Lubok drawing style. Russian popular prints. Works of the Moscow Center

10.07.2019

Hello!

This is an article from the "Drawing Lubok" series. Today, as promised - a hen and a cockerel in the popular style.

These are the first signs, then there will be cooler popular prints. I love it very much, I draw all the time and I'm already very sharpened. And why am I so advocating that you also learn this folk style, but precisely because: I have always been for the leading role of realism in teaching children the fine arts. But you can’t get away from stylization, just recklessly denying all its types is unreasonable.

So the lubok style just represents a wonderful combination of stylization, realism, humor, and all this is in folk primordial traditions, and not foreign cartoon trends. Patriotic education, gentlemen! Let's teach children to love the folk art of their homeland. For example, splint.

Also why am I going to introduce you to popular prints - and the specifics of my topic is this: the development of hands and an eye. Hatching in this case is irreplaceable. And the popular style is the most "hatching" possible.

On sale, of course, there are children's coloring books with popular prints. Wonderful. Coloring pages have their uses too. But those popular prints that I will teach you, I will still call on you to draw by yourself - the benefits will be incomparably greater.

I’ll end the motivational introduction here, and let’s get down to business.

Today the hen and cockerel, as I promised. We will copy the chicken from a truly old popular print, and then we will compose the cockerel ourselves.

Let's take a square sheet of paper (I, as always, work on wrapping paper - I like the grainy texture and beige color (who cares, but the snowy whiteness of the drawing paper seems cold to me and does not warm the soul).

First a pencil sketch - now the composition is clear.

In the center of the sheet, we outline the body - almost horizontally. The neck is forward and up, the head is quite large: the ancient master depicted a very brainy chicken. Bend the legs correctly. Note - they are relatively small - the chicken is not a broiler.

We denote the wing and tail - an unequal panicle of feathers. So we got to the hatching. We designate feathers and other details.

The figure of the chicken is ready, let's take care of the terrain. Please note that in popular prints, the earth is usually depicted conditionally, as several wavy lines with a characteristic oblique shading at the bottom.

We draw some flowers. Again, note that the flowers are conditional and only a few types are used in popular prints. The greenery of the lubok master was inserted to decorate and balance the composition.

The chicken was drawn. Hey, well done!

But this, as they say in fairy tales, was not a service, but a service.

And now, let's warm up and really get down to business: let's draw a rooster.

Moreover, in order to develop not only the hands, but also the eye, we will turn the figure of the rooster in the opposite direction.

The body was outlined, the head, the tail ... maybe, for the sake of interest, we will raise the wings so that the rooster flaps them? ... No, it does not look. The idea with the wings up is not worth it (but the idea itself is good to diversify the images, you just have to look at what comes out). Okay, the old-fashioned way, fold the wings on the back.

Now strong legs and head details - comb, eye, silk beard...

Let's introduce a characteristic lubok shading:

A popular rooster was drawn, a characteristic environment was brought.

Now one more touch for popular prints: I already told you that one of the features of popular prints is the text in the picture. We will choose the font - stylized as Old Slavonic Cyrillic. I note that marking up text and making inscriptions is also one of the most effective ways to develop an eye and font work, we will still deal with you a lot and with different approaches.

Behind the conversations, the inscription has already been made. Now let's move the frame and add flowers to the empty places. Well, here are our two trial prints: a cockerel and a hen. Now, in the photo editor, I’ll bring a little yellowness to the cockerel (antique): wow! The beauty! The most that neither is a lubok of the 17th century.

Popular prints were copied and composed by Marina Novikova together with you.

Did you like to draw luboks?

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Russian lubok

Editorial
The album reproduces a small part of the reproduction from Russian folk pictures kept in museums and libraries of the country (engraving room of the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A. S. Pushkin, State Historical Museum, department of prints of the State Public Library named after M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and etc.) Some sheets of popular prints are published for the first time. The compiler of the album expresses his gratitude to all the employees of the above institutions for their participation and assistance in the selection of popular prints.

In 1766, the professor of poetry and eloquence, academician Yakov Shtelin, passing through the Spassky Gates of the Moscow Kremlin, became interested in the colorful amusing sheets hung for sale, bought a dozen and a half pictures for the sake of "curiosity" and took them with him to St. Petersburg. Subsequently, the popular prints acquired by him entered the "ancient storage" of the historian M.P. Pogodin, and then to the funds of the St. Petersburg Public Library.

Having lain for almost two centuries in the folders of the library, these painted sheets were perfectly preserved and at the exhibition of Russian popular prints organized in Moscow by the Union of Artists of the USSR in 1958, they delighted the eye with their original brightness of colors.

In those early years, folk pictures were widespread in peasant and petty-bourgeois life, making up a necessary accessory for a peasant hut, inn and postal station.

Ofeni-peddlers in their bast boxes distributed popular prints everywhere, to the most remote village corners.

Pushkin, describing the situation of the post station, does not forget to mention folk pictures nailed to the walls with carnations: “Burial of a cat, dispute of a red nose with severe frost, and the like ...” (“Notes of a Young Man”). And at the commandant of the Belogorsk fortress, Captain Mironov, on the wall next to the officer's diploma, "lubok pictures were displayed representing the capture of Kustrin and Ochakov, as well as the choice of a bride and the burial of a cat" ("The Captain's Daughter").

The popularity of folk pictures, their cheapness, their ubiquitous distribution were the reason that serious people did not pay attention to them. It never occurred to anyone that these pictures were of some value or interest, that they could serve as an object of collection, storage, and study.

It is easy to imagine how short-lived the existence of the popular print was in the conditions of peasant life, how many of them died for us irrevocably, how incomplete the collections of Russian folk pictures that have survived to this day, especially prints of the 17th - 18th centuries. Folk pictures for a long time were almost the only spiritual food of the Russian working people, an encyclopedia of a wide variety of knowledge. In the lubok, which was certainly accompanied by an edifying or joking text, folk wisdom and ingenuity, the attitude of the people to various historical events, the customs and life of that time, crafty humor and simple-hearted laughter, and sometimes political satire, deeply hidden from the watchful eye of the authorities, appeared.

D. A. Rovinsky notes that the captions under the pictures often retain the features of strongly salted folk vernacular: “the texts of almost all old pictures are seasoned and salted with pasta sayings and additions, you will sometimes meet them where you don’t expect at all, as, for example: in a register about ladies, in the burial of a cat by mice, in a portrait of the cat himself, and innumerable other sheets. In most cases, these are nothing more than jokes and sayings with which the text of folk pictures is seasoned, just like the text of folk epics, in order to excite more attention from the listener. There is nothing in these jokes that could offend people's morality: they only excite good-natured and healthy laughter in the viewer ... "

The theme of folk pictures is truly encyclopedic: it covers religious and moral topics, folk epos and fairy tales, themes of cosmography and geography, historical, medical. Satiric, amusing sheets were widespread, there were even political pamphlets.

Of course, under the conditions of the police regime, which severely punished the manifestation of any opposition sentiments, political satire could manifest itself only in deeply encrypted forms. Indeed, the sting of the political pamphlet in folk pictures was often so cleverly hidden under harmless plots that the tsarist censorship did not always detect reprehensible content in them. Only much later were the satirical allusions in these sheets unraveled and explained in the studies of specialists in Russian folk pictures.

Such, for example, is the famous lubok “Mice bury a cat”, which is a satire on Emperor Peter I. In this picture, the funeral procession is located in several tiers. A dead cat with a hilarious face lies in a mourning wagon with its paws tied. Above each mouse that accompanies the deceased is a serial number, under which its role in the procession is indicated in the explanatory text.

