Bast drawing. Russian fine lubok

Popular prints appeared in Rus' in the middle of the 17th century. At first they were called “Fryazhsky pictures”, later “amusing sheets”, and then “common people’s pictures” or “simple people”. And only from the second half of the 19th century they began to be called “Lubki”. Huge contribution Dmitry Rovinsky contributed to the collection of pictures, publishing the collection “Russian Folk Pictures”. This review contains 20 popular prints from this collection, which you can look at endlessly, discovering a lot of interesting, new and interesting things.

Tempora mutantur (times are changing) says Latin proverb. Even in the first half of the 20th century, everything popular was considered unworthy of the attention of intelligent and enlightened people, and scientists themselves considered it humiliating to be interested in, for example, popular prints. In 1824, the famous archaeologist Snegirev, who wrote an article about popular prints and intended to read it at a meeting of the “Society of Lovers of Russian Literature,” was concerned that “some of the members doubt whether it is possible to allow the Society to discuss such a vulgar, commonplace subject.”

Not only that, back in the 1840s Belinsky had to vigorously defend Dahl from aristocrats who condemned the writer for his love for the common people. "A man is a man, and that’s enough, says Belinsky, for people to be interested in him just like any other gentleman. The man is our brother in Christ, and this is enough for us to study his life and his way of life, with a view to improving them. If a man is not learned, not educated, it is not his fault"- wrote Belinsky.

But even at that time there were happy exceptions - individuals who were able to perform real heroic feats despite social taboos. An example of such a feat is Rovinsky’s work “Russian Folk Pictures”.

"Russian folk pictures"- these are three volumes of atlas and five volumes of text. Each text is accompanied by a bright popular print. The first volume of the atlas contains “Fairy tales and funny sheets”, the second - “Historical sheets”, the third - “Spiritual sheets”. The atlas, in order to avoid censorship, was published in only 250 copies. Text volumes - an appendix to the atlas. The first three contain a description of the pictures collected in the atlas. It should be noted that each description is fulfilled in detail in compliance with the spelling of the original, indicating later samples, the dimensions of the picture and the method of engraving were indicated. In total, the book contains about 8,000 pictures.

The fourth volume is valuable material for various references that may be required in the work. The fourth volume of the text "contains notes on the descriptions printed in the first three books, and some additions about the pictures newly acquired by me,- said Rovinsky, -after the first three books were printed" The second half of this volume is an alphabetical index to the entire publication.

The fifth volume is divided into five chapters:
. Chapter 1. Folk pictures carved on wood. Chalcography.
. Chapter 2. Where did our engravers borrow translations (originals) for their pictures. Poshib, or style, of drawing and composition in folk pictures. The coloring of ancient folk pictures was very thorough. Notes on folk pictures in the West and among Eastern peoples, in India, Japan, China and Java. Folk pictures engraved in black style.
. Chapter 3. Selling folk pictures. Their purpose and use. Supervision over the production of folk pictures and their censorship. Censorship of royal portraits.
. Chapter 4. Woman (according to the Bee's views). Marriage.
. Chapter 5. Teaching in the old days.
. Chapter 6. Calendars and almanacs.
. Chapter 7. Easy reading.
. Chapter 8. Legends.
. Chapter 9. Folk entertainment. Drunkenness. Diseases and medicines against them.
. Chapter 10. Music and dance. Theater performances in Russia.
. Chapter 11. Buffoonery and jesters.
. Chapter 12. Jester sheets on foreigners. Caricatures of the French in 1812.
. Chapter 13. People's pilgrimage.
. Chapter 14. Pictures published by order of the government.

Even such a brief table of contents indicates the endless variety of content of the folk picture. Popular picture replaced for the people a newspaper, a magazine, a story, a novel, a cartoon publication - everything that the intelligentsia should have given them, looking at them as one of their smaller brothers.

Folk pictures began to be called popular prints at the beginning of the 20th century. Scientists interpret this name differently. Some believe that this is a derivative of the word “lubochny”, on which the first pictures were cut, others talk about popular print boxes in which pictures were placed for sale, and, according to Rovinsky, the word lubok referred to everything that was made fragile, poorly, on a quick fix.

