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Fine Art of Russian Lacquered Miniatures

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This is a large, excellent book on the traditional Russian art of lacquered miniature painting. Over 250 color reproductions of the works of Masters are featured. This is really the definitive book on the craft. The art is famous for its tiny, but finely-detailed illustrations of folk tales or village life, painted free-hand with a homemade brush of a single squirrel or sable hair. Real gold leaf and mother-of-pearl insets add to the beauty and value of the paintings, which are created on papier-mache' shkatulki (boxes) or plaques. Many layers of lacquer finish the artwork, giving it a long-lasting, lustrous, three-dimensional quality (and incidentally, its name). Each creation can take several months, or as much as a year, to complete. Some of the rarest, most magnificent paintings are presented in these pages. The book contains a history of the craft and its Masters. Also included are short essays on each of the four schools -- the villages of Palekh, Kholui, Mstera, and Fedoskino -- which have produced generations of painters in this enduring and endearing folk art.