Incidentally, the “Cat of Kazan”, according to scientists, is also considered a caricature of Peter the Great. Tsar Peter carried out his reforms with drastic and cruel measures. Many of his innovations, such as, for example, the forced shaving of beards or the persecution of the national costume, were unpopular and caused muffled murmurs and protests among the people, especially among the numerous adherents of the religious sect of the Old Believers, who considered Peter I the incarnation of the Antichrist, predicted by the Apocalypse of John the Theologian. It is believed that the author of this popular print was from among sectarians, and the mice rejoicing over a dead cat expressed the feelings of this popular opposition. Many years later, when the political meaning of the picture had already been forgotten, the funny theme of the cat's burial has not lost its appeal. This sheet enjoyed the greatest popularity and for more than a hundred years was reprinted an infinite number of times in many versions. The theme of the burial of the cat also moved to other areas of folk art. So, at the exhibition of ancient popular prints, which took place in Moscow in 1958, a wooden toy appeared, reproducing all 67 characters of this curious funeral procession.

No less widely known are popular prints of judicial red tape, such as "Shemyakin Court", "The Tale of Ersh Ershovich, son of Shchetinnikov." A small satirical picture of a crotchety clerk who even tried to get a bribe from death is curious.

Of the topics of everyday satire, sunsets were in use in popular prints, ridiculing the excesses of fashion, drunkenness, extravagance, marriage of convenience, adultery, claims to aristocracy.

From these first satirical sheets, our Russian caricature traces its pedigree. At times, as was the case during the Patriotic War of 1812 and during the first imperialist war, it is revived in the same form of wall satirical sheets.

In the satirical magazines of 1905-1906, other artists followed the style of the woodcut lubok - I. Bilibin, M. Dobuzhinsky, S. Chekhonin. And later, many of the cartoonists turned to the graphic language of the popular popular print - A. Radakov, N. Radlov, I. Malyutin, M. Cheremnykh, D. Moor, Denis, K. Rotov and others.

Religious images and moralizing stories on themes from the Bible and the gospel make up a significant share in folk pictures. Especially popular were: “The story of the beautiful Joseph”, “The parable of the prodigal son”, “The parable of the rich and wretched Lazarus”. Often apocryphal stories also get into popular prints. For example, "The true mark of the lawless judgment against Christ, which is found in the ground in Vienna, carved on a stone tablet." It depicts a court sitting under the presidency of the high priest Caiaphas. Eighteen judges; each of them holds a scroll on which, in a few words, his attitude towards the defendant is summarized.

The motley, tempting coloring of popular prints is often in a carefree contradiction with their ascetic-gloomy plot. “I cry and sob when I think about death,” says the caption under the image of a sinner looking at a coffin with a skeleton lying in it. But this image is framed by a wreath of flowers and painted so loudly and cheerfully that the dull, monastic morality of the picture recedes before the cheerful riot of colors.

Even demons, often appearing in moralizing plots, in the interpretation of folk artists, take on the good-natured appearance of characters of comic buffoonery like trained bears, which wandering troupes of buffoons have long led through cities and villages in Rus'.

Street performances of buffoons enjoyed popular love, and the traditional characters of these performances come to life in the popular popular print. It should be said that buffoons were subjected to constant persecution by spiritual authorities, who, not without reason, saw traces of an ancient pagan ritual in their improvisations. And in 1648, the pious Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich finally banned buffoon performances. But, despite this, buffoon stories continued to live in folk pictures for a long time. Here are the permanent members of the wandering acting troupes - the bear and the goat - and the buffoon couples - the chronic losers Foma and Yerema, Savoska and Paramoshka, always accompanied by a funny rhyming text.

Images of jesters and dwarfs, folk dances, fist fights, tavern scenes, and others should be attributed to the same category of “amusing sheets”. In folk pictures, genre scenes appeared much earlier than in painting - scenes of peasant life, images of a hut, a public bath, a tavern, and a street were given in popular prints. So, one of the most archaic popular prints of the late 17th century reproduces a scene of peasant life: “Old man Agathon weaves bast shoes, and his wife Arina spins threads” - the plot was unthinkable for Russian painting at that time. Moreover, it is interpreted quite realistically: peasant costumes, furnishings, small details of life are protocol authentic, even a dog and a cat are not forgotten.

The heroic deeds of the legendary heroes of the Russian folk epic and the adventures of the heroes of folk tales are widely reflected in the themes of the popular print. This is perhaps the most beautiful and poetic area of the folk picture. Fantastic images of fairy tales are solved by folk artists with ingenuous persuasiveness. True, the heroes in their depiction are far from archaeological documentation: they are dressed either in Roman armor or in guard uniforms of the 18th century, but this does not in the least interfere with their fairy-tale existence. The epic hero, the hero Ilya Muromets, strikes the Nightingale the Robber sitting on an oak tree with an arrow, the mighty Eruslan overcomes the seven-headed dragon in battle, Ivan Tsarevich on a gray wolf escapes persecution with his beautiful bride, the birds of paradise Sirin and Alkonost with the faces of virgins spread their multi-colored wings wide.

Legendary creatures also appear in such pictures as "People Divie found by Tsar Alexander the Great", as well as in prints, which are what is now called the "newspaper duck". These are the Satyr, caught in Spain in 1760, the Miracle of the Sea and the Miracle of the Forest, caught in the same place, and others. Detailed descriptions of these monsters leave no doubt in the ingenuous viewer about the complete authenticity of the images. On a satire caught in Spain, it is reported that his head, forehead, eyes and eyebrows are human, tiger ears, cat whiskers, a goat's beard, a lion's mouth, and he eats only bread and milk.

The choice of historical themes in popular prints is bizarre. The assessments of the people do not always coincide with the assessments of official history, and many seemingly important dates in the official chronology did not attract any attention from the creators of popular popular prints.

Ancient history is reflected in the popular print "Glorious Battle of Tsar Alexander the Great with King Porus of India". A huge three-leafed lubok dedicated to the Battle of Mamaev depicts the battle of the Russians with the Tatars on the Kulikovo field in 1380. Of the contemporary events, the lubok reflected the wars of the 18th century with Prussia and Turkey and some other events, for example, the Greek uprising of 1821. A lot of popular prints gave rise to Napoleon's invasion of Russia, his flight and fall, which deeply stirred up the patriotic feelings of the Russian people.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, literary themes penetrated Russian folk prints. The poems of our poets A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov, A. Koltsov, the fables of I. Krylov penetrate the people through popular prints, receiving a kind of graphic interpretation in the print, and sometimes further plot development.

So, the extremely popular popular print with Pushkin's poem "In the evening, in a rainy autumn" tells the story of a deceived girl who leaves her newborn child at someone else's door. He got his plot continuation in another picture depicting the surprise of a peasant family who found a foundling at their door. The caption to this picture depicts the bitter fate of a poor child: "In a stranger's family you will be adopted, without caresses, rootless, you will grow up." A whole series of popular prints from the same era illustrates popular romances and songs.

More than half a century after the “discovery” of Academician Shtelin, the young Moscow scientist I. Snegirev began to collect and study folk pictures, but when in 1822 he offered his report on them to the attention of the members of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, many had a doubt: whether "such a vulgar and vulgar object, which is given to the lot of the mob."

A more decent title was recommended: "On Common Images". However, the speaker himself was well aware that the popular print cricket should know its hearth, and contritely admitted that “no matter how rude and even ugly the print of the popular print is, the commoner got used to it as much as with the usual cut of his gray caftan and with a naked fur coat. from domestic sheepskin. I. Snegirev remained faithful to his passion for popular prints: his articles on folk pictures were published in the works of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature and in the Moskvityanin, and in 1861 they were published as a separate book entitled "Lubok pictures of the Russian people in the Moscow world."

