Artistic crafts. The most famous folk crafts in Russia What crafts were developed in Russia

Ancient Russia in the medieval world was widely famous for its craftsmen. At first, among the ancient Slavs, the craft was domestic in nature - everyone dressed skins for themselves, tanned leather, weaved linen, sculpted pottery, made weapons and tools. Then the artisans began to engage only in a certain trade, preparing the products of their labor for the entire community, and the rest of its members provided them with agricultural products, furs, fish, and animals. And already in the period of the early Middle Ages, the production of products on the market began. At first it was custom-made, and then the goods began to go on free sale.

Talented and skilled metallurgists, blacksmiths, jewelers, potters, weavers, stone-cutters, shoemakers, tailors, representatives of dozens of other professions lived and worked in Russian cities and large villages. These ordinary people made an invaluable contribution to the creation of the economic power of Russia, its high material and spiritual culture.

The names of the ancient artisans, with few exceptions, are unknown to us. Objects preserved from those distant times speak for them. These are both rare masterpieces and everyday things, in which talent and experience, skill and ingenuity are invested.

Blacksmiths were the first ancient Russian professional artisans. The blacksmith in epics, legends and fairy tales is the personification of strength and courage, goodness and invincibility. Iron was then smelted from swamp ores. Ore was mined in autumn and spring. It was dried, fired and taken to metal-smelting workshops, where metal was obtained in special furnaces. During excavations of ancient Russian settlements, slags are often found - waste products of the metal-smelting process - and pieces of ferruginous bloom, which, after vigorous forging, became iron masses. The remains of blacksmith workshops were also found, where parts of forges were found. The burials of ancient blacksmiths are known, in which their tools of production - anvils, hammers, tongs, chisels - were placed in their graves.

Old Russian blacksmiths supplied plowmen with coulters, sickles, scythes, and warriors with swords, spears, arrows, battle axes. Everything that was necessary for the economy - knives, needles, chisels, awls, staples, fish hooks, locks, keys and many other tools and household items - were made by talented craftsmen.

Old Russian blacksmiths achieved special art in the production of weapons. Items found in the burials of Chernaya Mohyla in Chernigov, necropolises in Kyiv and other cities are unique examples of ancient Russian crafts of the 10th century.

A necessary part of the costume and attire of an ancient Russian person, both women and men, were various jewelry and amulets made by jewelers from silver and bronze. That is why clay crucibles, in which silver, copper, and tin were melted, are often found in ancient Russian buildings. Then the molten metal was poured into limestone, clay or stone molds, where the relief of the future decoration was carved. After that, an ornament in the form of dots, cloves, circles was applied to the finished product. Various pendants, belt plaques, bracelets, chains, temporal rings, rings, neck torcs - these are the main types of products of ancient Russian jewelers. For jewelry, jewelers used various techniques - niello, granulation, filigree filigree, embossing, enamel.

The blackening technique was rather complicated. First, a “black” mass was prepared from a mixture of silver, lead, copper, sulfur and other minerals. Then this composition was applied to bracelets, crosses, rings and other jewelry. Most often depicted griffins, lions, birds with human heads, various fantastic animals.

Graining required completely different methods of work: small silver grains, each of which was 5-6 times smaller than a pinhead, were soldered to the smooth surface of the product. What labor and patience, for example, was worth soldering 5,000 such grains to each of the kolts that were found during excavations in Kyiv! Most often, granulation is found on typical Russian jewelry - lunnitsa, which were pendants in the form of a crescent.

If instead of grains of silver, patterns of the finest silver, gold wires or strips were soldered onto the product, then a filigree was obtained. From such threads-wires, sometimes an incredibly intricate pattern was created.

The technique of embossing on thin gold or silver sheets was also used. They were strongly pressed against a bronze matrix with the desired image, and it was transferred to a metal sheet. Embossing performed images of animals on kolts. Usually it is a lion or a leopard with a raised paw and a flower in its mouth. Cloisonne enamel became the pinnacle of ancient Russian jewelry craftsmanship.

The enamel mass was glass with lead and other additives. Enamels were of different colors, but red, blue and green were especially loved in Russia. Enamel jewelry went through a difficult path before becoming the property of a medieval fashionista or a noble person. First, the entire pattern was applied to the future decoration. Then a thin sheet of gold was applied to it. Partitions were cut from gold, which were soldered to the base along the contours of the pattern, and the spaces between them were filled with molten enamel. The result was an amazing set of colors that played and shone under the sun's rays in different colors and shades. The centers for the production of jewelry from cloisonné enamel were Kyiv, Ryazan, Vladimir.

And in Staraya Ladoga, in the layer of the 8th century, an entire industrial complex was discovered during excavations! The ancient Ladoga residents built a pavement of stones - iron slags, blanks, production wastes, fragments of foundry molds were found on it. Scientists believe that a metal-smelting furnace once stood here. The richest treasure trove of handicraft tools, found here, is apparently associated with this workshop. The hoard contains twenty-six items. These are seven small and large pliers - they were used in jewelry and iron processing. A miniature anvil was used to make jewelry. An ancient locksmith actively used chisels - three of them were found here. Sheets of metal were cut with jewelry scissors. Drills made holes in the tree. Iron objects with holes were used to draw wire in the production of nails and rook rivets. Jewelry hammers, anvils for chasing and embossing ornaments on silver and bronze jewelry were also found. Finished products of an ancient craftsman were also found here - a bronze ring with images of a human head and birds, rook rivets, nails, an arrow, knife blades.

Finds at the settlement of Novotroitsky, in Staraya Ladoga and other settlements excavated by archaeologists indicate that already in the 8th century the craft began to become an independent branch of production and was gradually separated from agriculture. This circumstance was of great importance in the process of the formation of classes and the creation of the state.

If for the 8th century we know so far only a few workshops, and in general the craft was of a domestic nature, then in the next, 9th century, their number increases significantly. Masters now produce products not only for themselves, their families, but for the entire community. Long-distance trade relations are gradually strengthening, various products are sold on the market in exchange for silver, furs, agricultural products and other goods.

In the ancient Russian settlements of the 9th-10th centuries, archaeologists have unearthed workshops for the production of pottery, foundry, jewelry, bone carving and others. The improvement of labor tools, the invention of new technology made it possible for individual members of the community to produce alone various things necessary for the household, in such quantities that they could be sold.

The development of agriculture and the separation of crafts from it, the weakening of tribal ties within communities, the growth of property inequality, and then the emergence of private property - the enrichment of some at the expense of others - all this formed a new mode of production - feudal. Together with him, the early feudal state gradually arose in Russia.