In the West, engraved pictures appeared back in the 12th century, and they were the cheapest way to convey to the people images of saints, the Bible and the Apocalypse in pictures. In Russia, engraving began at the same time as book printing: already the first printed book, “The Apostle,” which was published in 1564, was accompanied by the first engraving - an image of the Evangelist Luke on wood. Popular prints began to appear as separate sheets only in the 17th century. This initiative was supported by Peter I himself, who ordered craftsmen from abroad and paid them salaries from the treasury. This practice stopped only in 1827.

In the second half of the 18th century, silversmiths in the village of Izmailovo were engaged in cutting boards for folk pictures. They cut pictures on wood or copper, and the pictures were printed at Akhmetyev’s figure factory in Moscow, near Spas in Spassky. Printers also worked in the Kovrov district, in the Vladimir province, in the village of Bogdanovka, as well as in the Pochaev, Kiev and Solovetsky monasteries.

Treating Napoleon in Russia.

You could buy popular prints in Moscow in the gaps near Nikolskaya Street, near the Grebnevskaya Church Mother of God, at the Trinity of Leaves, at the Novgorod courtyard and mainly at the Spassky Gate. Quite often they were bought instead of wooden images, and also for teaching children.

At first, the pictures were not subject to censorship, but since 1674, decrees appeared banning such pictures. But folk pictures were still published and sold, not wanting to know about any prohibitions or decrees. In 1850, according to the Highest Order, “the Moscow Governor-General Count Zakrevsky ordered the manufacturers of folk pictures to destroy all boards that did not have censorship permission, and henceforth not to print them without it. In fulfillment of this order, the factory owners collected all the old copper boards, chopped them into pieces with the participation of the police and sold them for scrap to the bell row. This is how uncensored folk jokes ceased to exist.”

How often do you find such a word as lubok nowadays? No, quite rarely. This is understandable, because the word is considered obsolete and not everyone even knows its meaning. So what are lubki? We'll tell you below.

They were popular in Germany and France. Factories for their production were located in many countries and cities. The arrival of a peddler or a visit to a fair was very happy events for the whole family. After all, everyone could find an interesting product for themselves. For children - fairy tales, for women - useful tips, for men - popular prints with images of history and battles. Thanks to such boards, people began to learn more about the world and their country. After all, before they were even more limited in this.

Lubok: meaning of the word, meaning

So, lubok (in the most common meaning of the word) is a type of folk graphics, a picture, a drawing with the addition of inscriptions. A distinctive feature is the simplicity of the images depicted. This type of folk art is first made using the technique of copper engraving or woodcut and then painted by hand. They depicted mainly heroes of fairy tales and epics.

This name is derived from special sawing boards. They were called lube (hence the word "deck"). Before images were made on boards, they were still used for similar purposes. For example, drawings were made on them, plans were written. At first the pictures were called “fryazhskie sheets”, and then simply lubok.
The meaning of the word lubkov in explanatory dictionary ambiguous. For example, a splint is also a plate of a fresh layer of tree bark. That is, the inner part of the bark, mainly of young deciduous trees. Small wooden boxes and boxes are often made from it.

Another purpose of splints (the meaning of the word in the dictionary confirms this information) is to help with a fracture. This name was given to the splint for the speedy fusion of bone tissue. This is also the name given to baskets and boxes made from this material.

Often lubok also means a linden board, on which the engraving of the image required for printing was subsequently made. But much less often the word has such a meaning as “literature” (popular literature). Such works were distinguished by extreme simplicity, one might say - primitiveness. They were such not only in content, but also in design.

Lubok was not always used for images or making boxes. The upper part of the roof in the villages was also covered with dry splint. But in order for it to be suitable for this, the popular print had to undergo certain training. First, it was dried in the forest all summer, then cleared of the thick outer crust, steamed, and then dried again under pressure. And only then were they taken out of the forest. Be sure to be in a straightened position.

Synonyms for lubok

So, having studied the meaning of the word lubok, the 4th grade of school involves becoming familiar with the synonyms of the word. One of the main ones is bast. The bast is also the inner part of the bark of a young tree. The subcortex is still weak. How the material is used in many products.

