stricter, more concise and at the same time more emotionally expressive. (Fig. 7)

Techniques for the execution of the "curly" ornament are less laborious than painting "under the background". From the middle of the 19th century, many Khokhloma masters already widely owned them. Drawings "Kudrina" wrote on cups and on large "artel" dishes. With their large monumental forms, they resembled the patterns of the Volga house carving. In the second half of the 19th century, the motifs of "curly hair" were often performed in the painting of spoons. In each workshop, they were written by the most skilled craftsmen on the so-called spoons with a "face", which were placed one at a time on top in a box with cheap simple spoons to show the abilities and skills of the "clerks". (Fig. 8)

At fairs, things painted in red, black and gold and decorated with drawings of berries, leaves and flowers were in great demand among Russians and foreigners.

The mega brand attracts not only with the beauty of the ornament. It is valued for its durable lacquer coating, thanks to which they are used in Everyday life. In a Khokhloma dish, you can serve okroshka to the table, pour hot tea into a cup - and nothing will be done with a wooden product: varnish will not crack, paint will not fade.

Khokhloma painting- this is a bright original phenomenon of Russian folk arts and crafts. This traditional art craft originated in the 17th century in the Nizhny Novgorod province and got its name from the large trading village of Khokhloma, where all wooden products were brought for auction.

Initially, Khokhloma dishes were made at monasteries and intended for the royal court. Subsequently, when cheap metal and earthenware dishes competing with Khokhloma appeared on the market, the unusual coloring of Semenov's products ensured their popularity and sales.

So in the 19th century Khokhloma dishes could be found in any corner of Russia, as well as in Persia, India, Central Asia, the USA and Australia. After the World Exhibition of 1889. in Paris, the export of Khokhloma products has increased sharply

In 1916 in the city of Semenov, the School of Artistic Woodworking was opened, the first graduates of which, headed by G.P. Matveev organized a small artel (1931), which later grew into a large production association of the Order of the Badge of Honor Khokhloma Painting.

Since the mid 1960s. and to the present, the Khokhloma Painting enterprise is the largest manufacturer of artistic wood products with Khokhloma painting. Thanks to a talented team, the traditions of ancient masters are preserved and multiplied. And the city of Semyonov is rightfully considered the capital of the Golden Khokhloma.

The folk craft has been constantly developing. Already at the end of the 19th century, Khokhloma was presented at every domestic and foreign fair. And after the unprecedented success of International exhibition in Paris, exports of Khokhloma rose sharply to various countries. Especially bought a lot trading companies Germany, England, France and India. Even one of the German entrepreneurs took up the production of wooden spoons, which he passed off as Khokhloma. Since the beginning of the 20th century, folk crafts have experienced a crisis caused by the World War and the Civil War. Because of this, many craftsmen lost orders and closed their workshops. In Soviet times, Khokhloma received a second wind, a new generation of craftsmen appeared. And now Khokhloma is “returning” to us in Russia and the world.

Khokhloma- this is the name of a large trading village in the Volga region, where craftsmen from the surrounding villages and villages have long brought their products for sale and from where they dispersed not only throughout Russia, but also beyond its borders. Later, the products themselves, sent from the village of Khokhloma, began to be called "Khokhloma". The homeland of Khokhloma art is a group of villages located in the depths of the once impenetrable forests of the Trans-Volga region, along the banks of the Uzola River, which flows into the Volga near the ancient Gorodets. The picturesque nature of this region had a great influence on the upbringing of the artistic tastes of local masters. Indeed, each work of Khokhloma masters is imbued with a subtle sense of nature.

There are a lot of versions of the origin of this folk craft. It is customary to single out the two most probable. According to the first version, the art of painting dishes was instilled in the local residents by the Old Believers who fled to the Nizhny Novgorod land from persecution by faith. According to the second version, the painting of dishes with gilded paint was known in the Nizhny Novgorod territory even before the appearance of the Old Believers. For this, tin powder and homemade wooden utensils were used.