Forging metal in Russia

In Russia, iron was known to the early Slavs. The oldest method of metal processing is forging. At first, ancient people beat spongy iron with mallets in a cold state in order to "squeeze the juice out of it", i.e. remove impurities. Then they guessed to heat the metal and give it the desired shape. In the X-XI centuries, thanks to the development of metallurgy and other crafts, the Slavs had a plow and a plow with an iron plowshare. On the territory of ancient Kyiv, archaeologists find sickles, door locks and other things made by blacksmiths, gunsmiths and jewelers.

In the 11th century, metallurgical production was already widespread, both in the city and in the countryside. The Russian principalities were located in the zone of ore deposits, and blacksmiths were almost everywhere provided with raw materials. Small factories with a semi-mechanized blowing process, a mill drive, worked on it. The first chimney was an ordinary hearth in a dwelling. Special bugles appeared later. For fire safety purposes, they were located at the edge of the settlements. The early kilns were round pits one meter in diameter thickly covered with clay, dug into the ground. Their popular name is "wolf pits". In the 10th century, above-ground stoves appeared, the air was pumped into them with the help of leather bellows.

The furs were inflated by hand. And this work made the cooking process very difficult. Archaeologists still find signs of local metal production on the settlements - waste from the cheese-making process in the form of slag. At the end of the “cooking” of iron, the domnitsa was broken, foreign impurities were removed, and the kritsa was removed from the furnace with a crowbar. The hot cry was captured by pincers and carefully forged. Forging removed slag particles from the surface of the crown and eliminated the porosity of the metal. After forging, the kritsa was again heated and again placed under the hammer. This operation was repeated several times. For a new smelting, the upper part of the house was restored or rebuilt. In later domnitsa, the front part was no longer broken, but disassembled, and the molten metal flowed into clay containers.

But, despite the wide distribution of raw materials, iron smelting was carried out by far not in every settlement. The complexity of the process singled out blacksmiths from the community and made them the first artisans. In ancient times, blacksmiths themselves smelted the metal and then forged it. Necessary accessories for a blacksmith - a forge (smelting furnace) for heating a cracker, a poker, a crowbar (pick), an iron shovel, an anvil, a hammer (sledgehammer), a variety of tongs for extracting red-hot iron from the furnace and working with it - a set of tools necessary for melting and forging works. The hand forging technique remained almost unchanged until the 19th century, but even fewer authentic ancient forges of history are known than domnits, although archaeologists periodically discover many forged iron products in ancient settlements and mounds, and their tools in the burials of blacksmiths: pincers, hammer, anvil, casting accessories .

Written sources have not preserved to us the forging technique and the basic techniques of ancient Russian blacksmiths. But the study of ancient forged products allows historians to say that the ancient Russian blacksmiths knew all the most important techniques: welding, punching holes, torsion, riveting plates, welding steel blades and hardening steel. In each forge, as a rule, two blacksmiths worked - a master and an apprentice. In the XI-XIII centuries. the foundry partly became isolated, and the blacksmiths took up the direct forging of iron products. In Ancient Russia, any metal worker was called a blacksmith: "blacksmith of iron", "blacksmith of copper", "blacksmith of silver".

Simple forged products were made with a chisel. The technology of using an insert and welding a steel blade was also used. The simplest forged products include: knives, hoops and buds for tubs, nails, sickles, braids, chisels, awls, shovels and pans, i.e. items that do not require special techniques. Any blacksmith alone could make them. More complex forged products: chains, door breaks, iron rings from belts and harnesses, bits, lighters, spears - already required welding, which was carried out by experienced blacksmiths with the help of an apprentice.

Masters welded iron, heating it to a temperature of 1500 degrees C, the achievement of which was determined by sparks of white-hot metal. Holes were punched with a chisel in ears for tubs, plowshares for plows, hoes. The puncher made holes in scissors, tongs, keys, boat rivets, on spears (for fastening to the pole), on the shrouds of shovels. The blacksmith could carry out these techniques only with the help of an assistant. After all, he needed to hold a red-hot piece of iron with tongs, which was not easy with the small size of the anvils of that time, to hold and guide the chisel, to hit the chisel with a hammer.

It was difficult to make axes, spears, hammers and locks. The ax was forged using iron inserts and welding strips of metal. Spears were forged from a large triangular piece of iron. The base of the triangle was twisted into a tube, a conical iron insert was inserted into it, and then the spear bushing was welded and a rampage was forged. Iron cauldrons were made from several large plates, the edges of which were riveted with iron rivets. The iron twisting operation was used to create screws from tetrahedral rods. The above range of blacksmith products exhausts all the peasant inventory needed for building a house, agriculture, hunting and defense. Old Russian blacksmiths X-XIII centuries. mastered all the basic techniques of iron processing and determined the technical level of the village forges for centuries.

The basic form of sickle and short-handled scythe were found in the 9th-11th centuries. Old Russian axes have undergone a significant change in the X-XIII centuries. acquired a form close to modern. The saw was not used in rural architecture. Iron nails were widely used for carpentry work. They are almost always found in every burial with a coffin. The nails had a tetrahedral shape with a bent top. By the 9th-10th centuries, patrimonial, rural and urban crafts already existed in Kievan Rus. Russian urban craft entered the 11th century with a rich stock of technical skills. Village and city were still completely separated until that time. Served by artisans, the village lived in a small closed world. The sales area was extremely small: 10-15 kilometers in radius.

The city blacksmiths were more skilled craftsmen than the village blacksmiths. During the excavations of ancient Russian cities, it turned out that almost every city house was the dwelling of an artisan. From the beginning of the existence of the Kievan state, they showed great skill in forging iron and steel of a wide variety of objects - from a heavy plowshare and a helmet with patterned iron lace to thin needles; arrows and chain mail rings riveted with miniature rivets; weapons and household implements from barrows of the 9th-10th centuries. In addition to blacksmithing, they owned metalwork and weapons. All these crafts have some similarities in the ways of working iron and steel. Therefore, quite often artisans engaged in one of these crafts combined it with others. In the cities, the technique of smelting iron was more perfect than in the countryside. City forges, as well as domnitsa, were usually located on the outskirts of the city. The equipment of urban forges differed from the village ones - by greater complexity.