The next common (but less known) synonym is agitlubok. Agitlubok is the same popular print, but with a propaganda slant. His images are more intelligible and capacious, and they call for something.

Another little-known synonym is joker. A joker is not just a picture, but a popular print with a funny image, with some kind of satire or caricature.

In more scientific terms, lubok is simply called bast. If we take the meaning not as a bark, but as an image, then it is often called in the usual way - a picture.

History of popular prints as graphics

Luboks originated in China. Until the eighth century, they were completely done by hand, and only starting from there they began to be made using the engraving technique. Then lubok appeared in Europe. Here it initially began to be performed using the woodcut technique. Woodcut is an engraving made on wood. Later copper engravings and lithography began to be added. Lithography is the imprint of an image from something flat onto paper. Immediately, lubok began to be used not only as an ordinary image, but also as a propaganda image. This was facilitated by their simplicity and intelligibility.

There were also popular prints with obscene content. They were popular mainly in Europe, but also found their way to Russia. Mainly from France and Germany.

Ubiquitous

Let's consider what lubok are in the understanding of the inhabitants of the East. Its colors were much brighter. And at the end of the 19th century he began to be drawn in the form of comics.

IN XVI-XVII centuries and in Russia certain “Fryag sheets” or “German amusing sheets” appeared. Here the images were made on special boards called lube. Not only boards with images began to appear, but also boxes and boxes painted using this technique. There were also paper splints.

Lubki became quite widespread in Russia, as they were inexpensive and looked beautiful. Such sheets served both social and entertainment roles. It was from them that all the modern and well-known posters, comics, and calendars came from.

Subjects

At first, the subjects for popular prints were handwritten legends, some oral stories, fairy tales or epics. Afterwards, stories began to be taken from foreign works and almanacs. They were taken from the plots of such writers as Goethe or Radcliffe.

TO end of the 19th century centuries, images on the theme of the Holy Scriptures or portraits of famous and statesmen became more popular. They began to invest more in the images. Even if this was not propaganda, it still had some kind of instructive character. Often these were simple illustrations for fairy tales or images of cities.

Types of splints

The meaning of the word lubok is multifaceted and varied, and its types can be listed for a very long time:

• Spiritual (religious) - images similar to icons. They could also depict parables or some kind of moral teaching.
• Fairytale - ordinary illustrations for various fairy tales. Images of heroes and wizards.
• Holidays - oddly enough, on popular prints of this type saints were depicted, and not various festivals.
• Philosophical - similar to spiritual, but without a religious character.
• Historical - subjects taken from chronicles. Battles were also depicted, simply historical events, cities. Sometimes even topographic maps.
• Legal - images of court.
• Cavalry - on such popular prints riders on horses were depicted.
• Joker - caricatures, satirical images.

Production and production of splints

The production of popular prints was carried out by engravers. They were also called “Fryag carving masters.” Among such people there was a term “sign”. This is the name given to the process of applying and painting a picture. Therefore, responsibilities were usually divided. That is, first the flag bearer applied the drawing himself, and then the engraver cut it out onto necessary material. A term such as “translation” also appeared. This was the name for copying popular prints.

The manufacturing process was as follows: first, the drawing itself was applied to the board with a pencil, then the places that were supposed to be white were deepened with a knife. The board was lubricated and then pressed onto the paper with a press. As a result, the black outlines of this image remained on it.

Next, the splints were painted. Very often this was done by women with children. The price of the popular print depended, of course, on the paper on which it was made. What are popular prints on the cheapest and grayest paper? They were called “simple people.”

Over time, production technology has improved and improved. Not just engravers, but engraving artists began to appear. They began to work on copper plates using a variety of cutters. This helped add a lot of small parts and details.

Production in Russia

In Russia, the first factory was founded in Moscow. Many machines worked on it, and splints were produced in huge quantities. The price varied (from half a kopeck to twenty-five kopecks).

Thanks to the production of popular prints, new professions also appeared. For example, "flower workers". Such people painted very a large number of lubkov for short time, at the same time they received quite good money. Industrialization was not long in coming, and the profession was short-lived as lithographic machines began to appear.