D. A. Rovinsky, a lawyer and senator, a man of broad erudition, who published many works on Russian iconography and graphic arts, was especially fruitful and productive in collecting popular prints and studying its history. He collected popular prints all his life and left as a gift to the Rumyantsev Museum 40 voluminous folders of folk prints, selected by topic (now in the engraving room of the Pushkin State Museum). His major work - "Russian Folk Pictures" - consists of 5 volumes of explanatory text and a five-volume Atlas of reproductions, and is still unsurpassed in the richness of the published material. But the magnificent work of Rovinsky, written in a fascinating and lively way and containing a lot of diverse historical information, is not at all included in the assessment of popular prints as works of art. Like Snegirev, Rovinsky also defines luboks as “clumsy work” and expresses the wish that folk pictures pass into the hands of real “our gifted artists”, not noticing that he conflicts with the very concept of “Russian folk picture”.

In their judgments and assessments, the first guardians and intercessors for the people's picture before the "educated public" were on a par with the century. Russian society only after the paintings of Surikov, Vasnetsov, Ryabushkin, Roerich, Polenova, Bilibin learned to understand the beauty of national forms and appreciate the charm of folk architecture - peasant wooden carvings, embroideries, painting on bottoms and boxes, toys and pottery. Moreover, only now have we realized how absurd it was to present academic requirements to the popular print - the correctness of the drawing and the observance of the laws of perspective. Comparing the graphic products of the pupils of the Imperial Academy of Arts in the 18th - 19th centuries with contemporary popular prints, we see that the advantage, no doubt, belongs to the nameless masters of folk prints. Here, two streams of culture can be especially clearly traced, and folk graphics clearly fill the "master's" with the intricacy of imagination, the richness of the graphic language and, most importantly, national originality, which the works of certified engravers are completely devoid of.

Interest in popular prints has especially increased in recent years, after an exhibition of folk pictures organized in Moscow in 1958, which brought together the best samples from the collections of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Literary Museum, Library named after M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, Library named after V.I. Lenin and others. The exhibition showed how widely and diversely folk art manifested itself in the lubok, and on the other hand, it revealed how incompletely, fragmentarily, accidentally and meagerly samples of folk pictures of early periods, especially the 17th and early 18th centuries, have come down to us. It turned out that many sheets are unique, and not only sheets from the earliest collections - Shtelin and Olsufiev, but even folk pictures of the 19th century.

According to Academician I. E. Grabar, who visited the lubok exhibition more than once, it was a stunning discovery for him. He regretted that the defeat of the Knebel publishing house in 1914, when the photo archive was destroyed, prevented the folk picture from receiving at one time a special chapter in the History of Russian Art, which was published under his editorship.

In recent years, several well-illustrated books about Russian folk pictures have been published in the Soviet Union. Lubkom became interested in the West as well. In 1961, a book about the Russian lubok by P. L. Duchartre, the author of many books on the folk art of European countries, appeared in Paris.

The value of Duchartre's work primarily lies in the fact that he approaches the material from new positions, which were won by a long struggle for the right of folk art to the attention of historians of art and culture.

The French scientist places the Russian lubok high among the folk prints of other countries. He notes that in terms of style and coloring, Russian folk pictures cannot be confused with any others. Their ethnic uniqueness immediately catches the eye. Especially characteristic of the Russian popular print is a sense of color, confident to the point of insolence.

In Duchartre, Russian lubok found an erudite connoisseur and ardent admirer. “Russian folk pictures, which have come down to us despite the zeal of secular censorship, and despite the fragility of paper, are, in my opinion, of extraordinary universal value,” he says. I considered it necessary to cite these opinions of the French scientist as the testimony of an external witness, convincing in that they are not dictated by patriotic predilections.

In recent years, we have seen an increase in interest in printmaking. Engraving and lithography enter everyday life, into the interiors of new apartments, cinema foyers.

Lovers of prints and collectors of reproductions appeared. True, this phenomenon is not new, and among the lovers of prints in the past there are well-known names of engraving connoisseurs who have left us superbly published descriptions of their collections. But when I think about prints, I don’t remember these collectors, but first of all, the peasant Yakim Nagogo from N. A. Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”. This collector of prints bought them at the market for his son's fun, hung them in the hut "and he himself loved to look at them no less than a boy." There was a fire, he rushed to save his "collection", forgetting about the hidden money.

"Oh, brother Yakim,
not cheap Pictures cost!
But in a new hut
Did you hang them up?”
- "Hung - there are new ones," -
Yakim said, and fell silent.

We understand the enthusiasm of the ingenuous Yakim, because Russian folk pictures, which have recently received general recognition, are indeed the most interesting manifestation of folk art. The first researchers who became interested in popular prints, despite all their enthusiasm for the subject of research, considered it necessary to justify themselves to serious people in doing such a frivolous business. Snegirev argued that popular prints "represent not only objects of fun and entertainment in the taste of the common people", but they manifest "the religious, moral and mental mood of the people." Rovinsky in his "justification" refers to N. S. Tikhonravov: that, they say, following the example of Western Europe, "life and science began to introduce the people into its legal rights in our country." Recognition for the Russian lubok came from a completely different end: now folk pictures have come to be regarded as works of art.

In 1962, a retrospective exhibition of woodcuts from the 15th to 20th centuries was opened at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. The Russian section on it began with popular prints of the 18th century, among which the famous “Cat of Kazan” occupied a central place - a large four-leaf print, which should be recognized as one of the best images of a cat in all world art. This lubok has all the advantages of a masterpiece: it is monumental, laconic, perfectly inscribed in the frame and, without compromising the expressiveness of the image, can be enlarged to the size of the wall of a multi-storey building and reduced to the size of a postage stamp.

There were other wonderful prints at the exhibition: “The Glorious Battle of Tsar Alexander the Great with King Porus of India”, “The Campaign of the Glorious Knight Coleander Lodvik” and “The Burial of a Cat” - all these are multi-sheet engravings. Their drawing was cut out on several boards, and then the prints were glued together, and a large composition was obtained.

So, the Russian lubok - the creation of nameless folk masters, this "vulgar square object given to the lot of the mob", took pride of place on the walls of the Museum of Fine Arts, next to the great masters of the West and East - with Dürer and Hokusai, and the neighborhood withstood this with honor .

It turned out that the muzhik Yakim Nagogo had good, true taste. A few words about the lubok technique and the lubok industry.

Why are pictures called lubok? There is no definite consensus on this. They were cut and printed from linden boards, and linden was called bast in other places. They were carried for sale by ofeni-peddlers in their bast boxes. Moscow legend says that the name of the pictures came from Lubyanka Street, where they were printed.

Subsequently, woodcuts gave way to metallography, and then lithography, but the name popular prints remained behind the pictures. The coloring of popular prints was done by village women in many villages near Moscow and Vladimir. “The innate sense of color,” says Duchartre, “brought happy and new combinations, which cannot be achieved even with careful coloring. Many modern artists consciously use the lessons that are taught to them, without knowing it, self-taught, compelled by the need to work with a brush with the greatest haste.

With the appearance on the market at the end of the 19th century of cheap chromolithographic pictures produced in a factory way, the popular popular print could not stand the competition and ceased to exist.