The city anvil made it possible, firstly, to forge things that had a void inside, for example, a tribe, spear bushings, rings, and most importantly, it allowed the use of an assortment of figured linings for forgings of a complex profile. Such linings are widely used in modern blacksmithing when forging curved surfaces. Some forged products, starting from the 9th-10th centuries, bear traces of processing with the help of such linings. In those cases where two-sided processing was required, both the lining and the chisel-stamp of the same profile were obviously used to make the forging symmetrical. Linings and stamps were also used in the manufacture of battle axes.

The assortment of hammers, blacksmith tongs and chisels of urban blacksmiths was more diverse than that of their village counterparts: from small to huge. Starting from the IX-X centuries. Russian craftsmen used files to process iron. Old Russian city forges, metalwork and weapons workshops in the X-XIII centuries. had: forges, furs, simple anvils, anvils with a spur and a notch, inserts into the anvil (of various profiles), sledgehammer hammers, handbrake hammers, billhook hammers (for cutting) or chisels, punch hammers (beards), hand chisels, manual punches, simple tongs, tongs with hooks, small tongs, vise (primitive type), files, circular sharpeners. With the help of this diverse tool, which does not differ from the equipment of modern forges, Russian craftsmen prepared many different things.

Among them are agricultural implements (massive plowshares and coulters, plow knives, scythes, sickles, axes, honey cutters); tools for artisans (knives, adzes, chisels, saws, scrapers, spoons, punches and figured hammers of chasers, knives for planes, calipers for ornamenting bones, scissors, etc.); household items (nails, knives, wrought iron reliquaries, door breaks, staples, rings, buckles, needles, steelyards, weights, boilers, hearth chains, locks and keys, ship rivets, flints, bows and hoops of buckets, etc.); weapons, armor and harness (swords, shields, arrows, sabers, spears, battle axes, helmets, chain mail, bits, spurs, stirrups, whips, horseshoes, crossbows). The original complete isolation of artisans is beginning to be broken.

The production of weapons and military armor was especially developed. Swords and battle axes, quivers with arrows, sabers and knives, chain mail and shields were produced by master gunsmiths. The manufacture of weapons and armor was associated with especially careful metal processing, requiring skillful work techniques. Although the swords that existed in Russia in the 9th-10th centuries are mainly Frankish blades, archaeologists, nevertheless, in their excavations discover the presence of artisans-gunsmiths among Russian townspeople of the 9th-10th centuries. In a number of burials, bundles of forged rings for iron chain mail were found, which are often found in Russian military barrows from the 9th century. The ancient name of chain mail - armor - is often found on the pages of the annals. Making chain mail was labor intensive.

Technological operations included: iron wire forging, welding, joining and riveting of iron rings. Archaeologists discovered the burial of a chain mail master of the 10th century. In the 9th-10th centuries, chain mail became an obligatory accessory of Russian armor. The ancient name of chain mail - armor - is often found on the pages of the annals. True, opinions are expressed about the origin of Russian chain mail about receiving them either from nomads or from the countries of the East. Nevertheless, the Arabs, noting the presence of chain mail among the Slavs, do not mention their import from outside. And the abundance of chain mail in the guard mounds may indicate that chain mail craftsmen worked in Russian cities. The same applies to helmets. Russian historians believe that the Varangian helmets differed too sharply in their conical shape. Russian helmets-shishaks were riveted from iron wedge-shaped strips.

The well-known helmet of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, thrown by him on the battlefield of Lipetsk in 1216, belongs to this type of helmet. It is an excellent example of Russian weapons and jewelry of the XII-XIII centuries. The tradition has affected the overall shape of the helmet, but technically it is very different from the helmets of the 9th-10th centuries. Its entire body is forged from one piece, and not riveted from separate plates. This made the helmet significantly lighter and stronger.

Even more skill was required from the master gunsmith. An example of jewelry work in the weapons technology of the XII-XIII centuries is, as is believed, the light steel hatchet of Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky. The surface of the metal is covered with notches, and on these notches (in the hot state) sheet silver is stuffed, on top of which an ornament is applied with engraving, gilding and niello. Oval or almond-shaped shields were made of wood with an iron core and iron fittings.

A special place in blacksmithing and weapons business was occupied by steel and hardening of steel products. Even among the village kurgan axes of the 11th-13th centuries, a welded-on steel blade is found. Steel's hardness, flexibility, easy weldability and ability to accept hardening were well known to the Romans. But hardfacing steel has always been considered the most difficult task in all blacksmithing, because. iron and steel have different welding temperatures. Steel hardening, i.e. more or less rapid cooling of a red-hot object in water or in another way is also well known to the ancient blacksmiths of Russia. Urban blacksmithing was distinguished by a variety of techniques, the complexity of the equipment and the many specialties associated with this production. In the XI-XIII centuries, urban craftsmen worked for a wide market, i.e. production is on the rise.

The list of urban artisans includes ironsmiths, domniks, gunsmiths, armor makers, shield makers, helmet makers, arrow makers, locksmiths, and nail makers. In the XII century, the development of the craft continues. In metal, Russian masters embodied a bizarre mixture of Christian and archaic pagan images, combining all this with local Russian motifs and plots. Improvements continue in the craft technique aimed at increasing the mass production. Posad craftsmen imitate the products of court craftsmen. In the XIII century, a number of new craft centers were created with their own characteristics in technology and style.

But we do not observe any decline in the craft from the second half of the 12th century, as it is sometimes asserted, either in Kyiv or in other places. On the contrary, culture grows, covering new areas and inventing new techniques. In the second half of the 12th century and in the 13th century, despite the unfavorable conditions of feudal fragmentation, Russian craft reached its fullest technical and artistic flourishing. The development of feudal relations and feudal ownership of land in the XII - the first half of the XIII century. caused a change in the form of the political system, which found its expression in feudal fragmentation, i.e. creation of relatively independent states-principalities. During this period, blacksmithing, plumbing and weapons, forging and stamping continued to develop in all principalities. In rich farms, more and more plows with iron shares began to appear. Masters are looking for new ways of working. In the 12th-13th centuries, Novgorod gunsmiths, using a new technology, began to manufacture saber blades of much greater strength, hardness and flexibility.

Do not rely on someone else's opinion, book "truths" or what great people say, know that this is their experience, you have to go through everything on your own.

The active development of handicrafts began in Ancient Russia at the end of the 13th century and was due to the emergence of highly specialized specialists in various industries. Crafts played a very important role in the development of the country, as they gave a powerful impetus to the construction of new cities and the economic development of the country. Today we will look at the most common types of handicraft activities and talk about their development.