Popularity of popular prints

The first important reason for this universal love is that popular prints carried the functions of books and textbooks that were not available to an ordinary person and were very expensive. They not only taught, but also served fiction, since epics, fairy tales, and oral legends were often retold on them.

In addition, lubok also served as sources of information, like newspapers or leaflets. On such boards one could often find useful advice on medicine, or simply have fun with the joke depicted on them.

Many popular prints were made really skillfully and very beautifully. Therefore, they were often used as decoration in their homes.

Censorship

Of course, we should not forget that censorship in our country has always been closely connected with creativity and literature. Before the splint was made, the image itself had to be checked by a censor. If the image did not pass it, then the reason was always indicated so that the manufacturer could correct it and try his luck again. Only after complete approval (not only of the drawing, but also of the finished print) did the manufacturer receive required document, authorizing the release of the circulation. And even then, it should not exceed the specified amount. The release of bast images was necessarily accompanied by documents that were kept by the publisher. For each new release circulation, new documents were also prepared.

Most often, censors corrected spelling errors. But it also happened that the images did not correspond to the Russian mentality or traditions. They violated the rules of religion.

In the modern age

We can say with confidence that the lubok style has not been forgotten to this day. Many people know what lubok are. They are used in illustration and design. Many posters and calendars are made in this style even now. There are many master classes on this topic. You can also learn the lubok technique in art schools and craft workshops.

The traditions of antiquity are never forgotten, including lexical meaning words popular print Although they have been improved in a modern way.

Lubok is, in fact, an engraving printed from a wooden base, and later from a metal one. The origin of lubok comes from China, from where it later reached Europe. Of course, in each country this type of art had its own name and characteristics.

Where the name “lubok” came from is not known for certain. There are many versions: they remember the linden (bast) boards on which the first pictures were cut out, and the bast boxes of traders who sold bast prints at fairs, and Muscovites are completely sure that the bast prints came from the Lubyanka. Nevertheless, lubok is the most popular art of the Russian people from the 17th to the 20th centuries.

At first black and white and “elite”, which served to decorate the royal and boyar chambers, later Russian lubok became widespread and colored. The black and white print was painted by women, and they used hare's feet instead of brushes. These “coloring books” were often clumsy and sloppy, but among them there are also real small masterpieces with harmoniously selected colors.

The subjects of the popular print were distinguished by a rich variety: this and folk epic, and fairy tales, and moral teachings, these are “notes” on history, law and medicine, these are religious topics - and everything is well seasoned with humorous captions telling about the morals of their time. For the people, these were both news sheets and educational sources. Lubki often traveled vast distances, passing from hand to hand.

Popular prints were printed on cheap paper by self-taught people, and they were wildly popular among the peasants. Although the highest nobility did not recognize the popular print as an art and no one was specifically concerned with preserving these drawings for posterity, moreover, the authorities and the church elite tried every now and then to ban it. This popular print is now considered a real treasure, preserving the history of Rus' and folk humor, nurturing true caricature talents and becoming the source of book illustration. And, of course, the popular print is the direct ancestor of modern comics.

– Russian folk pictures self made, representing a rich and expressive layer of history, culture and art Russian state. These once popular images, characterized by their simplicity and accessibility, speak eloquently about life and worldview ordinary people of the past.

Lubok appeared in Rus' in the 16th century. Scientists are still arguing about the origin of the name “lubok”. Some say that it comes from the word “lub,” the old Russian name for the linden tree, on the boards of which pictures were carved. Others claim that it is connected with the bast boxes in which they were carried. And Moscow legend says that it all started with Lubyanka, the street where the masters of popular print art lived.

The drawings were drawn on specially sawn boards and were called “Fryazh sheets”, then “amusing sheets” and “simple sheets”. Initially, they were dominated by religious subjects, after which lubok became a convenient and inexpensive way to disseminate information, stories of a moral and instructive nature, and propaganda. As time passed, the splint technique changed. In the 19th century, wood gave way to metal and the work became more elegant. The subjects were the lives of saints, epics and songs, fables and portraits imperial family, scenes from the life of peasants, fairy tales and novels, knowledge about distant countries and historical events.

