A russian lacquer box handpainted by Gur'eva a graduate of Fedoskino art school about four years ago. She is interested in painting famous painting she sees in the different museums in Russia and throughout the world and also famous historical occurences in the world's existence. This box depicts the "Wedding Feast" a feast after a wedding had occured. This box is really big it is 12.5 X 12 X 5.5 inches and is signed by Gur'eva. Please email us if you have any questions. The original painting, by Konstantin Egorovic Makovsky in 1883. This large painting depicts one of the most important social and political events of old Russia, a wedding uniting two families of the powerful boyar class that dominated Muscovite politics in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The artist has singled out that moment during the wedding feast when the guests toast the bridal couple with the traditional chant of "gor?ko, gor?ko," meaning "bitter, bitter," a reference to the wine, which has supposedly turned bitter. The newlywed couple must kiss to make the wine sweet again. The toast occurs towards the end of the feast when a roasted swan is brought in, the last dish presented before the couple retires.
With A Boyar Wedding Feast, Makovskii developed a stylistic formula that he successfully recycled throughout the rest of his life. His paintings, which became extremely popular with the public, if not always with critics, evoked the romance, color, extravagance, and theatricality that his contemporaries imagined had existed in seventeenth-century boyar life.