Places of concentration of artisans

Cities in Ancient Russia were built on the basis of a favorable geographical location. They had to not only be close to trade routes, but also have a good location so that they could be easily defended in case of war and a long siege. As a rule, they tried to build cities on hilly terrain or near the confluence of two rivers. Not only ordinary people lived in the cities, but also representatives of the authorities, so they had a garrison with a sufficient number of soldiers for defense.

With the development of handicraft activities, craftsmen began to settle in the cities, due to which ordinary military garrisons began to gradually turn into large shopping centers. On the central square there was a princely estate, which was surrounded by a wall and protective structures. Settlements were built around the princely estate, in which artisans lived and worked. Masters of various professions and crafts created goods that were subsequently sold in other cities, which contributed to the rapid development of trade. The development has been so fast. That already three centuries later, in Russia there were about 60 different types of crafts.

Metallurgy

The mining and processing of metals began in Russia already at the beginning of the 11th century and was considered one of the most important industries. Blacksmiths have always been held in high esteem, as they made not only iron tools, but also weapons, metal armor and harness. Blacksmithing is mentioned and praised in many works of the folk epic of that time, and the blacksmiths themselves personify the image of courage, strength and kindness. Iron products of that time were made from ore, which was mined by miners in the swamps. The ore was smelted by blacksmiths in their workshops in special furnaces equipped with furnaces for blowing and creating heat.

Blacksmiths were rightfully considered the most important and significant craftsmen, since they gave rise to a new era in the development of the country and trade relations. Blacksmiths produced a huge amount of goods needed in all spheres of life of people of that time. The lords of the anvil and hammer produced tools, weapons, and more. The weapon was of high quality and was famous far beyond the borders of Russia. The total number of varieties of forged products produced by blacksmiths in the 11th century is about 150 units.

Jewelry

The production of jewelry occupies a separate niche in blacksmithing, since artisans had to have an incredible level of skill to make them. Jewelry in Russia was so magnificent that modern scientists remain at a loss as to how the blacksmiths of that time managed to create such amazing jewelry masterpieces.

In the Middle Ages, various amulets and pendants, necklaces, earrings and yarn cast from bronze and made using the granulation technology, which meant soldering small balls onto a metal base, were very popular in our country. Another technique that has also become widespread is called filigree. It is based on the soldering of various patterns from thin wire to the base, the gaps between which were painted over with enamel of various colors.

The niello technique deserves special attention, since the decorations made using it were not only very popular among the nobility, but were also in demand in other countries. Such jewelry is based on a black metal plate, on which silver patterns were applied.

pottery

The ability to sculpt clay products and fire them marked the beginning of a new era in construction, since houses began to be built not only from log cabins, but also from brick. In addition to bricks, dishes were made from clay. The first mention of pottery dates back to the 11th century. At that time, machines for work had already been invented, which were a rotating circle driven by a foot drive. For the manufacture of dishes, special clay was used, which underwent preliminary processing, and the finished products were fired in ovens, which gave them incredible strength and durability.

In what areas of crafts have masters still achieved great success?

Speaking of the crafts of the period of the 11th-12th centuries, one should not forget about such activities as chasing, the manufacture of ceramics and enamels, glassmaking, painting, and fine embroidery, since Slavic craftsmen had no equal in these crafts. During the archaeological excavations that took place in Kyiv, scientists managed to find old paintings made by ancient Russian masters, which amaze with their beauty.

Carpenters also achieved great success in their work, building houses, fences and gates, barrels, crossings, wooden toys, fortresses and defensive structures, boats and ships, as well as other utensils. In terms of their demand, carpenters were not inferior to blacksmiths.

Art painting

Old Russian painters and artists were true professionals in their field and were famous for their skills far beyond the borders of the country. Comprehension of the art of artistic painting took place in special schools, each of which had a different focus and trained artisans of a certain type.

Gzhel was one of the most popular and sought-after areas of painting of that time. This craft is based on the artistic painting of white porcelain objects with blue paints. Some artisans made kitchen utensils and toys from porcelain, and then others painted them with various patterns and ornaments. Porcelain tiles painted with blue patterns were especially popular.

Another popular type of painting was Zhostovo painting. It was a painting of various items of utensils, painted black, painted with patterns of bright colors and covered with a special varnish that gives the items an incredible shine. The first items made in the style of this craft date back to the middle of the 18th century. It is worth noting that this type of craft was very difficult to master, and the manufacture of items took place in several stages and took a lot of time.

Khokhloma

Khokhloma is one of the varieties of artistic painting of dishes that originated in Russia at the beginning of the 8th century. Kitchen utensils were painted with flowers of unusual shape and bright colors, as well as various folk ornaments, which simply did not allow looking away. Household items painted using this technique could last for a long time, since the varnish was applied to them in several stages, after which the products were hardened in a furnace. Some kitchen utensils have survived in excellent condition to this day.

An indicator of the shift in the productive forces of Russia in the 11th - early 12th centuries. was the further development of the craft. In the countryside, under the dominance of natural economy, the manufacture of clothing, footwear, utensils, agricultural implements, etc., was a domestic production that had not yet separated from agriculture. Blacksmithing and, to a lesser extent, pottery, separated themselves from agriculture. Bone-cutting and carpentry also acquired a handicraft character. In Volhynia, entire villages made slate whorls for spindles, which were distributed throughout Russia.

With the development of the feudal system, part of the communal artisans became dependent on the feudal lords, others left the village and went under the walls of princely castles and fortresses, where handicraft settlements were created. The possibility of a break between the artisan and the countryside was due to the development of agriculture, which was able to provide the urban population with food, and the beginning of the separation of handicrafts from agriculture. Cities became centers for the development of handicrafts. In them by the XII century. There were over 60 handicraft specialties. A significant part of the crafts was based on metallurgical production, the level of which is indicative for assessing the development of the craft as a whole. If in the countryside the blast-furnace business had not yet separated from blacksmithing, then in the cities in the field of iron and steel processing there appeared at least 16 specialties that ensured a significant output of products. The technical level of metallurgical production is evidenced by the use of welding, casting, metal forging, welding and hardening of steel by artisans.

Russian artisans of the XI-XII centuries. produced more than 150 types of iron and steel products, their products played an important role in the development of trade relations between the city and the countryside. Old Russian jewelers knew the art of minting non-ferrous metals. Craft workshops produced tools (ploughshares, axes, chisels, tongs, etc.), weapons (shields, chain mail armor, spears, helmets, swords, etc.), household items (keys, etc.), jewelry - gold, silver, bronze, copper.