Expensive popular prints decorated the royal chambers and boyars' towers. Ordinary people bought inexpensive (priced from half a penny) black and white popular prints at fairs, preferring comic drawings. Many representatives high society they refused to call the creations of self-taught folk artists art. But these days Russian folk print adorns the collections of major museums.

For New York public library the most “fruitful” period for collecting large and rare books with engravings from of Eastern Europe fell in the decade from 1925 to 1935. Then the Soviet government nationalized and sold abroad the contents of the imperial palace libraries. The New York Public Library alone contains items from nine imperial libraries, as well as publications that belonged to 30 members of the imperial family. The library purchased them on the spot (and at a good price), sending them out for replenishment book funds Yarmolinsky Abraham Tsalevich (1890-1975), curator of the Slavic department from 1917 to 1955. He came to Soviet Russia in 1923, and in 1924 returned to the States. Valuable exhibits from the collection of the imperial palace libraries were also acquired by the US Library of Congress and Harvard University. Second-hand book dealer Hans Kraus wrote:

« These [Russian palace] collections, so little known and highly valued in the West, contained incredible materials. Such rare Eastern European works have never been seen in this hemisphere. Book collectors diligently served the kings and queens. In addition to purchased books, their collections were replenished with numerous publications received as gifts, printed on special paper, with luxurious bindings, in silk or morocco, and with the imperial coat of arms.("The Saga of the Rare Book", 1978, pp. 90-91.)

A significant part of the library's lubok collection also includes works from the collection of the outstanding cultural figure of the Russian Empire, Dmitry Aleksandrovich Rovinsky (1824-1895). He was an extremely multifaceted personality. Privy Councilor, lawyer and judicial reformer loved art with all his heart. Through his own efforts, he bought materials and published illustrated books, including “Russian folk paintings", "Russian engravers and their works", "Dictionary of Russian engraved portraits", "Reliable portraits of Moscow sovereigns", "Materials for Russian iconography" and other collections. Having spent most of his fortune, Rovinsky collected one of the best private collections of Russian and Western European graphics. After his death, the exhibits were dispersed to various museums, libraries and other cultural institutions Russia. In the West, a remarkable series of volumes has been preserved, which he published often in extremely small editions.

On the website of the New York Public Library, where the album is published "Russian folk popular print of the 1860s-1870s", almost 200 images are presented, we have selected 87 of the most interesting.

Accident, 1867.

New song, 1870.

The industrious bear, 1868.

Sea sirens, 1866.

How merchant women walk, 1870.

This is how Yaroslavl residents work in Moscow and have fun with beauties, 1870.

Funeral of a cat by rats and mice, 1866.

The Slanderer and the Snake, 1869.

The Little Humpbacked Horse, 1870.

Flew out into the chimney, 1872.

In Maryina Roshcha, 1868.

There is no place in St. Petersburg, he goes to the village to deceive fools, 1870.

The most remarkable of the giants, walkers and freaks, Serpo Didlo, 1866.

Jewish karchma, 1868.

Big nose dispute with severe frost, 1870.

Kashchei and his desire, 1867.

Napraslina, 1867.

A tall tale in the faces, 1868.

The Newest Card Oracle, 1868.

Reforging the old into the young, 1871.

Brave warrior Anika, 1868.

Strong and brave warrior Anika, 1865.

The strong and brave Bova Korolevich defeats the hero Polkan, 1867.

Strong and glorious brave warrior Anika, 1868.

The glorious strong and brave Bova Korolevich defeats the hero Polkan, 1868.

Glorious strong and brave knight Eruslan Lazarevich, 1868.

Strong brave hero Ilya Muromets, 1868.

The strong mighty Bova Korolevich defeats the hero Polkan, Eruslan Lazarevich defeats the three-headed serpent, 1867.

Strong, glorious, brave hero Ivan Tsarevich 1868.

Peasant and Death, 1868.

Predatory wolves attacking travelers, 1868.

How a lioness raised the king's son, 1868.

