Tiles
18th century
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Location in museum
The Rossi Wing,
Room 3
Open the panorama of the hall in the virtual tour
- Period Late 17th century – the 18th century
- Allegory
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Green and brown tiles show the typical decoration of Russian stoves in 18th century. Replacing the ancient relief tiles came painted ones, covering a multi-tiered furnace with a continuous layer, on which the whole story was unfolded in pictures. Among the characters there are fairy-tale and real animals and birds, male and female figures in various robes, symbolic and allegorical images, often borrowed from the book "Symbols and Emblems", which served as a kind of a handbook for artists and craftsmen of the 18-19th centuries. For the sake of persuasiveness, the plots were explained with the inscriptions: "wild lion", "road", "my food"; and a woman with a burning heart in her hand complaining :"It is difficult to protect this". The painting was executed with coloured enamels on the raw white surface. After glazing the tiles got a shiny surface.