Archangel, embroidery be E.Prakhova after Vasnetsov (1892, Perm gallery), Viktor Vasnetsov

Angel. Panel. 1892 embroidery by e. A. Prakhova based on a sketch by v. M. Vasnetsov the archangel is dressed in a red-brown cloak trimmed with a gold ornamental border and fastened on the chest with a fibula. His lush hair falling on his shoulders is fastened with a sash and a diadem. Instead of feathers, the wings are outlined with teardrop shapes flowing into each other. The washes of paint that color them create the impression of iridescent shimmers. The large patterns on the archangel’s clothing are also “sculpted” with paint. They are of a different, more conventional nature, associated with man-made values, and resemble a simplified variation on the theme of a jug or vase, usually decorating pilasters and columns in paintings by renaissance artists. One can also discern in them some similarity with the small jugs on the filigrees of early incunabula. And the jug is one of the symbolic objects associated with the virgin mary and the child1. Date: 1892.