Of course, not all popular prints are equal, not all are equally distinctive. In the most ancient woodcut prints, we see the steady influence of the centuries-old traditions of Russian fine art of the pre-Petrine period. In such sheets as Master Koren's "Bible", "The Meal of the Pious and the Wicked", "The Parable of the Rich and Poor Lazarus", "Anika the Warrior and Death", these national traditions manifested themselves most convincingly.

The transition from woodcuts to metallography marks the boundary between two periods in the history of Russian lubok. Snegirev also pointed out that between popular prints carved on wood and engraved on copper, one cannot but notice a significant difference in execution.

In addition to differences in technology, foreign influences also affected. Engraving on metal introduced a more sophisticated technique into the popular print, which folk craftsmen flaunted in the graphic rendering of clouds, sea waves, tree foliage, rocks, and grassy "dung".

With the advent of new dyes, the color scheme of the color changes, it becomes more and more bright. Luboks of the seventies and eighties of the 19th century, painted with the brightest aniline colors, with broad strokes, often past the contour, amaze the eye with a riot of color in unexpected and new combinations.

The collections of Russian folk pictures kept in our museums and libraries are still far from exhausted. Much remains unrevealed and unpublished. Atlases of folk pictures by D. Rovinsky, published almost a century ago, cost a lot of money when they were published, and now even more so are an inaccessible bibliographic rarity. Therefore, any new publication of Russian popular prints should be welcomed in every possible way.

This edition, without claiming to be a complete review, makes it an indispensable condition for itself to reproduce luboks directly from museum originals, without retouching and arbitrary coloring - a condition against which previous editions often erred.

N. Kuzmin

List of illustrations:

01. The glorious battle of Tsar Alexander the Great with King Por of India. 18th century

03. Thomas and Yerema are two brothers. 18th century
04. The barber wants to cut the schismatic's beard. 18th century
05 - 06. Kazan cat, Astrakhan mind. 18th century
07 - 18. Shemyakin court. 18th century

20. The Tale of Ersh Ershovich. Early 19th century
21. About a nobleman and a peasant. 18th century
22. Proverb (Although the snake is dying, the potion is still enough). 18th century
23. Perhaps go away from me. 18th century
24. Song "Do not wake up young ...". 1894
25. Desire of Kashchei. Early 19th century
26. Perhaps go away from me. 18th century
27. Register of flowers and flies. 18th century
28. I am a hop high head more than all the fruits of the earth. First half of the 18th century
29. Reasoning of a young man. XVIII century
30. Hunting for hares. 18th century
31 - 32. The reasoning of a single man about marriage. 18th and 19th centuries
33. Brother kisser. 18th century
34. Yakov the coachman hugs the cook. 18th century
35. My joy (treat with apples). 18th century
36. Yerema and Thomas are two brothers. 18th century
37. Reiter on a chicken. 18th century
38. Reiter on a rooster. 18th century
39. Paramoshka and Savoska were playing cards. 18th century
40 - 41. Oh black eye kiss for once. First half of the 18th century and 1820 - 1830
42. A German woman rides an old man. 18th century
43. About a stupid wife. 18th century
44. Ion is feeble-minded. 18th century
45 - 46. Ah, my womb, the thief came to my yard. XVIII and early XIX centuries.
47. Yaga-Baba with a bald man. 18th century
48. Pan Tryk and Kherson. 18th century
49. Savoska and Paramoshka. 18th century
50. Know yourself point in your home. 18th century
51. Foreign peoples deign to take snuff. 18th century
52. About married red tape (fragment). 18th century
53. About drunkenness. 19th century
54. A woman went to the forest for mushrooms. 1820 - 1840 years
55 - 56. A bear and a goat are walking. 19th century
57. In Maryina Grove (detail). Late 19th century
58. A bear and a goat are walking. 1820 - 1840 years
59. Hello, my dear. 18th century
60. Enforced patience with some unknown father. 18th century
61. Fools feed a kitten. First half of the 18th century
62. An old husband, but had a young wife. 18th century
63. Song "Vanka lived in a small village ...". Late 19th century
64. Song "In the evening, a red maiden ...". Late 19th century
65. Honey, don't be ashamed. 18th century
66. Adventures about the nose and about a strong frost. 18th century
67. Please give me (buckets). 18th century
68. Groom and matchmaker. 18th century
69. An old husband, but had a young wife (fragment). 18th century
70. Careful housekeeping. 1839
71. This is how the beast is trained. 1839

73. Song "Spin my spin..." (fragment). Late 19th century

Russian pictorial lubok (lubok, lubok pictures, lubok sheets, amusing sheets, prostoviki) - inexpensive pictures with captions (mostly graphic) intended for mass distribution, a kind of graphic art.

It got its name from the bast (the upper hard wood of the linden), which was used in the 17th century. as an engraving basis for boards when printing such pictures. In the 18th century the bast was replaced by copper boards, in the 19-20 centuries. these pictures were already produced in a typographical way, but their name "lubok" was retained for them. This kind of unpretentious and crude art for mass consumption became widespread in Russia in the 17th and early 20th centuries, even giving rise to popular popular literature. Such literature fulfilled its social function, introducing reading to the poorest and poorly educated segments of the population.

Being works of folk art, at first performed exclusively by non-professionals, luboks influenced the emergence of professional graphic works of the early 20th century, which were distinguished by a special pictorial language and borrowed folklore techniques and images.

The artistic features of lubok graphics are syncretism, boldness in the choice of techniques (up to the grotesque and deliberate deformation of the depicted), highlighting the thematically the main larger image (this is closeness to children's drawings). From the popular prints, which were for ordinary townspeople and rural residents of the 17th - early 20th centuries. and the newspaper, and the TV, and the icon, and the primer, modern home posters, colorful flip calendars, posters, comics, many works of modern mass culture (up to the art of cinema) have their history.

As a genre that combines graphics and literary elements, luboks were not a purely Russian phenomenon.

The oldest pictures of this kind existed in China, Turkey, Japan, and India. In China, they were originally performed by hand, and from the 8th century. were engraved on wood, distinguished at the same time by bright colors and catchiness.

In the Russian state, the first popular prints (which existed as works by anonymous authors) were printed at the beginning of the 17th century. in the printing house of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. The craftsmen cut by hand both the picture and the text on a smooth-planed, polished linden board, leaving the text and lines of the drawing convex. Then, with a special leather cushion - matzo - black paint was applied to the drawing from a mixture of burnt hay, soot and boiled linseed oil. A sheet of damp paper was placed on top of the board and all together clamped into the press of the printing press. The resulting impression was then hand-tinted in one or more colors (this type of work, often assigned to women, was called "nose daub" in some areas - coloring according to contours).

The earliest lubok image found in the East Slavic region is the icon of the Assumption of the Virgin 1614-1624, the first Moscow lubok from the collections of the late 17th century now kept.

In Moscow, the distribution of popular prints began with the royal court. In 1635, the so-called “printed sheets” were bought for the 7-year-old Tsarevich Alexei Mikhailovich in the Vegetable Row on Red Square, after which the fashion for them came to the boyar mansions, and from there to the middle and lower strata of the townspeople, where the popular print gained recognition and popularity around 1660.

Among the main genres of popular prints, at first there was only religious.

Among the artists who worked on the manufacture of engraving bases for these popular prints were the famous masters of the Kiev-Lvov printing school of the 17th century. - Pamva Berynda, Leonty Zemka, Vasily Koren, Hieromonk Elijah. Printed prints of their works were painted by hand in four colors: red, purple, yellow, green. Thematically, all the luboks created by them were of religious content, however, biblical heroes were often depicted on them in Russian folk clothes (like Cain plowing the land on the lubok of Vasily Koren).