Reproach of the headman with the mayor, 1870.

Truth and lies, 1871.

Crinoline, 1866.

Smoking a cigar, 1867.

Fishing on a lake, 1870.

The Massacre of Mamayev on the Kulikovo Field in 1380, 1868.

Husband amusing his wife, 1868.

Briber-usurer, 1870.

British attack on Solovetsky Monastery, 1868.

Crossing of Russian troops across the Danube on March 11, 1854, 1869.

Song "Why are you sleeping little man", 1871.

A song about how a wife drank beer and forgot to feed her husband, 1866.

Song "Return to the homeland of a wasted innkeeper from St. Petersburg", 1870.

Presentation of bread and salt to the sovereign in Moscow, 1865.

Near Odessa April 10, 1854, 1864.

Thrifty Housekeeping, 1870.

Raek, 1970.

Romance, 1867.

Russian peasant wedding, 1865.

Shamil Iman of Chechnya and Dagestan, 1870.

The tale of how a craftsman fooled the devil, 1867.

Miser, 1866.

Stages of the Human Age, 1866.

Baiting a snake and a tiger, 1868.

Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible, 1868.

Come on, Mishenka Ivanovich, 1867.

Nonsense for people's amusement. How animals and birds bury a hunter, 1865.

Mountain landscape, 1870.

Charlemagne and the snake, 1870.

The Turkish troika hurries to report to the Turkish Sultan about the occupation of Kars by Russian troops, 1870

Life for Tsar Ivan Susanin, 1866.

Daniel the long giant, 1868.

Katenka, 1867.

A woman beat a man, 1867.

A woman beat a man, 1867.

Our fellow is flattered by money, 1867.

Song "I'm a good gypsy...", 1867.

Song "Girls walked along the shore...", 1867.

Song "A man plowed the arable land", 1867.

Little Russian song, 1868.

For Vladimir cranberries, peddler balyasnik, 1867.

Farewell, 1867.

Dowry painting, 1867.

Russian song "Don't scold me, dear...", 1867.

RUSSIAN SLEEVE

The 18th century is an era of prosperity amazing art, Russian national school of popular prints.

There is a legend that the name of Lubyanka Street in Moscow, which is a continuation of Sretenka Street, comes from popular print sheets, which were manufactured and sold here. Indeed, on Sretenka there are two amazing architectural monument related to the history of Russian popular print. This is, first of all, the Church of the Dormition in Pechatniki. The church stood in the center of the working people's settlement of the Printing House. It is assumed that the first manufacturers of popular prints were professional printers who installed simple printing presses in their homes. Another church, “Trinity in Leaves,” grew up nearby. It was near the fence of this church that Moscow printers sold the first popular prints.

In this area Belokamennaya was developed at the beginning of the 18th century. a unique style of Russian popular print.

Until 1727, most popular prints were printed from wooden boards. Only after the death of Catherine I, when the St. Petersburg printing house ceased to exist and the Moscow printing house sharply reduced output, copper boards from the closed printing houses began to be used for the production of popular prints; They found, by producing popular prints, a source of food and printers who were left without work.

Lubok is one of the most interesting sources for studying history Russia XVIII centuries. The very first sheet in the style of popular print early XVIII V. gives an idea of ​​the state of morals in Russian society at the beginning of Peter's reforms. He depicts a Russian merchant, who is already dressed in a foreign dress and whose beard is being prepared by the barber. As you know, by decree of the tsar in 1705, everyone, except priests, was ordered to wear a dress in a foreign fashion and everyone was ordered to shave their beards. So researchers, in particular Yuri Ovsyannikov, assume (and not without reason) that this popular print sheet was ordered directly... by Peter I himself.

Out of a desire to “please” the reformer Tsar, the authors of popular prints from the era of Peter the Great’s reforms sometimes created quite funny compositions. Here, for example, is a popular print entitled “The Glorious Battle of Tsar Alexander the Great with Tsar Porus,” on which the features of Peter I himself are easily recognizable in the face of Alexander - the engraver did not even forget to carefully cut out the tsar’s favorite cuffs and neckerchief. The same thing happens with the sheet “Ilya Muromets and the Nightingale the Robber.” Both heroes of the work wear little French caftans, but curled wigs and boots, which, of course, makes a connoisseur of the ethnography of the era and a lover of Russian epics smile, so Ilya Muromets also has the appearance of Peter I.