The high cost of raw materials for the manufacture of gilded paint held back the development of this folk craft for a long time. Tin had to be transported from afar, which only merchants could do. Most often, craftsmen received orders for painted gilded dishes from large monasteries and cathedrals. The customers even turned out to be the famous monastery of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where craftsmen from the villages of Khokhloma and Skorobogatovo worked on the manufacture and painting of bowls and ladles.

The original technology of gilding wooden products, worked out for centuries, which came from icon painting, has survived almost unchanged to this day. It includes five main operations. Before becoming "gold", a wooden product is similar to "clay" and "silver".

The process of making Khokhloma is complex and interesting. The tree was chopped, sawn, trimmed, hollowed out and finished with a knife to the end, polished. It turned out wooden bases - buckwheat. Dishes were also turned on a machine that was driven by the power of water or a horse. Today, machine tools are electrical. The dried product must be prepared for painting. First, I coat it with linseed oil, then with a special primer, which includes clay. The product is dried in an oven, polished, coated with drying oil, so that a sticky film appears, to which crushed metal powder easily sticks - semida. The half-day is rubbed, and the object becomes like silver.

And only now the dyer is taken to work. When the product is painted, it is covered with several layers of drying oil and hardened in a furnace at high temperature. Under a film of hardened varnish, everything that was silver in the painting becomes gold. So Khokhloma becomes first wooden, “clay”, “silver” and, finally, “gold”. The masters borrowed this secret of gilding from icon painters.

After tinning, the dishes become mirror-shiny and absolutely ready for applying patterns with oil paints. According to ancient instructions, painting is done exclusively with brushes from squirrel tails, and paints are used of natural origin. Red and black colors are soloists in the Khokhloma painting. Such paints are obtained from cinnabar and soot. To give products liveliness and volume, it is sometimes allowed to add additional colors to the main colors. As a rule, it is the color of delicate green, brown or slightly yellow.

On the final stage, after applying all the patterns, the dishes are covered in several layers with a special varnish. Each layer has an individual drying time. Further, the dishes are subjected to temperature effects (hardened in an oven) at certain temperatures. As a result of all these manipulations, the world-famous dishes appear - the “golden” Khokhloma.

KHOKHLOM ORNAMENTS

In Khokhloma, horse and “under the background” painting is distinguished. Horse painting is characterized by black and red flowers on a golden background. As a rule, in painting “under the background”, golden drawings on a colored background predominate. The main difference between these two types of painting lies in the technique of their application.

Briefly, their difference can be defined as follows: “horse writing” is a pattern applied with paint on the golden surface of the background. With “background writing”, the master, on the contrary, covers the golden background with red or black, leaving the silhouette forms of motifs in gold. On the basis of these two systems, a truly inexhaustible wealth of Khokhloma patterns developed.

TYPES OF KHOKHLOMSK PATTERNS

From Khokhloma patterns and ornaments, the following types can be distinguished. Grass - looks like a pattern of small and large blades of grass or twigs. Gingerbread - most often found inside bowls or dishes, and is a geometric figure in the form of a rhombus or square, decorated with berries, flowers, grass. Kudrina - a pattern of flowers and leaves that look like golden curls on a black or red background. Leaf - images of oval berries and leaves, located, as a rule, around the stem. The types of ornaments listed above are complex, but in some cases, masters use simplified ornaments. One of these ornaments is a speck, applied with a stamp, which is made from pieces of fabric folded in a special way or plates of a puffball mushroom. All Khokhloma products are painted by hand, while the painting is not repeated anywhere.

Masters of the traditional Khokhloma hearth live and work surrounded by nature. In their ornaments, the elements of a free meadow, the beauty of wild flowers and ripe berries of the Russian forest are poetically sung. The painting is dominated by the picturesque beginning - the freedom of the brushstroke, the richness of the color spot. In the city of Semenov, Gorky Region, there is a younger center of Khokhloma - the production and creative association “Khokhloma Painting”, the main personnel of which were trained in a special art school organized in 1918 and currently operating, the first teachers of which were hereditary Khokhloma masters.

