RUSSIAN
BEAUTY
What
is a typical old Russian conception of woman's beauty? The ideal of
a beautiful woman was considered to be a tall, strong and stately
woman with red cheeks, blue eyes and blonde hair. Such women were
well-represented by the renowned Russian painter, Boris Mikhailovich
Kustodiev. Such woman's beauty was also taken as a starting point
for original matryoshka making.
In
provincial Russia before the revolution the name Matryona or Matriyosha
was a very popular female name. It was derived from the Latin root
'mater' which means 'mother'. This name was associated with the image
of a mother of a big family who was very healthy and had a portly
figure. Subsequently, it became a symbolic name and was used specially
to describe brightly painted wooden dolls made in such a way that
they could be taken apart to reveal smaller dolls fitting inside on
another.
The
first nesting dolls of Sergiev Posad portrayed this special beauty:
young girls dressed in Russian sarafans carrying baskets, scythes,
bunches of flowers or dressed in winter short fur coats and scarves.
The
nesting doll before you is a great example of Russian beauty reflected
in a matryoshka doll.