However, Rus' has never become depleted of oppositionists. There were opponents to both Peter I and his reforms, and anti-Petrine sentiments were especially widespread among the Old Believers. It is they who are credited with the authorship of several popular prints that negatively represent, albeit in an allegorical form, the reforms of Peter I. Particularly popular at that time were sheets with the image of a cat, in which Peter’s opponents used to mock the sovereign’s shaved “cat-like” mustache.

The popular print “How Mice Buried a Cat” managed to attract the widest public attention. It was possible to fully reveal the secret of this popular print composition amazing person- to an expert on Russian culture, who lived, however, already in the next century - Dmitry Aleksandrovich Rovinsky. Being a highly educated lawyer, a judicial figure, an outstanding art historian, an honorary member of two Russian academies- sciences and arts, he is also remembered as a Moscow provincial prosecutor, and as the greatest expert on the history of painting of his time. D. Rovinsky was the author of a study of work on the history of Russian icon painting, outstanding in volume and depth, and the author of subtle studies of Russian popular prints. At his own expense, he published 19 of his works, including “History of Russian Schools of Icon Painting”, “Detailed Dictionary of Russian Engraved Portraits”, “Materials for Russian Iconography”. He created a nine-volume essay on popular prints - “Russian Folk Pictures”. He worked on materials for this work in the libraries of London, Paris, Berlin, Prague and came to the conclusion that the popular print “How mice buried a cat” has no analogues and that it is pure Russian work. Having carried out a thorough analysis of the explanatory inscriptions of the popular print, comparing them with historical facts, Rovinsky came to another unexpected conclusion. More precisely, to unexpected arguments, because from the very beginning he was sure: the Cat is Peter.

Let's get acquainted with his arguments, because they are interesting from the point of view of considering the popular print as a source for studying the history of his time:

1. The cat is buried on a funeral sleigh with eight horses. And Peter I was buried like this.

2. The cat is buried with music. Bands at funerals were first allowed in 1698. An orchestra played at Peter's funeral.

3. And the title of the Cat parodies the royal title.

4. The cat is being transported on a Chukhon (Finnish, Ingrian) sleigh, his wife’s name is Chukhonka-Malanya. Peter's first wife, Catherine I, was popularly called Chukhonka.

5. On the lubok, the funeral procession of the Cat is accompanied by mice, representing different lands. Okhtenskaya, Olonetskaya, Karelian lands were conquered by Peter during the war with the Swedes. There is also a hint of the Shlisselburg fortress conquered by Peter - the mouse Shushera from Shlyushin, that’s exactly how Shlyushin was popularly called Shlisselburg. As we see, the tsar-reformer was not liked, and every bast in a line, even conquests useful for Russia, were reflected ironically in the popular print.

6. One mouse on the lubok smokes a pipe. Free sale of tobacco was allowed by Peter I.

7. One mouse rides in the procession on a one-wheeler. Such carts appeared in Russia only under Peter, who loved to ride them.

The scientist's conclusion: The cat is Peter I.

The scientist also answered the fundamental question: who produced the anti-tsarist popular print, or rather, with whose blessing and with whose support the seditious popular print was born. The answer is clear: with the support of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose relationship with the sovereign did not work out. Confirmation of this is another popular print from the first quarter of the 18th century. - “From Christ the fall of the Antichrist.” The face of the defeated devil in the popular print is an exact copy of the portrait of Peter I.

Thus, popular among the people, lubok became for the church, which lost its independence in 1700, a convenient means of settling scores in the political struggle with the tsar.

Russian popular print is an interesting occasion for art criticism and historical associations, for reflection and observation of the mutual influences and interactions of Russian art and the art of European countries.