Gradually, among popular prints, in addition to religious plots (scenes from the lives of saints and the Gospel), illustrations for Russian fairy tales, epics, translated chivalric novels (about Bova Korolevich, Yeruslan Lazarevich), historical legends (about the founding of Moscow, about the Battle of Kulikovo) appear.

Ethnographers still use these sources, restoring the lost scenarios of folk festivals, round dances, fair events, details and tools of rituals (for example, divination). Some images of Russian popular prints of the 17th century. came into use for a long time, including the image of the “ladder of life”, on which each decade corresponds to a certain “step” (“The first step of this life is to pass in a carefree game ...”). But why is the splint called "amusing"? Here's why. Very often, such ridiculous things were depicted in popular prints that at least stop, at least give. Luboks with the image of fair holidays, farce performances and their barkers, who in haste voices invited the people to attend the performance:

“I have a beautiful wife. Under the nose blush, snot all over the cheek; How to ride along the Nevsky, only dirt flies from under the foot. Her name is Sophia, who has been drying on the stove for three years. I took it off the stove, and she bowed to me and collapsed into three pieces. What should I do? I took a washcloth, sewed it, and lived with it for another three years. He went to the Sennaya, bought another wife for a penny, and with a cat. A cat is worth a penny, but a wife is a profit, whatever you give, she will eat like that.

“But, robyata, this is Parasha.
Only mine, not yours.
I wanted to marry her.
Yes, I remembered, with a living wife, this is not good.
Parasha would be good for everyone, but it hurts her cheeks.
Something in St. Petersburg lacks bricks.

Amusing lubok caricature about the girl Rodionova:
“The girl Rodionova, who arrived in Moscow from St. Petersburg, was awarded the favorable attention of the St. Petersburg public. She is 18 years old, her height is 1 arshin 10 inches, her head is quite large, her nose is wide. She embroiders various patterns with her lips and tongue and lowers beaded bracelets. He also consumes food without the help of strangers. Her legs serve instead of her hands; with them she takes plates of food and brings them to her lips. In all likelihood, the maiden Rodionova, and the Moscow public will not leave her to make her happy with the same attention that she showed to the maiden Yulia Postratsy, especially since seeing Rodionova and her art is much more interesting than seeing the ugliness of the maiden Yulia Postratsa alone.

The Russian lubok ceased to exist at the end of the 19th century. It was then that the old colored sheets began to be kept and protected as relics of the bygone past. At the same time, the study and collecting of popular prints began. A large collection of popular prints was collected from the famous compiler of the Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language, Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl. Artists Repin, Vasnetsov, Kustodiev, Kandinsky, Konchalovsky, Dobuzhinsky, Lentulov were interested in Lubkom.

The artistic motifs of the popular print influenced the folk decorative art of the 20th century. The connection with the aesthetics of the lubok can be traced in some works by artists Fedoskino and Palekh. Some traditions of lubok were used in the creation of animated films on the themes of folk tales.

The first to seriously study and collect popular prints was Dmitry Alexandrovich Rovinsky. In his collection there were every single Russian popular prints that were released by the end of the 19th century, and this is almost 8 thousand copies.

Dmitry Alexandrovich Rovinsky - art historian, collector and lawyer by profession - was born in Moscow. I acquired the first copies for my collection in my youth. But at first he was fond of collecting Western engravings, Rovinsky had one of the most complete collections of Rembrandt engravings in Russia. In search of these engravings, he traveled all over Europe. But in the future, under the influence of his relative, historian and collector, MP Pogodin, Rovinsky began to collect everything domestic, and especially Russian folk pictures. In addition to popular prints, D. A. Rovinsky collected ancient illustrated primers, cosmographies and satirical sheets. Rovinsky spent all his money on collecting collections. He lived very modestly, surrounded by countless folders with prints and art books. Every year, Rovinsky went on trips to the most remote places in Russia, from where he brought new sheets for his collection of popular prints. D. A. Rovinsky wrote and published at his own expense the “Detailed Dictionary of Russian Engraving Portraits” in 4 volumes, published in 1872, “Russian Folk Pictures” in 5 volumes - 1881. "Materials for Russian Iconography" and "The Complete Collection of Rembrandt's Engravings" in 4 volumes in 1890.

Thanks to his research in the field of art, Rovinsky was elected an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Arts. Rovinsky established awards for the best works on artistic archeology and for the best painting with its subsequent reproduction in engraving. He gave his dacha to Moscow University, from the income he received he established regular awards for the best illustrated scientific essay for public reading.

Rovinsky bequeathed his entire collection of Rembrandt engravings, which is over 600 sheets, to the Hermitage, Russian and folk pictures - to the Moscow Public Museum and the Rumyantsev Museum, about 50 thousand Western European engravings - to the Imperial Public Library.

In contact with

Originally a kind of folk art. It was carried out in the technique of woodcuts, copper engravings, lithographs and was complemented by freehand coloring.

Lubok is characterized by simplicity of technique, laconism of visual means (a rough stroke, bright coloring). Lubok often contains a detailed narrative with explanatory inscriptions and additional (explanatory, complementary) images to the main one.

An unknown 18th-century Russian folk artist. , CC BY-SA 3.0

History

The most ancient luboks are known in China. Until the 8th century, they were drawn by hand. Since the 8th century, the first popular prints made in woodcuts have been known. Lubok appeared in Europe in the 15th century. The woodcut technique is typical for early European lubok. Copper engraving and lithography are added later.

Due to its intelligibility and focus on the "broad masses", the popular print was used as a means of agitation (for example, "flying sheets" during the Peasants' War and the Reformation in Germany, popular prints of the Great French Revolution).

Author unknown , CC BY-SA 3.0

In Germany, factories for the production of pictures were located in Cologne, Munich, Neuruppin; in France - in the city of Troyes. In Europe, books and pictures of obscene content are widespread, for example, "Tableau de l'amur conjual" (Picture of conjugal love). “Seductive and immoral pictures” were brought to Russia from France and Holland.

The Russian lubok of the 18th century is notable for its sustained composition.

Author unknown , CC BY-SA 3.0

Oriental lubok (China, India) is distinguished by its bright colors.

At the end of the 19th century, lubok was revived in the form of comics.

In Russia

History

In Russia of the 16th century - the beginning of the 17th century, prints were sold, which were called "Fryazhsky sheets", or "German amusing sheets".

At the end of the 17th century, a Fryazhsky mill was installed in the Upper (Court) printing house for printing Fryazh sheets. In 1680, the craftsman Afanasy Zverev carved “all kinds of Fryazh cuts” on copper boards for the tsar.

unknown , CC BY-SA 3.0

German amusing sheets were sold in the Vegetable Row, and later on the Spassky Bridge.

Censorship and prohibitions

Moscow Patriarch Joachim in 1674 forbade "buying sheets printed by German heretics, Luthers and Calvins, in their accursed opinion." The faces of the revered saints were to be written on the board, and the printed images were intended for "handsomeness".

Anonymous folk artist, CC BY-SA 3.0

The decree of March 20, 1721 forbade the sale "on the Spassky Bridge and in other places in Moscow, composed by people of various ranks ... prints (sheets) printed arbitrarily, except for the printing house." The Izugrafskaya Chamber was created in Moscow.

The chamber issued permission to print luboks "arbitrarily, except for the printing house." Over time, this decree ceased to be executed. A large number of low-quality images of the Saints have emerged.

Therefore, by decree of October 18, 1744, it was ordered "to submit the drawings in advance for approbation to the diocesan bishops."