In folk ideas, the color system of Khokhloma painting was directly related to the color of the sky and celestial phenomena; its glow and blush. The red color in folk symbolism was understood not only in the meaning of beautiful, beautiful. He was also a symbol of fire, it is no coincidence that the people called him "hot". AT spoken language red called the Moon, the Sun and its rays. The patterns of Khokhloma painting are not only bathed in a stream of light, but by their very nature they are luminous. And like a wonderful vision they appear in a marvelous golden radiance.

Introduction ................................................ ................................................. ........... 2

The origin of Khokhloma painting ............................................................... ....................... 3

Periods of development of Khokhloma art............................................................... ......... 7

Khokhloma painting in the second half of the 20th century.................................. 17

Conclusion................................................. ................................................. ..... thirty

Bibliography................................................ ................................................... 31

Khokhloma painting on wood, Russian folk art craft. Originated in the second half of the 17th century. on the territory of the modern Koverninsky district of the Gorky region; The trade name was given to the trade. Khokhloma of the same region - the center of distribution of products of Khokhloma painting in the 18th - early 20th centuries. Khokhloma painting is characterized original technique coloring wood in a golden color without the use of gold. Objects carved from wood (mainly utensils) were primed with a solution of clay, raw linseed oil and tin powder (in modern products - aluminum), on the layer of which a floral pattern was made in a free brush style of writing, then covered with linseed oil varnish (now synthetic) and hardened at high temperature in a furnace. For the color of Khokhloma painting, a combination of red and black with gold is typical. Common types of painting - "horse" (red and black on a golden background) and "under the background" (golden silhouette pattern on a colored background). Decayed at the beginning of the 20th century. fishing in modern times has been revived; in the 20s - early 30s. masters united in artels. In the 1960s the factory "Khokhloma artist" was created in the homeland of the craft and the production association "Khokhloma painting" in the city of Semenov, which became the centers of this artistic craft. They produce dishes, spoons, furniture, souvenirs, etc. Masters: F. A. Bedin, A. T. Busova, O. N. and S. P. Veselov, E. N. Dospalova, Z. F. Kieva, O P. Lushina, A. G. and F. N. Podogov, A. P. Savinova, M. F. Sineva, I. E. Tyukalov, etc.

Already in those distant times, which we are trying to get an idea of, according to archaeological excavations, in the Volga region they were engaged in the manufacture of wooden utensils. Wood was the most convenient and affordable material for creating household items. Nimble shuttles - "boots" were hollowed out of tree trunks, figured ladles were cut out, decorating their handles with carved silhouettes of horses, and various forms of dishes were carved.

Everyone who settled in these places had to do crafts. The lands here were infertile, there was not enough harvest until spring. Only forest wealth and nimble hands saved from hunger and want. The proximity of the great Volga route contributed to the fact that wooden utensils were made here early for sale.

However, the first utensil crafts of the Trans-Volga region did not differ in any way from the many similar industries that developed on the territory of our country. As in other areas, local craftsmen covered items with linseed oil or drying oil made from it. This gave strength to wooden utensils, it became more beautiful. This method of varnishing the surface of a tree is not forgotten even now. Until recently, it was used in the production of the cheapest cups and salt shakers, which served as everyday household items.

When did the art of golden Khokhloma appear? We do not have the data to answer this question definitively. Probably, the masters of the Trans-Volga region began to paint dishes long before they mastered the technique of "golden" coloring. Back in the 19th century, along with "gilded" wooden utensils, cheap cups and salt shakers were also made here, the surface of which was decorated only with the simplest geometric patterns - rosettes, rhombuses, spiral curls and wavy lines applied with a stamp or brush.

Getting acquainted with the wooden vessels of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries preserved in museums and made at monasteries, we do not find among them items whose surface would be painted in a golden color using methods close to Khokhloma. They are similar to Khokhloma only in form, cinnabar background, and sometimes in the golden belts decorating them, but these belts are applied with powdered gold, which was not used in Khokhloma.