Here interesting example. In the second half of the 18th century. popular prints, redrawings from German and French folk pictures, began to spread in Russia. Yuri Ovsyannikov describes one of the popular prints created based on the motif of “Gargantua and Pantagruel.” He accurately reproduced the illustration for the immortal story of these two heroes of Rabelais’s novels, but under a pure Russian title: “The glorious one ate and the cheerful one drank.” And during the reign of Elizaveta Petrovna, the popular print “Singing and Dancing” was printed, which depicted open coats engraved by the great engraver Callot. It is assumed that Italian engravings could have reached Russia through foreign singers and comedians.

30-40 years XVIII century - the heyday of entertaining popular prints, a special place among which is occupied by popular prints depicting folk festivals and festivities. These popular prints are an interesting source for studying the life and customs of Russians in XVIII century. Thus, the popular print “A Bear and a Goat Are Cooling Off” accurately reproduced the favorite entertainment of the era - the “dancing” of a bear and a goat to the primitive music of guides at fairs and celebrations.

Popular prints depicting fist fights, also an example of a favorite Russian pastime, were also very popular. Not a single “Maslenitsa” was complete without fights or “wall-to-wall”. A popular print specially dedicated to the meeting and farewell of Maslenitsa has been preserved: on one sheet there are 27 pictures depicting scenes of city celebrations with the exact designation of Moscow districts. This popular print is a valuable source for studying the culture of everyday life in Moscow in the 18th century.

During the reign of Anna Ioannovna and Elizaveta Petrovna, popular prints with images of jesters and buffoons came into fashion. It is known that in the second half of the century it was fashionable to keep fools and fools, dwarfs and freaks at court (probably many readers remember Lazhechnikov’s “Ice House”). Following the example of empresses, individual rich landowners also started dwarfs and fools.

They were in fashion in the 18th century. and popular prints, depicting with great ethnographic and iconographic accuracy the life of the nobility of that time. Lubki brought it to us appearance ladies' hairstyles, hoops, robrons, "flies" glued to their faces.

Satires on court fashion also appeared, which is why, for example, “The Dapper and the Sold Dapper” was such a popular popular print in Moscow in the middle of the century.

However, most of the popular prints of this era were created in accordance with the needs of the urban population - merchants, townspeople, clerks and very accurately reflected their life. Lubki brought to us the interiors of taverns, interior decoration the home of a wealthy citizen, clothes of that time, table settings... The popular print would become a peasant only in the 19th century.

The pictures on popular prints also convey to us information about international cultural relations: a popular poster announcing the arrival of a troupe of English comedians to Russia has survived to this day.

Popular prints also responded vividly to war stories. In the summer of 1759, after the victory of Russian troops over the regiments of Frederick of Prussia, a popular print picture “Russian Cossack beats Prussian dragoons” appeared, as well as separate popular print sheets depicting Russian grenadiers.

However, the lubok contained not only historical and ethnographic information, but also fulfilled a unique literary and cultural mission. At the end of the 60s and beginning of the 70s. XVIII century Lubok, and primarily in Moscow, turns to the work of the popular poet, playwright, and fabulist A.P. Sumarokov in those years. The Moscow publisher of popular print sheets Akhmetyev uses texts specially written by the poet in the rhythm of the raeshnik as signatures for popular prints. In total, researchers know of 13 pictures with texts by Sumarokov, who used great love among the people. In the 18th century this was the only example of the use of texts by a professional writer in the production of popular prints. In the 19th century popular print publishers will already turn to the works of Krylov, Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov. But that will come later. In the meantime, Sumarokov was the first. Later, fairy tales began to be printed on one sheet of paper; such a sheet could be cut and folded into a book. And these books played in the 18th century. important role in the history of Russian culture. In fact, these were the first cheap popular publications, published in mass circulation, with secular content. In Russian state library A copy of the 1750 edition is kept in Moscow. This is the “Biography of the glorious fabulist Aesop.” Interesting information S. A. Klepikov talks about this kind of publication in his study “Russian engraved books of the 17th–18th centuries.”

Popular books include primers, calendars, fortune telling books, parables, lives of saints, which are also important integral part book Russian XVIII culture V.

And lastly, the largest monasteries in Russia published popular prints depicting their churches and cathedrals - a most valuable source for studying the history of Orthodox Russian architecture.

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