The decree of January 21, 1723 demanded that "Imperial persons skillfully write to painters testified in good craftsmanship with all danger and diligent care." Therefore, in popular prints there are no images of reigning persons.

In 1822, police censorship was introduced for printing popular prints. Some popular prints were banned, the boards were destroyed. In 1826, by censorship charter, all prints (and not just popular prints) were subject to censorship.

Plots of paintings

Initially, the plots for lubok paintings were handwritten legends, life stories, "father's writings", oral legends, articles from translated newspapers (for example, "Chimes"), etc.

unknown , CC BY-SA 3.0

Plots and drawings were borrowed from foreign Almanacs and Calendars. At the beginning of the 19th century, plots were borrowed from the novels and stories of Goethe, Radcliffe, Cotten, Chateaubriand and other writers.

At the end of the 19th century, pictures on themes from the scriptures, portraits of the imperial family prevailed, then genre pictures came, most often of a moral and instructive nature (about the disastrous consequences of gluttony, drunkenness, greed).

Face editions of "Yeruslan Lazarevich" and other tales, images in the faces of folk songs ("The boyars rode from Nova-gorod", "Husband's wife beat"), women's heads with absurd inscriptions, images of cities ( Jerusalem - the navel of the earth).

unknown , CC BY-SA 3.0

Lubok production

The engravers were called "Fryazh carving masters" (in contrast to the Russian "ordinary" wood carvers). In Moscow at the end of the 16th century, the first engraver was supposedly Andronik Timofeev Nevezha.

Signing was called drawing and coloring. Approximately in the 16th (or in the 17th) century, commemoration was divided into commemoration and engraving. The bannerman applied the drawing, the engraver cut it out on a board, or metal.

Copying boards was called translation. The boards were originally lime, then maple, pear and palm.

Taburin, Vladimir Amosovich, CC BY-SA 3.0

Printed in this way on cheap gray paper were called plain paintings. Prostoviki were taken to special artels. In the 19th century, in the villages near Moscow and Vladimir, there were special artels that were engaged in coloring popular prints. Women and children were engaged in coloring luboks.

.G Blinov (details unknown) , CC BY-SA 3.0

Later, a more perfect way to produce popular prints appeared, engravers appeared. With a thin chisel on copper plates, they engraved a drawing with hatching, with all the small details, which could not be done on a lime board.

One of the first Russian figure factories appeared in Moscow in the middle of the 18th century. The factory belonged to the merchants Akhmetievs. The factory had 20 machines.

Prostovikov, that is, the cheapest pictures, costing ½ a penny a piece, were printed and colored in the Moscow district for about 4 million annually. The highest price of popular prints was 25 kopecks.

Popularity

Luboks fell in love in Russia immediately and by everyone without exception. They could be met in the royal chambers, in the serf's hut, in the inn, in monasteries.

There are documents showing that Patriarch Nikon had two hundred and seventy of them, mostly, however, still from Fryazh. And Tsarevich Peter has already bought a lot of domestic ones, in his rooms there were about a hundred of them. There are two reasons for such a rapid and wide popularity of seemingly simple pictures.

Plate "Bird Sirin Guide to Russian Crafts, CC BY-SA 3.0 "

Firstly, luboks replaced books inaccessible to the common man: textbooks, starting with the alphabet and arithmetic and ending with cozmography (astronomy), fiction - in luboks a series of successive pictures, as in the hallmarks of hagiographic icons, with extensive signatures, epics, stories were retold or published .

Adventure translated novels about Bova Korolevich and Yeruslan Lazarevich, fairy tales, songs, proverbs. There were luboks like newsletters and newspapers that reported on the most important state events, about wars, about life in other countries.

There were interpreters of the Holy Scripture, depicting the largest monasteries and cities. There were lubok-medical books and about all sorts of popular beliefs and signs. There were the worst satires.

Photo gallery

Useful information

Splint
lubok picture
popular leaf
funny leaf
prostovik

origin of name

The name comes from boards of special sawing, which were called bast (deck). On them back in the 15th century. wrote plans, drawings, drawings. Then the so-called “fryazh sheets” appeared, and later small paper pictures were simply called lubok (popular folk picture).

In Russia

In Russia, folk pictures became widespread in the 17th-20th centuries. They were cheap (even low-income segments of the population could buy them) and often served as a decorative design. Lubok sheets performed the social and entertaining role of a newspaper or primer. They are the prototype of modern calendars, posters, comics and posters. In the 17th century, painted bast boxes became widespread.

Lubok types

Spiritual and religious - In the Byzantine style. Icon type images. Lives of saints, parables, morals, songs, etc.
Philosophical.
Legal - images of lawsuits and court actions. Often there were plots: “Shemyakin Court” and “Yorsh Ershovich Shchetinnikov”.
Historical - "Touching stories" from the annals. Image of historical events, battles, cities. Topographic maps.
Fairy tales - fairy tales, heroic ones, "Tales of daring people", everyday tales.
Holidays - images of saints.
Cavalry - Luboks depicting riders.
Joker - funny popular prints, satires, caricatures, fables.

Coloring method

Artel workers accepted orders for coloring hundreds of thousands of copies from lubok publishers. One person per week painted up to one thousand popular prints - one ruble was paid for such work. The profession was called a colorist. The profession disappeared after the advent of lithographic machines.

Advantages of a printed picture

The first to see through the advantages of a printed picture in Moscow were the same habitues of the Spassky Bridge, or Spassky Krestets, as this place was often called then. The book trade flourished there even to the splint - the main trade in Russia was in this part. But only books were sold more handwritten and very often of the most poisonous nature, such as the satirical "Priest Savva - great glory" and "Service to the tavern." The writers themselves and their friends - artists from the same common people - drew illustrations for these books, or sewed them into the pages, or sold them separately. But how much can you draw by hand?!

Manufacturing

It was these writers and artists who drew attention to the popular prints, which were brought by foreigners, first as a gift to the Moscow tsar and the boyars, and then for a wide sale. It turned out that making them is not so difficult, moreover, many thousands of pictures can be printed from one board, and even with text cut out in the same way next to the picture. Someone from foreigners or Belarusians, apparently, built the first machine in Moscow and brought ready-made boards for the sample.

I.D. Sytin

In the second half of the 19th century, ID Sytin was one of the largest producers and distributors of printed popular prints. In 1882, the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition took place in Moscow, at which Sytin's products were awarded a silver medal. ID Sytin collected boards from which popular prints were printed for about 20 years. The collection, worth several tens of thousands of rubles, was destroyed during a fire in Sytin's printing house during the 1905 Revolution.

Style formation

The still young Russian lubok, of course, borrowed a lot from other arts, and first of all from book miniatures, and therefore, artistically, it soon became, as it were, a kind of alloy, a synthesis of all the best that Russian art had developed over the previous centuries of its existence.

But only to what extent did the lubochniks sharpen and exaggerate all forms, to what extent did they increase the contrast and heat up the colors, heat up to such an extent that each leaf literally burns, splashes with cheerful multicolor.

Nowadays

In the modern world, the style of lubok is not forgotten. It is widely used in illustrations, theatrical scenery, paintings and interior decoration. Dishes, posters, calendars are produced.

Lubok is also reflected in modern fashion. As part of the 22nd Textile Salon in Ivanovo, the collection of Yegor Zaitsev, “iVANOVO. Splint".

Graphics

Splint- a type of graphics, an image with a caption, characterized by simplicity and accessibility of images. It was carried out in the technique of woodcuts, copper engravings, lithographs and was complemented by freehand coloring.