In the field of artistic crafts, Russian craftsmen mastered the complex technique of granulation (making patterns from the smallest grains of metal), filigree (making patterns from the finest wire), figured casting, and, finally, the technique of niello (making a black background for patterned silver plates) and cloisonné, which requires special art. enamel. Beautiful items with gold and silver inlays on iron and copper have been preserved. Such types of crafts as pottery, leather, woodworking, stone cutting, and dozens of others received significant development in ancient Russian cities. With its products, Russia won fame in what was then Europe. In the cities, artisans worked to order and to the market. However, the social division of labor in the country as a whole was weak. The village lived by subsistence farming. The products of a few village artisans were distributed over a distance of about 10-30 km. The penetration of small retail traders into the countryside from the city did not disturb the natural character of the rural economy. Cities were the centers of internal trade. There were markets that sold both food and handicrafts; foreign merchants brought their goods there. But urban commodity production did not change the natural economic basis of the country's economy.

The foreign trade of Russia was more developed. Russian merchants traded in the possessions of the Arab Caliphate. The Dnieper path connected Russia with Byzantium. Russian merchants traveled from Kyiv to Moravia, the Czech Republic, Poland, and South Germany; from Novgorod and Polotsk - along the Baltic Sea to Scandinavia, the Polish Pomerania and further to the west. In the customs charter of the X century. the city of Raffelstetten (Germany), Slavic merchants are mentioned. Exported from Russia mainly raw materials. With the development of handicrafts, the export of handicraft products increased. Furs, wax, honey, resin, linen and linen fabrics, silver items, a whorl made of pink slate, weapons, locks, carved bone, etc., entered the foreign market. Luxury items, fruits, spices, paints, etc. were imported to Russia.

The princes sought to protect the interests of Russian merchants through special agreements with foreign states. In the "Russian Truth" of the later (so-called "Large") edition of the XII-beginning of the XIII century. some measures were envisaged to protect the property of merchants from losses associated with wars and other circumstances. Silver bars and foreign coins were used as money. Princes Vladimir Svyatoslavich and his son Yaroslav Vladimirovich issued (albeit in small quantities) minted silver coins.

However, foreign trade did not change the natural character of the Russian economy, since the vast majority of export items (furs, etc.) were not produced as goods, but were received in the form of tribute or dues from smerds; things brought from abroad served only the needs of wealthy feudal lords and townspeople. Almost no foreign goods penetrated into the countryside.

With the growth of the social division of labor, cities developed. They arose from fortresses-castles, gradually overgrown with settlements, and from trade and craft settlements, around which fortifications were erected. The city was connected with the nearest rural district, the products of which he lived and the population of which he served with handicrafts. At the same time, part of the urban population maintained a connection with agriculture, although it was an auxiliary occupation for the townspeople.

Scandinavian sources called Russia "a country of cities". These cities meant both craft and trade centers and small fortified settlements. Russian chronicles, having preserved mentions of cities, probably incomplete, make it possible to judge their growth. In chronicles of the IX-X centuries. 25 cities are mentioned, in the news of the XI century. -89. The heyday of ancient Russian cities falls on the XI-XII centuries.

The ancient Russian city consisted of a fortress - a citadel and an urban settlement, where the trade and craft population lived and there was a market - bargaining. The population in such large cities as Kyiv, which the chronicler of the XI century. Adam of Bremen called the "rival of Constantinople", or Novgorod, in the XI-XII centuries. apparently numbered in the tens of thousands. The urban artisan population was replenished with runaway serfs and dependent serfs.

As in the countries of Western Europe, craft and merchant associations arose in ancient Russian cities, although a guild system did not develop here. So, there were associations of carpenters and city dwellers (builders of fortifications) headed by elders, brotherhoods of blacksmiths. Craftsmen were divided into masters and apprentices. In addition to free artisans, patrimonial artisans also lived in the cities, who were serfs of princes and boyars. The boyars made up the urban nobility.

The large cities of Russia (Kyiv, Chernigov, Polotsk, Novgorod, Smolensk, etc.) were administrative, judicial and military centers. At the same time, having grown stronger, the cities contributed to the process of political fragmentation. This was a natural phenomenon in the conditions of the dominance of subsistence farming and the weakness of economic ties between individual lands.

The destruction of communal-tribal relations and the emergence of specialists in narrow industries - these are the changes that characterize Ancient Russia in the eighth-ninth centuries. Crafts lead to the emergence of cities, separating part of the population from work on the land. This is due to the appearance of the first specialists - masters in certain types of crafts, who concentrated in tribal centers - cities. Cities - centers of crafts They tried to build a city in such a way that its geographical position would allow trade to be carried out as best as possible and at the same time successfully defended from enemies. For example, in a place where two rivers merge, or around a hill. Representatives of the authorities also settled in the cities. Therefore, they were well guarded. Gradually, with the development of crafts, cities began to be not just military fortifications, but turned into trading centers. The Kremlin was located in the center of the city, where the prince settled. This part was surrounded by a fortress wall and surrounded by an earthen rampart. In addition, a deep ditch was dug around, which was filled with water. All these precautions were necessary to protect against enemies. Outside, around the Kremlin, there were settlements of artisans, the so-called settlements. This part of the city was called the settlement. In many settlements, this part was also surrounded by a defensive wall. Life in the cities was in full swing, artisans created their goods, craft and trade of Ancient Russia were actively developing. By the twelfth century, there were over sixty craft specialties. The craftsmen specialized in the manufacture of items of clothing, utensils, tools that ancient Russia needed. The crafts of Ancient Russia developed rapidly and rapidly. Talented professionals of various fields lived and worked in the settlements: masters of blacksmithing, jewelry, pottery, shoemakers, tailors, weavers, stone cutters, and representatives of other crafts. The hands of these craftsmen created the economic wealth and strength of the ancient Russian state, its high material and spiritual culture.

Without iron - nowhere The pioneers-professionals were blacksmiths. Their work has become one of the most important areas into which the crafts of Ancient Russia of the 9th-12th centuries were divided. This work is mentioned in folk epics and folklore: epics, legends and fairy tales, where the blacksmith is always a model of strength, courage and kindness. In those days, iron was obtained by smelting from swamp ore. They mined it in the off-season, dried it and then delivered it to workshops, where they melted it with the help of special furnaces. This is how the metal was made. Modern archaeologists during excavations of ancient Russian cities often found slags, which are waste from the process of melting metals, and vigorously forged pieces of iron masses. The found remains of blacksmith workshops have preserved parts of furnaces and furnaces, near which artisans once worked.