We meet the closest Khokhloma painting techniques among icon painters. Masters of ancient Russia knew how to save expensive metal. To paint the background of the icon in a golden color, they sometimes used not gold, but silver powder. After painting, the icon was covered with varnish made from linseed oil and heated in an oven. Under the influence of high temperature, the lacquer film acquired a golden hue, and the silver powder shining through it became like gold. This technique became especially widespread in the 17th - 18th centuries, when the decoration of Russian churches became especially rich and magnificent. They create tall gilded iconostases with large icons. Icon cases and church furniture are painted in golden color. The techniques of writing with silver instead of gold at that time became known to a wide range of Russian icon painters.

Most likely, the time of the appearance of the art of Khokhloma painting was the second half of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, when the deaf Kerzhen forests became the place of settlement of the Old Believers who were fleeing the persecution of the tsarist government and church authorities. After church reforms, the opponents of Patriarch Nikon, who were forced to leave Moscow and the largest Russian cities, sought refuge here. Fleeing from the massacre, the participants of the Solovetsky Old Believer rebellion also fled here.

Among the schismatic settlers were icon painters and masters of manuscript miniatures. The high skill of these artists is evidenced by two icon cases of the end of the 17th century, preserved in the collections of the Nizhny Novgorod Art Museum. Their painting with plant motifs typical of the 17th century resembles covers made of precious golden fabrics. The shapes of fantastic flowers are outlined by contour lines and skillfully cut with a stroke. On a dark red background among the greenery, golden stems and petals glisten, made in the same icon-painting technique of gilding wood, which is close to Khokhloma.

The schismatic Old Believers brought with them ancient icons, handwritten books richly decorated with miniatures and ornamental headpieces, patterned fabrics, and jewelry. Thus, at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, the distant forest wilderness of the Trans-Volga region became the richest treasury of ancient Russian art. This could not but affect the development of local artistic culture.

In the new lands, the Old Believers were forced to take up crafts. Workshops appeared in their sketes, in which they sharpened and painted dishes. The wealthiest settlers became merchants and buyers. Having taken up the painting of turning utensils, the icon painters could apply the techniques known to them of coloring wood in golden color with the help of silver, which allowed local craftsmen to also produce original products that did not know competition in the markets and fairs. So, obviously, the art of the golden Khokhloma was born.

In the memory of the old-timers of the region, legends about the origin of Khokhloma painting have been preserved, confirming that it was introduced by icon painters-Old Believers. Talking with them, you can hear in different versions stories about the companions of Ataman Razin who fled here, about the arrival of icon-painting masters who were fleeing church persecution. One of the legends tells that among the hiding icon painters there was a famous master. He built a house in the forest on the banks of the river and started painting dishes in it. Similar to gold were his patterned bowls. Faithful people helped sell them. However, they found out in Moscow where the gilded bowls were brought from, guessed who painted them. And so the tsarist soldiers set off in search of the master... Having learned about this, the master called the peasants from neighboring villages, showed them his skill, gave paints, brushes and disappeared. Some say that it was on the banks of the Kerzhents, others - on the banks of the Uzola. Perhaps this was the fate of not one, but several masters.

Along with the painting technique, ornamental drawings, known to icon painters, also penetrated into Khokhloma. The origins of the main types of handicraft ornament can be seen in Russian decorative art of the 17th - early 18th centuries. At this time, the floral ornament was especially widespread. The methods of its execution were varied. When painting walls, furniture and household items, grass drawings were often made, applied freely with a brush. The drawing of flowers and leaves was completed by juicy strokes of white - animation. Such an ornament, associated with the traditions of painting of ancient Russia, served as the basis for the formation of Khokhloma grass patterns.