Lubok is characterized by simplicity of technique, laconism of visual means. Lubok often contains a detailed narrative with explanatory inscriptions and additional (explanatory, complementary) images to the main one.

The Russian lubok of the 18th century is notable for its sustained composition.

Oriental lubok (China, India) is distinguished by its bright colors.

At the end of the 19th century, lubok was revived in the form of comics.

In Russia of the 16th century - the beginning of the 17th century, prints were sold, which were called "fryazh sheets", or "German amusing sheets". In Russia, drawings were printed on specially sawn boards. The boards were called bast (whence the deck). Drawings, drawings, plans have been written on the bast since the 15th century. In the 17th century, painted bast boxes became widespread. Later, paper pictures were called lubok, lubok picture.

Initially, the plots for popular prints were handwritten legends, life stories, "father's writings", oral legends.

In the Russian state, the first popular prints (which existed as works of anonymous authors) were printed at the beginning of the 17th century in the printing house of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. The craftsmen cut by hand both the picture and the text on a smooth-planed, polished linden board, leaving the text and lines of the drawing convex. Then, with a special leather cushion - matzo - black paint was applied to the drawing from a mixture of burnt hay, soot and boiled linseed oil. A sheet of damp paper was placed on top of the board and all together clamped into the press of the printing press. The resulting impression was then hand-coloured in one or more colors (this type of work, often assigned to women, was called "nose daub" in some areas - coloring according to contours).

The earliest popular print found in the East Slavic region is the icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos from 1614–1624.

Among the main genres of popular prints, at first there was only religious. In the wake of the split of the Russian Orthodox Church into Old Believers and Nikonians, both opposing sides began to print their sheets and their paper icons. Images of saints on paper sheets were sold in abundance at the Spassky Gates of the Kremlin and in the Vegetable Row of the Moscow market.

In 1674, Patriarch Joachim, in a special decree on people, that “cutting on the boards, they print on paper sheets of holy icons of the image ... which do not have the slightest resemblance to primitive faces, tokomo inflict reproach and dishonor”, banned the production of popular prints “not to honor the images of saints, but for prettiness”. At the same time, he commanded “so that icons of saints are not printed on paper sheets, they are not sold in the ranks”. However, by that time, not far from Red Square, at the corner of Sretenka and modern. Rozhdestvensky Boulevard was already founded Printing Sloboda, where not only printers lived, but carvers of popular prints. The name of this craft even gave the name of one of the central streets of Moscow - Lubyanka, as well as the square adjacent to it. Later, the settlement areas of popular print craftsmen multiplied, the church near Moscow, now standing within the city, - "Assumption in Pechatniki" retained the name of the production (as well as "Trinity in Sheets" as part of the architectural ensemble of the Sretensky Monastery).

Thanks to such printed “amusing sheets”, details of peasant labor and life of the pre-Petrine time are reconstructed today (“Old man Agafon weaves bast shoes, and his wife Arina spins threads”), scenes of plowing, harvesting, logging, baking pancakes, rituals of the family cycle - births, weddings , funeral. Thanks to them, the history of everyday Russian life was filled with real images of household utensils and the furnishings of the huts. Ethnographers still use these sources, restoring the lost scenarios of folk festivals, round dances, fair events, details and tools of rituals (for example, divination). Some images of Russian popular prints of the 17th century. came into use for a long time, including the image of the “ladder of life”, on which each decade corresponds to a certain “step” (“The first step of this life is to pass in a carefree game ...”).

At the same time, the obvious shortcomings of the early popular prints - the lack of a spatial perspective, their naivety were compensated for by the accuracy of the graphic silhouette, the balance of the composition, the brevity and maximum simplicity of the depicted.

Peter I saw in the lubok a powerful means of propaganda. In 1711, he founded a special engraving chamber in St. Petersburg, where he gathered the best Russian draftsmen who had been trained by Western masters. In 1721, he issued a decree ordering to supervise the production of lubok portraits of royal persons with the requirement not to let lubok out of state control. Since 1724, in St. Petersburg, by his decree, they began to print from copper plates using the xylographic method. These were panoramas of the city, images of victorious battles, portraits of the king and his entourage. In Moscow, however, printing from wooden boards continued. Items were sold not only “on the Spassky Bridge”, but also in all large “rows and on the streets”, works of popular print were delivered to many provincial cities.

The decree of March 20, 1721 forbade the sale “on the Spassky bridge and in other places in Moscow, composed by people of various ranks ... prints (sheets) printed arbitrarily, except for the printing house”. The Izugrafskaya Chamber was created in Moscow. The chamber issued permission to print luboks "arbitrarily, except for the printing house." Over time, this decree ceased to be executed. A large number of low-quality images of the Saints have emerged. Therefore, by decree of October 18, 1744, it was ordered “submit the drawings to the diocesan bishops for approbation”.

The decree of January 21, 1723 required "Imperial persons skillfully write painters testified in good skill with all danger and diligent care". Therefore, in popular prints there are no images of reigning persons.

Initially, the plots for lubok paintings were handwritten legends, life stories, "father's writings", oral legends, articles from translated newspapers (for example, "Chimes"), etc.

The plot of St. Petersburg and Moscow luboks began to differ markedly. Those made in St. Petersburg resembled official prints, while Moscow ones were mocking, and sometimes not very decent images of the adventures of foolish heroes (Savoska, Paramoshka, Foma and Yerema), favorite folk festivals and amusements (Bear with a goat, Daring fellows - glorious fighters, Bear Hunter kollet, Hunting for hares). Such pictures entertained rather than edified or taught the viewer.

Variety of subjects of Russian popular prints of the 18th century. continued to grow. An evangelical theme was added to them (for example, the Parable of the Prodigal Son), while the church authorities tried not to release the publication of such sheets from under their control. In 1744, the Holy Synod issued an instruction on the need to carefully check all popular prints of religious content, which was the reaction of the church to the lack of control over the visual styles and plots of popular prints. So, on one of them, a repentant sinner was depicted at the coffin with a skeleton. The caption read “I cry and sob when I think about death!”, But the image was framed by a cheerful multi-colored wreath, leading the viewer to think not about the frailty of existence, but about its fun. On such luboks even demons were portrayed as good-natured, like trained bears; they did not frighten, but rather made people laugh.

At the same time, in Moscow, deprived of the title of capital by Peter, anti-government popular prints began to spread. Among them are images of a sassy cat with a huge mustache, outwardly similar to Tsar Peter, a Chukhon Baba Yaga - a hint at a native of Chukhonia (Lifland or Estonia) Catherine I. Cathedral Code (since 1649). So the popular satirical lubok laid the foundation for Russian political caricature and pictorial satire.

From the first half of the 18th century the existence of calendar (Bryusov calendar) began, with the second - biographical (Biography of the glorious fabulist Aesop) luboks.

In St. Petersburg, geographical maps, plans, drawings were published in the form of popular prints. In all cities and provinces, sheets of Moscow production were excellently sold out, reproducing everyday and educational maxims on a love theme ( Ah, black eye, kiss at least once, To take the rich, will reproach. Take a good one, many people will know. Take a smart one, won't let you say a word...). Elderly buyers preferred edifying pictures about the benefits of moral family life (it is obliged to take care of the demon of rest about his wife and children).

Humorous and satirical sheets with literary texts containing short stories or fairy tales have gained genuine popularity. On them, the viewer could find something that did not happen in life: “a fireproof person”, “a peasant girl Marfa Kirillova, who spent 33 years under the snow and remained unharmed”, strange creatures with clawed paws, a snake tail and a human bearded face, allegedly “found in Spain on the banks of the Uler river on January 27, 1775.