There is a business for a blacksmith: goods for warriors and farmers With the development of metal production, a new round of trade development begins, which the country that lived in subsistence farming did not know before. The crafts of Ancient Russia, in particular blacksmithing, had a pronounced practical orientation. Products produced by blacksmiths were required by everyone. They were needed by warriors who ordered weapons - arrowheads, battle axes, sabers, spears, swords - and protective clothing - chain mail and helmets. The production of weapons in Ancient Russia reached a special level of skill, which can be called a real art. Unique armor was found in burials and necropolises in Kyiv, Chernigov and other cities.

Forged tools were needed by farmers: without iron scythes, sickles, coulters, plowshares, it was impossible to imagine the cultivation of land. Any household required needles, knives, saws, locks, keys and other household items made in the forge by talented craftsmen. Finds in the form of burials of blacksmiths showed that even their working tools were sent to the graves together with blacksmiths - hammers and anvils, chisels and tongs. Historians believe that more than 150 types of metal products were known in the eleventh century by Ancient Russia. The crafts of Ancient Russia played an important role in the development of trade between the settlements.

Mastery of Jewelry Making Blacksmith craftsmen were sometimes engaged in small work, creating small masterpieces - jewelry. Gradually, goldsmithing became a separate industry. This is how the jewelry craft appeared in Ancient Russia. Russian craftsmen mastered the technique of making jewelry so well that one could only wonder how they managed to do it. Skillful things that have survived to our times - bronze amulets, pendants, buckles, earrings and necklaces - amaze with the subtlety of workmanship. Jewelry was created using the granulation technique, while a pattern was soldered over them, the basis of which was a lot of metal balls. Another way of making jewelry was filigree. This technique is characterized by the fact that the drawing was created with a thin wire, which was soldered onto a metal surface, the resulting gaps were filled with enamel of different colors. Jewelers also mastered figure casting, as well as the niello technique, which required special art, when a pattern of silver plates was placed on a black background. Beautiful items with gold and silver inlays on iron and copper have survived to this day. Such complex techniques testify to the high level reached by the development of crafts in Ancient Russia. So, the hands of ancient Russian artisans created highly valuable jewelry made using the technique of cloisonné enamel. It was a kind of brand of Russian goldsmith craft. The skill of Russian jewelers was a very complex technique, and their work was distributed all over the world and, at the same time, was highly valued and in great demand everywhere.

Both bricks and dishes were molded everywhere. The pottery craft of Ancient Russia emerged as an independent industry a little later than blacksmithing. The potter's wheel appeared with our ancestors in the eleventh century. This allowed the ancient craftsmen to create beautiful products. The device of the machine was simple, it rotated with the help of a foot drive, but the dishes that the potters of that time managed to create are striking in their craftsmanship and variety of forms. Initially, the manufacture of pottery was a women's business. However, in the literary handwritten monuments of Kievan Rus there are mentions only of male potters. They used clay for their products, which was specially processed, moistened with water and actively kneaded. Pots and other vessels, which were made of different sizes and used for different purposes, were in the greatest demand among all pottery, they could pour water or store food, berries. The pots were placed in the oven and the food was cooked. Such dishes have survived to this day.

What were the ancient Russian masters famous for? Describing the crafts of Ancient Russia in the 9th-12th centuries, we briefly note that the Russian Slavs of the pre-Christian period were able to make chasing, produced ceramics, mastered the art of fine embroidery, and were famous for their skill in making enamels. The works of Kyiv artists have survived to this day. These are unique examples of bone carving, blackening, metal engraving. Old Russian masters of glassmaking and their tiles were famous all over the world. Ancient Russia mastered various crafts, but the most skillful of them was woodworking. Outbuildings, dwellings, gates and bridges, fortresses and walls were built from this material. Boats were wooden, all household utensils were generously decorated with wood carvings. It's no secret that the main souvenir, personifying the artistic craft in Ancient Russia, is the nesting doll - a colorfully painted wooden doll with a void inside. One after another, the same beauties get out of it, and each is slightly smaller than the previous one.

Art painting Decorative and applied crafts of Ancient Russia were famous far beyond its borders. Since ancient times, our ancestors have admired the whole world with their art of artistic painting. The variety of patterned motifs in Russian ornamentation led to the emergence of different schools and directions of this folk craft. Each of them had its own colors and lines. Gzhel Bright blue painting with cobalt on a white background of porcelain was called Gzhel, which comes from the name of the town near Moscow, where this direction originated. It was first mentioned in the charter of Ivan Kalita. First, the craftsmen made dishes and toys, later, with the development of production, the range expanded significantly. Fireplace tiles were especially popular. Gzhel ceramics has become popular all over the world. Other murals of our ancestors also received names from the places of their creation and distribution.

Bright colors on a dark background Zhostovo painting is an artistic craft in Ancient Russia, which came in the eighteenth century from a village with the same name near Moscow. It is an oil painting on metal trays. It is easy to recognize it by bright colorful flowers, fruits, birds, located on a dark background. The applied patterns are then covered with a special varnish, which is why they have such a shiny look. The technique of this painting is rather complicated, the image is created in several stages. Very cheerful shades are pleasing to the eye, so trays were very popular in Russia and are still a decorative element in many homes and institutions.

Palekh A Palekh miniature came from the regional center in the Ivanovo region. This kind of craft is a painting on lacquerware. Painted over a black background, colorful folklore, household, religious scenes adorn caskets, caskets and other things. It is believed that the Palekh lacquer miniature appeared in the fifteenth century, when ancient Russia was distinguished by the flourishing of cities and trade. Crafts originated in different ways. For example, such a direction of the ancient craft as the Palekh miniature was created by ancient Russian icon painters. Skillful artists lived in Palekh, who received invitations from all Russian regions to paint in temples and churches. It was they who began to paint the caskets with all sorts of fabulous and historical plots. All images were applied with bright tempera paints over a black background. The technology of this type of craft is quite complicated, the process of creating miniatures is time-consuming and multi-stage. It takes a long time to study and master it, but as a result, an ordinary dark box turns into a thing of unique beauty.

Khokhloma Another type of hand painting on wood is Khokhloma, which appeared more than three hundred years ago. Dishes and household items painted with fiery scarlet colors attract attention with their unusualness. Patterns that develop into beautiful ornaments are pleasing to the eye even today. There is a secret in the creation of Khokhloma products, which lies in the fact that they are varnished several times, after which they are tempered in an oven. As a result of firing, the coating turns yellow, and the products created from wood seem to be gilded precious utensils. In addition, the dishes as a result of such processing become durable. Its coating allows you to use Khokhloma cups, bowls, spoons for their intended purpose - for storing food, for eating.

