Русский ремесленник

At the northern edge of the forest is always at a high level of development was the art of woodcarving. From the tree was cut tableware, wooden implement all elements of the home. In Finno-Ugric and Slavic population in ancient times there was a cult and a wooden sculpture (idols). With the adoption of Christianity, the art of wood sculpture has not disappeared, although it has undergone significant changes. Inside the northern churches, especially in remote and rural churchyard, appeared carved images of popular saints.

Of great interest is the northern wooden sculpture as one of the branches of the national plastic arts. Large number of such sculptures from museums in Vologda and Veliky Ustyug refers to the XVIII century. The appearance of three-dimensional wooden sculptures, religious topics, testified about the success of the process of secularization of all aspects of Russian society of the second half of XVII - beginning of XVIII century. Known northern wooden sculpture and earlier times. For example, in the Vologda State historical architectural and art museum-reserve are sculptures XVI century - "Paraskieva" [photo 01] and "George". Paraskeva Laconic to the interpretation of the sculpture Protecting trade, wise and good-natured way it is akin to folk art. George, sculptures which are known in earlier epochs, different artistic integrity and balance with dynamic composition. Typically, these carved figures were placed in a painted reliquaries, and stood out against the background of high relief. Both works are painted with tempera paints, and coloring is iconic in nature: in a personal letter, as usual, there sankir, vohrenie and engines, written in the folds of garments and ornamental decoration. Apparently, the painting of such sculptures executed painters.
In the northern wooden sculpture is almost no plot, which would not have been borrowed from the iconography. It seems that the carvers sought a kind of materialization of the image, as if reducing the distance between people and the "patron saint".
St.George Painted wooden sculpture of the XVIII century museums Vologda and Veliky Ustyug chronologically to the period of the Baroque style. Completed folk artists, carvers, these sculptures have lost conciseness and calm way "Paraskieva» XVI century, gained a certain momentum and vitality. Particularly evident features of the Baroque style emerged in the picturesque interpretation folds garments (for example, sculpture of Mary Magdalene, the Virgin Mary from the Collection of Veliky Museum).
In line with the general increased interest in the inner world of human to human passions is widespread in the XVIII century carved image of Christ in the prison "(sculpture is also known as" Christ is seated "," Savior midnight "). The origins of this sculptural composition are found in the German Gothic style, the art of Lithuania and Poland. Sculptures of this kind have appeared in Russia, apparently, not without the influence of Ukrainian and Belarusian masters, but the rapid and widespread dissemination of the North was prepared by all previous experience of local folk art.
The funds of the Vologda Museum-Reserve kept a series of wooden sculptures of Christ in prison »XVIII-XIX centuries. They represent a very interesting example of how different people solve the master one and the same plot. The figures of Christ are distinguished as plastic solution, and emotional content.
Mary Magdalena In the XVIII century in the northern wood plastics have developed multi-figured carved composition. Characteristic monument of this kind are the royal doors of the church Tsarekonstantinovskoy Vologda depicting the Last Supper. The figures of the Apostles as a fan would diverge from the center, where we see Christ, forming a kind of heraldic composition. However, instead of traditional iconographic types of the Apostles "Last Supper" presented in the guise of contemporary masters - a handsome town merchants; picture purse with pieces of silver in the hand of Judah in the first term contributes to this impression.
At the end of XVII - beginning of XVIII century the leading centers of art of wood carving remained large monasteries, under which the work is mostly peasants from the manorial villages. Carvers from peasants Totemsk, Velikoustyuzhskogo and Belozersky counties, as well as townsmen masters, past a large school of contracting carving in both Russian capitals, reached the heights of perfection in the art bulk pozdnebarochnoy ranneklassicheskoy and woodcarving. They have created ensembles iconography in the Great Ustyug, Vologda, Totma, Kirillov, Belozersk rightfully belong to the golden fund of Russian art, distinguished by high performance skill, stylistic integrity.
At the same time, the master of the traditional areas, working mainly for distant graveyards and villages of Vologda, Yarenskogo, Sol'vychegodsk and other northern counties, continued to work in the plastic forms, gravitated to the plane. They are deeply felt inner essence, the spirit of Baroque art and know how to express his minimal artistic means. Among the sculptures they have created groups and individual figures hardly any characters gloomy, ascetic, or even sad. Even in such a widespread songs like "The Crucifixion" from the upcoming, which is usually solved as the tragic climax of the Gospel events in their treatment of the round rosy faces of the Virgin Mary and St. John are usually illuminated with a light smile. Such an approach to this traditional theme has a deep connection with people's perception of the events depicted as bright holiday rebirth of life.
The surviving monuments of northern wooden sculpture reveal another facet of talent Vologda masters demonstrate a developed sense of beauty of the plastic form and attest to their great achievements in art, artistic processing of wood.