“People’s grotesque” is considered the unheard-of things depicted on the popular prints of that time and all sorts of miracles. So, it was in popular prints that old women and elders, once inside the mill, turned into young women and brave fellows, wild animals hunted down hunters, children swaddled and cradled their parents. Lubok "shifters" are known - a bull that became a man and hung a butcher by the leg on a hook, and a horse chasing a rider. Among the “shifters” on the topic of gender are single women looking for “no one’s” men in the trees, it is not known how they ended up there; strong women, taking away the pants from the peasants, fighting with each other for gentlemen, so no one gets it.

Based on illustrations for translated adventurous stories, song lyrics, aphoristic expressions, anecdotes, "oracle predictions" and interpretations of dream books in luboks of the 18th century. one can judge the then moral, moral and religious ideals of the people. Russian popular prints condemned revelry, drunkenness, adultery, ill-gotten wealth, and praised the defenders of the Fatherland. In St. Petersburg, pictures with stories about remarkable events in the world dispersed in large numbers. So, the Whale, caught in the White Sea, the Miracle of the Forest and the Miracle of the Sea, repeated the reports of the newspaper St. Petersburg Vedomosti. During the years of successful battles of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), pictures were created with images of domestic horse and foot grenadiers, with portraits of famous commanders. Many popular prints with scenes of victorious battles appeared during the Russian-Turkish wars of 1768-1774 and 1787-1791. So the St. Petersburg lubok became a kind of illustrated newspaper for a wide range of illiterate readers.

Epic heroes in popular prints were often depicted at the moment of their triumph over an opponent. Tsar Alexander the Great - during the victory over the Indian king Por, Yeruslan Lazarevich - who defeated the seven-headed dragon. Ilya of Muromets was depicted as striking the Nightingale the Robber with an arrow, and Ilya looked like Tsar Peter I, and the Nightingale looked like the Swedish King Charles XII, crushed by him. Lubok series about a Russian soldier overcoming all enemies were also very popular.

Wandering from workshop to workshop, the ideas and plots of popular prints were overgrown with innovations, while maintaining their originality. By the end of the 18th century, the main distinguishing feature of popular prints was formed - the inseparable unity of graphics and text. Sometimes the inscriptions began to enter the composition of the drawing, making up its part, but more often they turned into a background, and sometimes they simply bordered the image. Typical for popular prints was the breaking of the plot into separate “frames” (similar to hagiographic “brands” on ancient Russian icons), accompanied by the corresponding text. Sometimes, as on icons, the text was located inside the hallmarks. The graphic monumentality of flat figures surrounded by lush decorative elements - grass, flowers and various small details, forcing modern viewers to recall the classic frescoes of the Yaroslavl and Kostroma masters of the 17th century, lasted as the basis of the lubok style until the very end of the 18th century.

In 1822, the young Moscow scholar I. Snegirev began to collect and study folk pictures, but when he offered his report on them to the members of the Society of Russian Literature, they doubted whether they could be subject to scientific consideration "such a vulgar and vulgar object, which is given to the lot of the mob". For the report on popular prints, a different name was proposed - On common people's images. The assessment of this type of folk art turned out to be very gloomy: “It’s rude and even ugly to wear a popular print, but the commoner got used to it, as with the usual cut of his gray caftan or with a naked fur coat made of domestic sheepskin”. However, Snegirev found followers, among them was D.A. Rovinsky, who became the largest collector of popular prints and then left his collection as a gift to the Rumyantsev Museum in Moscow.

Thematically, criticism of rich, greedy, conceited people began to occupy an increasingly significant place in the popular lists. Known since the 18th century, the sheets Frant and the corrupt franciha, the Bribery-Usurer, the Rich Man's Dream, acquired a new meaning. Luboks pictorially criticized officials, landowners, representatives of the clergy (petitions of the Kalyazin monks).

In 1839, during the time of the strict censorship regulations (called “cast iron” by contemporaries), popular publications were also subjected to censorship. However, the attempts of the government to stop their production did not bring results, among them - the order of the Moscow authorities from 1851 to pour all copper plates in the "old capital" into bells. When it became clear to the authorities that it was impossible to forbid the development of this form of folk art, a struggle began to turn the popular print into an instrument of exclusively state and church propaganda. At the same time, the schismatic (Old Believer) lubok was banned by Nicholas I in 1855, and the monasteries themselves on Vyga and Leksa were closed by the same decree. Lubok editions of short lives of Russian saints, paper icons, views of monasteries, gospels in pictures began to be printed on a single basis approved by the church authorities and were distributed free of charge among the people "to strengthen the faith."

In the last third of the 19th century, when chromolithography appeared (printing in several colors), which further reduced the cost of popular print production, strict censorship control was established over each picture. The new lubok began to focus on official art and the themes set by it. The true, old lubok as a kind of fine folk art has almost ceased to exist.

Lubok sheets as independent graphic works ceased to be produced in Russia in 1918, when the entire printing business became state-owned and fell under a single ideological control. However, the genre of lubok, that is, sheets with pictures understandable to the common people, influenced the work of many Soviet artists. His influence can be found in the posters of the 1920s "Windows of GROWTH", which entered the history of world fine art. It was this influence that made popular the early Soviet posters, made in the popular style - "Capital" by V.I. Denis (1919), which criticized the imperialist oligarchy, and also "Have you signed up as a volunteer?" and "Wrangel is still alive" by D.S. Moor, calling for the protection of the Fatherland. Mayakovsky, M. Cheremnykh specifically looked for opportunities to enhance the artistic expressiveness of these "Soviet luboks" (Soviet propaganda art). Images of popular prints were used in poetic works by Demyan Bedny, S. Yesenin, S. Gorodetsky.

During the Great Patriotic War, the lubok as a type of folk graphics was again used by the Kukryniks. Evil caricatures of fascist leaders (Hitler, Goebbels) were accompanied by texts of sharp front-line ditties, ridiculing "oblique Hitler" and his minions.

Lubok types

Spiritual and religious- Byzantine style. Icon type images. Lives of saints, parables, morals, songs, etc.
philosophical- about the existence of life, relations between people, about the nature of things, about the universe, etc.
Legal- images of trials and judicial actions, sentences, torture, executions, etc.
historical- "Touching stories" from chronicles. Image of historical events, battles, cities. Topographic maps.
fabulous- fairy tales, heroic, "Tales of daring people", everyday tales.
Holidays- holiday pictures, images of saints.
Balagurnik- funny popular prints, satires, caricatures, fables.
Secret, sordid- about love pleasures, perversion, sodomy, dissent and other depravity.

Lubok manufacturing technology

Copying boards was called translation. The boards were originally lime, then maple, pear and palm.

The splint was made as follows: the artist applied a pencil drawing on a linden board (bast), then using this drawing with a knife he made a deepening of those places that should remain white. The board smeared with paint under pressure left black contours of the picture on paper. Printed in this way on cheap gray paper were called plain paintings. Prostoviki were taken to special artels. In the 19th century, in the villages near Moscow and Vladimir, there were special artels that were engaged in coloring popular prints. Women and children were engaged in coloring luboks. Later, a more perfect way of making popular prints appeared, and engravers appeared. With a thin chisel on copper plates, they engraved a drawing with hatching, with all the small details, which could not be done on a lime board. The method of coloring the paintings remained the same. Artel workers accepted orders for coloring hundreds of thousands of copies from lubok publishers. One person per week painted up to one thousand popular prints - one ruble was paid for such work. The profession was called a colorist. The profession disappeared after the advent of lithographic machines.