Artistic craft of Ancient Russia

Russian art critic Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov spoke about the importance of decorative and applied art: "... Real, integral, healthy art really exists only where the need for elegant forms, for a constant artistic appearance has already spread to hundreds of thousands of things, every day Real, non-illusory folk art was born only where my staircase is elegant, and the room, and the glass, and the spoon, and the cup, and the table, and the cupboard, and the stove, and the chandelier, and so on to the last object: there, probably, architecture will also be significant and interesting in thought and form, followed by painting and sculpture. roots". What is this art?

Human beings are genetically inherent in the sense of beauty. Since ancient times, people have tried to surround themselves with beautiful things. Thousands of blacksmiths, potters, joiners, jewelers, carvers, embroiderers worked in cities and villages, creating amazing works of arts and crafts - clothes, furniture, dishes, jewelry, weapons.

Decorative and applied art is closely related to painting and sculpture, but unlike "pure" art, it has a practical application. Products made of ceramics, metal, wood, textiles, decorated with carvings, painting, sewing, made clothes, dishes, furniture, home, all household items especially beautiful, pleasing to the eye.

Old Russian craftsmen-jewelers achieved the greatest skill. They mastered the most complex jewelry techniques - casting, chasing, granulating, filigree, niello, various types of enamel, carving, engraving. A lot of jewelry has been preserved - genuine masterpieces of ancient Russian arts and crafts made of precious metals and stones. They were especially protected and hid in case of danger.

What are the treasures

Among the jewelry, the most common are jewelry. In Russia, one of the favorite women's jewelry was kolts - pendants for a headdress. Often, kolts were made hollow inside and odorous herbs or pieces of fabric soaked in an aromatic substance were placed in them. In 1906, a treasure trove of jewelry from the 11th-12th centuries was found on the territory of Tver. Among them was a large silver colt in the form of a six-pointed star. Its rays were completely covered with miniature (less than 0.5 mm in diameter) balls - grains. Each of the five thousand balls was mounted on a ring of wire 0.2 mm thick. One can only guess how an unknown craftsman in those distant times managed to complete such a complex and painstaking work.

Many priceless works of ancient jewelry art have come down to us thanks to treasures. In 1822, on the territory of Old Ryazan, burned by the Tatars, but never risen from the ashes, a treasure trove of gold items of the 12th - early 13th centuries, rare in richness and art of execution, was discovered. Perhaps they belonged to the princely family and were buried in the ground during the siege of the city by the Tatars. Among the items found, barmas are especially valuable - a luxurious mantle worn by Byzantine emperors and Russian princes as a symbol of power. Ryazan barmas look like a necklace made up of a chain of openwork beads with five medallions suspended from them. The three central ones, decorated with images of the Mother of God and Saints Barbara and Irina, are made in the technique of cloisonné enamel.
Enamel, or enamel, as it was called in Russia, was one of the most popular jewelry techniques. Enamels - transparent and opaque, deaf - is a special alloy of glass, painted in various colors by metal oxides. The recipe for making enamel is known: glass was crushed into powder, a little water was added. The resulting paste-like mass was applied to a metal product and fired three or four times in a furnace. The enamel melted and firmly bonded to the metal. Then it was polished to a shine. According to the brightness of colors, the play of light, ancient enamels resemble a mosaic. There are different types of enamel technique: champlevé, window, relief, painted. One of the most difficult was considered cloisonné. Thin metal partitions were soldered onto the plane of the product. The space between them was filled with enamel. The skill of the enamellers can be judged by the fact that on the miniature faces of the saints the pupil and the eyeball are made in different colors.

In addition to enamel, medallions of Ryazan barm are covered with multi-tiered patterned filigree - an openwork pattern made of thin gold or silver wire twisted (rolled) from two threads. Scan is now called filigree. Products decorated with it resemble lace woven from metal. Making filigree is such a delicate matter that the expression "filigree technique" has long gone beyond the limits of jewelry art.

A lot of ancient Russian jewelry associated with a religious cult has been preserved: church vessels, salaries for books and icons, vestments of clergy.

The Novgorod Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve houses two ancient vessels - craters. They are made by Russian craftsmen Kosta and Bratila (their names are carved on the pallets). The shape of the craters, their name and purpose are borrowed from Ancient Greece. Master ceramists made large bell-shaped vessels there, in which wine was diluted with water. Russian silversmiths made metal craters, gave them a complex octahedral shape and decorated them with graceful S-shaped handles, the walls of each vessel were covered with chased images of saints and ornaments.

The rise of Russian arts and crafts was interrupted by the Mongol-Tatar invasion. Some talented craftsmen died during the defense of cities, others were forcibly taken to the Horde. The production of niello, cloisonne enamel, granulation, and filigree ceased for a long time in Russia.

The innumerable treasures of the king

The heyday of artistic crafts in Russia was the 16th century, but the revival of lost traditions began in the 15th century. The Moscow Kremlin became the main center of artistic crafts, where there were numerous workshops, especially the Armory, and the best craftsmen worked. At first, only royal weapons were produced and stored in the Armory. Over time, the chamber expanded. Court artists worked together with the gunsmiths, decorating the royal mansions, painting icons and book miniatures. Workshops for the manufacture of carriages, expensive saddles and horse harness for ceremonial royal trips were available at the Stable Order. A separate Bed Chamber, later transformed into the Sovereign and Tsaritsyn chambers, was engaged in the manufacture of royal bed linen and clothes.

In the XVI century. a dish was forged from a piece of gold weighing 3 kg, presented by Ivan IV to his bride, the Circassian princess Maria Temryukovna, on her wedding day. Its edges are decorated with elegant niello ornaments and inscriptions, and in the center there is a double-headed eagle - the coat of arms of the Russian state. On such dishes in the old days, the bride was offered a veil and a kiku - the headdress of a married woman. The decoration of the dish was so liked by Russian masters that it was often repeated later.

Often, precious royal utensils were made by order of the tsar or boyars in order to invest in churches and monasteries "for the memory of the soul." After the death of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich in 1598, his wife Irina Godunova invested several golden vessels in the Archangel Cathedral of the Kremlin. Among them, the censer and chalice, now stored in the Armory, are especially beautiful. The censer has the shape of an Orthodox church topped with an onion dome on a drum. Its entire surface is covered with two or three dozen precious stones and black. On the walls of the vessel, in a magnificent graphic manner, are depicted apostles and saints named after members of the royal family.