Khokhloma painting also reflects graphic ornaments with clear linear contours and elaboration of details with a stroke. They contributed to the appearance of drawings in the "under the background" technique. The motifs of the "curly" were suggested by the drawings with curls that adorned the headpieces of the manuscripts. Many features of the Khokhloma paintings were the result of a merger in the craft of two traditional lines of Russian decorative arts, one of which went back to the ornament of icon painting and hand-written miniatures, and the other to the crafts of ancient Russia. In each of them, people manifested themselves in their own way. national characteristics understanding of the ornament, each had professionally established techniques.

On the basis of this heritage, a new art is being formed in Khokhloma, connected in its future destinies with the design of household items.

The floral ornament brought to Khokhloma by icon painters is undergoing significant changes. It becomes much more concise and clear. The nature of his composition was greatly influenced by the traditions of the most ancient geometric ornament, which was distinguished by classically simple and perfect techniques for constructing patterns.

Khokhloma - this, perhaps, the most famous type of Russian folk art originated in the 17th century in the Nizhny Novgorod province (the village of Semino). Of course, each of us knows distinctive features Khokhloma painting - black, red, golden, sometimes green tones; ornate ornament with plant motifs (rowan or strawberry berries, flowers, leaves), and sometimes with the image of animals: animals, birds, fish.

Wooden products with these bright patterns, which began their journey four centuries ago, today find their fans around the world.

How did this amazing art come about?

The appearance of Khokhloma - legends and reality

To this day, an amazing folk legend is associated with Khokhloma in the villages of the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Rumor has it that an icon painter, a famous master, lived in ancient times in the city of Moscow. The tsar-father himself admired his skill and generously paid for his work. However, the royal court with its charms bored the master, and he decided to go into the wilderness and start a free life there. And then one day he secretly left the royal court, and went to the Kerzhen forests.

He built a house for himself, and began to do what he loved again. He dreamed of creating such a painting that everyone would love, and would reflect, like a mirror, all the beauty of the land of the Russian and Russian soul. And, having admired his native nature, he began to paint cups in a wonderfully beautiful way that had never been seen before. And fame spread about the master, and people from the most distant lands came specially to admire his art.

The formidable king also found out about him. He was angry that the master left him without permission, and ordered his archers to bring the fugitive back. The master heard about this, called his friends and revealed to them all the secrets of his art. The king's envoys appeared only the next day, and they saw that the artist's house was burning with a bright, bright flame, and he himself had disappeared. The royal people searched for him, searched - but they never found him. Only its colors remained, which absorbed the scarlet heat of the fire and the blackness of the ashes.

The students continued the art entrusted to them, and since then it has been living, reminding with its fiery patterns of the fabulous history of its ancestor.

Such is the folk legend, and, despite its beauty, it is obvious that there is more fiction in it than truth.

If we talk about reality, historians associate the appearance of Khokhloma with the appearance of the Old Believers in the Nizhny Novgorod lands. Among these exiles there were many who were engaged in icon painting or painted engravings for church books. Combining their art with the knowledge and skills of local craftsmen in the manufacture of wooden utensils, as well as woodcarving, the Old Believers gave birth to Khokhloma.

KHOKHLOMA - ANCIENT RUSSIAN FOLK CRAFTS

Khokhloma is an old Russian folk craft that was born in the 17th century on the left bank of the Volga, in the villages of Khokhloma (hence the name of the painting), Big and Small Bezdels, Mokushino, Shabashi, Glibino, Khryashchi. Currently, the village of Kovernino in the Nizhny Novgorod region is considered the birthplace of Khokhloma.

Golden Khokhloma!

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 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 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 the sun's 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 a great 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”.

Christmas balls with Khokhloma painting.

Khokhloma is an old Russian folk craft that was born in the 17th century in the district of Nizhny Novgorod. Khokhloma is a decorative painting of wooden utensils and furniture, made in red, green and black on a gold background.
The painting looks bright, although the background is black. The colors used are... red, yellow, orange, some green and blue, and of course a black background. Gold is often used. The traditional elements of Khokhloma are red juicy rowan and strawberry berries, flowers and branches. Often there are birds, fish and animals