painting and inlay. Many images are an important historical source that can clarify certain aspects of the life of people of the past. They not only illustrate the features of the existence of chest products, but also record all the main changes in their design and artistic style.
Published: Сундук в изобразительном искусстве// Петербургские искусствоведческие тетради. Статьи по истории искусства. АИС. – 2020. – Вып. 58. – С. 187—194.
Chests with the «comb painting» (Vologda province, II half of the XIX – beginning of the XX century)103
At present, the scientific literature on northern wood paintings is huge. In the works of V.M. Vishnevskaya, N.V. Taranovskaya, O.V. Kruglovoi, S.K. Zhegalova, M.I. Milchik, A.A. Glebovoy, O.V. Alekseeva, T.M. Oleinik, M.D. Uryupina and many other researchers analyze certain aspects of the artistic paintings of the Russian North, determine the main features of various centers, and explore the creative manners of folk masters.
Despite the successes achieved, there are still many unresolved issues and problems. In particular, this applies to such a type of decorative design of the surface of household items as «under the comb» painting (another name is «under the rubber»). To date, there is not a single work dedicated specifically to this type of painting. And this is all the more surprising that a significant number of products have been preserved, the names of the masters and some circumstances of the receipt of works in museum collections are known.
The purpose of this article is to identify the main centers of comb painting, an analysis of its artistic and technical features. When working on the topic, information from special literature was involved. The material of the study was mainly works from various museum collections of the Vologda region.
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The essence of painting «under the comb» is the application of a pattern on wet oil paint using a special device. It can be a comb (hence the name) or a special tool made of rubber. Masters could use other improvised means, for example, a napkin. The painting was carried out directly on a wooden base (fig.1).
Fig. 1. The «comb painting» (XIX – early XX century, Vologda province). Detail.
Quite often, with the help of this type of painting, they imitated the texture of wood. But in most cases, this can be said with a high degree of conventionality, since we are talking only about work «based on», i.e. about painting under the impression of beautiful natural patterns on wood.
This type of painting was used for the most part to decorate household items: chests, caskets, cabinets, and in house paintings. It should be however noted that this type of painting reached its greatest prosperity when ornamenting chests. If in house paintings it acted only as part of a general decorative solution (for example, it decorated the main background or the edges of objects), then when painting chests it became the main means of ornamentation104. It can be asserted therefore with confidence that, as an independent artistic phenomenon, «under the comb» painting is typical for the decorative design of chests105.
Most of the materials available for research are of Vologda origin, but it can be assumed that the distribution area of this type of decorative finishing of household utensils is somewhat wider (as an auxiliary means, comb painting is often found, for example, on Vyatka chests). The circumstances of the acquisition of most museum items indicate the time of their production – the second half of the XIX – beginning of the XX century106.
Two large centers can be at present distinguished in which chests with comb painting were made: the village of Sizma and the city of Veliky Ustyug (ornamentation options in other places are spontaneous, arbitrary). Perhaps this is due to the more serious organization of chest production in these places, while in other areas it was of a domestic, «amateur» nature. Here, «due to the specifics of historical and socio-economic conditions, relative isolation and the lack of strong ties between them, favorable conditions were created for the formation of independent schools and directions against the backdrop of a common tradition»107.
Sizma is an old village in the northeast of the Sheksninsky district of the Vologda region. The road to Vologda ran through Sizma. For this reason, the village was rich and crowded. Before the revolution of 1917, several thousand people lived here, among whom there were many not only craftsmen (brewers, weavers, gingerbread men), but also merchants. Therefore, the existence here of the production of chests with painting is quite understandable.
Local chests with comb painting are medium-sized boxes, the walls of which are fastened in a dovetail pattern (the lid and bottom are made of two boards, the side walls are made of one board). The lid is flat, the handles are figured, cast, there are no legs. Small hinges for the lock are located vertically in the center of the front side. The design of the chests, the shape of the hinges confirms their Vologda origin, the products in question are analogous among the chests of other districts of the province, in particular, Gryazovets108.
The painting covers all surfaces of the chests in a carpet-like manner (without any voids). The color scheme is usually strict and concise. A limited number of colors were used. They did not mix, the masters wrote in pure active color. The paints were not superimposed in a dense layer; a wooden base shines through under them. When the master used ocher tones, it softened the sharp contrasts. The painting is characterized by a light, improvisational manner of execution and a variety of decorative compositions. Wavy lines form various geometric shapes on the surface of the chests and mark the edges, emphasizing the shape of the chests. Sometimes they imitate «grids» – a composition of thin strips, which is found on the chests of many other centers, for example, the Ural and Vyatka. Compositions of the comb painting are somewhat reminiscent of the painting of the Gryazovets chests, they are related by a clear division of the decorated surfaces into large geometric shapes, a wide strip under the hinges, and an underlined selection of the edges of the products.
Consider for example two chests from the Bread Museum (Sizma village). The first is of medium size, its design is typical for the chests of this center: a rectangular box, a flat lid with hinges. Legs or any supports are missing. The decoration of the chest represents one of the variants of the composition of the local painting: the front wall and the lid are divided into strips of the same width, while there are seven of them on the lid, and six on the front side. Inside the wide stripes are wavy lines dividing them in half. The same lines frame the compositions, emphasizing the clarity of the product’s form. Below the hinges, that is, exactly in the middle of the front side, there is a wide strip imitating the tin strips of other types of chests (if in the latter they often serve to protect the key hole or the lock mechanism, then here they are useless in this respect and are simply decor). The master easily and freely, in an improvisational manner, reproduced familiar compositions. The painting is distinguished by nobility of color combinations, ocher tones gave it a special decorative effect.
The second chest demonstrates the variety of comb painting, the richness of its decorative possibilities (the design is similar to that discussed above). Its front side is divided into two fields, decorated in different ways: one is a typical comb painting, made at a high professional level, and the other, cruciform, is decorated with wavy stripes, reminiscent of the shape and arrangement of iron bars on the windows of churches. The soft color combinations of the painting, its fast, improvisational nature, gave the overall artistic solution of the chest lightness and decorativeness. The decoration of the thing is enriched by the