Niello is a jewelry technique known since ancient times. A pattern is cut into the metal. Then the product is completely covered with black - an alloy of silver sulfide, sulfur and other components. After firing in the kiln, the niello firmly adheres to the metal base. The master can only cut off the excess niello that did not fall into the recesses of the drawing. The sheen of light metal contrasts beautifully with the velvet niello of the ornament.

The censer donated to the cathedral by Irina Godunova was so valuable that at the beginning of the 17th century. the patriarch by a special decree allowed to use it only nine times a year - on especially solemn occasions.

No less beautiful and chalice. This vessel, shaped like a goblet, was used during the liturgy for the communion of believers. On the polished crown of its bowl, among the small ornamentation, in round medallions, images of saints made in niello and a liturgical inscription are placed. Below, the surface of the bowl, in contrast to the smooth crown, is covered with large carved ornaments and precious stones.

Russian tsars have been collecting art objects from precious metals and stones for centuries. It was these products that constituted the main wealth of the treasury. Ivan the Terrible was especially successful in this. The size of his "collection" can be judged by a historical fact: in early 1572, fearing an attack by the Crimean Tatars on Moscow, the tsar went to Novgorod and took the treasures of the treasury with him. They were placed on two carts, consisting of 450 sledges.

Items from the royal treasury were constantly used in court ceremonial: at the wedding to the kingdom, marriage, embassy receptions, and the appointment of patriarchs. They were given to foreign monarchs and ambassadors, distinguished boyars and nobles.

The kings were proud of their wealth. Before his death, Ivan the Terrible was carried every day to the treasury to admire his jewels. Once he even invited the English diplomat Jerome Horsey there, showed him the collected gems for a long time and explained the mysterious power contained in them.

In the halls of the Armory, the largest collection of ancient Russian jewelry art, one marvels not only at the beauty of the products and the skill of their creators. The amount of gold and precious stones is amazing. But until the XVIII century. they were not mined in Russia. The main source of precious metals was gold and silver foreign coins - English, German, Arabic, which entered the treasury through trade. Precious stones were brought mainly from the East - from Persia, China, India, Turkey. In 1676, at the direction of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the Russian ambassador in Beijing bought tourmaline of rare beauty and size from a Chinese bogdykhan. At first, the red stone adorned the crown of Peter I, then the crown of Catherine I, and later it was fixed on the crown of Anna Ioannovna. It is this crown that is now on display in the window of the Armory.

In Russia, pearls were very fond of. Large round pearls were brought from the East, and small, uneven ones were mined in lakes in the north of Russia. They were decorated with clothes, salaries of icons and books, royal crowns. According to Pavel of Aleppo, who visited Russia in the middle of the 17th century, a pound of pearls was sewn onto one of the sakkos of Patriarch Nikon. In the royal treasury there were so many "pearls" (as pearls were then called) that the Poles, who captured Moscow at the beginning of the 17th century. and plundered the Kremlin, for entertainment they fired pearls from guns. At this time, many magnificent works of Russian jewelry art were lost. They were plundered, distributed to soldiers instead of salaries. After the "host" of the Poles in Moscow, of the seven royal crowns, only two survived - the "cap of Monomakh" and the "Kazan cap" of Ivan the Terrible.

The last century of ancient Russian jewelers

Despite such an unfavorable beginning, the 17th century as a whole became the pinnacle of the heyday of Russian jewelry art. The products of the masters of this time are especially magnificent and festive. They are multicolored, patterned, elegant. Habitual, earthy forms of decor are intricately combined with fantastic ones.

In the 17th century separate Gold and Silver Chambers were created, where craftsmen - chasers, carvers, enamellers, scanners, diamond makers - were engaged in the production of products from precious metals and stones for the tsar and the patriarch. Craftsmen from all over Russia worked in the Kremlin workshops. There were many invited foreigners - Germans, Italians, Serbs, British. They received a monetary salary corresponding to their experience and skill. One of the highest salaries - 25 rubles. per year - had a denominator Simon Ushakov. Often a group of artisans made one product: a "craftsman" forged a gold or silver vessel, a flagman applied a drawing to it, a chaser, a carver, an enameller decorated it. The tsar monitored the work of the Golden and Silver Chambers, sometimes personally approving the draft of a new product.

In 1664, the wife of the deceased boyar Boris Morozov, a prominent statesman, tutor of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, invested an unusually beautiful chalice in the Kremlin's Chudov Monastery "for the remembrance of the soul" of her husband. The bowl and stem were covered with enamels of bright juicy colors, which go well with the emeralds, rubies, and sapphires that adorned the vessel.
Close to this chalice in style is the golden bowl presented by Patriarch Nikon to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. This is a true masterpiece of enamel art. The walls of the bowl are covered with bright floral ornaments. On the crown there is a carved inscription in ligature, alternating with four large precious stones. At the end of the XVII century. Princess Sophia presented this bowl to her favorite, Prince Vasily Golitsyn. But the gift was destined to return to the treasury: under Peter I, the prince fell into disgrace.

Particularly significant, miraculous icons of famous masters were loved in Russia to decorate with precious salaries, rizas. "Vladimir Mother of God" - one of the most important Orthodox shrines - had not one, but several precious salaries. At least three of them are kept in the Armory alone. The most elegant salary was made in the middle of the 17th century. masters of the Kremlin commissioned by Patriarch Nikon. Its entire upper field is completely covered with multi-colored precious stones and pearls. The crown of Our Lady is adorned with two faceted emeralds, unique in size, weighing 100 carats each.

Applied art of the 17th century, like painting, tends to the realities of the surrounding world. This can be seen even in the design of cult products. In 1678, a large group of craftsmen from the Armory made a bookcase for one of the Kremlin churches by order of the tsar. Having retained the traditional design scheme of the Gospel - in the center "Deesis", and in the corners - four evangelists - the craftsmen supplemented it with numerous everyday details.

Evangelists are depicted in a rich interior: patterned tile floors, elegant speakers, expensive furniture - tables and chairs.

By order of Alexei Mikhailovich in 1672, foreign experts in heraldry specially summoned to Moscow compiled a new coat of arms of Russia. The masters of the Golden Chamber made a plate with heraldic images made in colored enamel. In the center of the commemorative plate is a double-headed eagle under three crowns with an orb and a scepter in its paws. Around" - an inscription in black enamel with a full royal title. Along the edges of the plate are images of the coats of arms of Novgorod, Astrakhan, Tver, Pskov and other Russian cities and lands.

When you walk through the halls of the Armory, you feel a sense of pride for your ancient compatriots - Russian artisans-jewelers who created all this beauty.

 

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