Matryoshka the Russian doll / #Aboutmyculture challenge

First of all I want to express my gratefulness to @sndbox and @aaronli for this unique initiative of letting people from different corners of the world to get to know each other's culture and traditions by participating in #aboutmyculture challenge.

I am here for you to discover a well known Russian traditional souvenir and piece of art called Matryoshka, which eventually became a part of my life.

Russian traditional wooden nesting doll is relatively young, the first set of Matryoshkas was crafted in the end of 19th century by a Russian crafter Vasily Zvyozdochkin according to the author's sketches of an artist Sergey Malyutin. There is a rumor going around, that the idea of creating such a doll came to Malyutin's mind when he saw a Japaneese souvenir depithing a Buddhist monk, that was a wooden nesting doll as well. However there is a legend that the first doll of such type (nested wooden doll) was brought on the Japanese island Honshu by unknown Russian monk. In fact, this type of nesting creations was well known in Russia before - Russian crafters turned wooden Easter eggs.

These is the first set of Russian wooden dolls:

Photo by: RK812, Doll carved by Zvezdochkin, painted by Malyutin - Sergiev Posad Museum of Toys, Russia, Public Domain, Link

Let's look inside of the Russian doll:

By BrokenSphere - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3773186

This ability to fit in one another became a symbol of good health and maternity, and the doll was called Matryoshka (diminutive from a popular Russian rustic name Matryona), this name has a latin root ''mater'', which means ''mother'' and was accosiated with the image of a mother of a big peasant family, who was in a good health and had many children.

In the beginning, the production of nesting dolls took place in Sergiev Posad near Moscow, the ornaments on dolls, that were called Sergievo-Posadskie Matryoshki, reflected local painting traditions: its top part flows smoothly into thicker and bigger lower part: it is painted with gouache and has a varnish surface.

There are several regions of Russia that specialise on crafting and painting Matryoshkas, each of them has its own style that can be easily recognised.

image from pixabay

In Soviet period of changes, painting traditions of making Matryoshkas gave way to new modern views, during this period you could see all new kinds of dolls, such as the ones that showed celebrities and political fugures.

By Brandt Luke Zorn - Photo taken by Brandt Luke Zorn, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1010394

That's when the era of author's Matryoshkas has begun and still continues, and that's what became one of my hobbies as soon as I saw a set of unpainted wooden dolls in a store for artists... I bought those cute future Matryoshkas, came home and painted them with acryllic painting all at once. It was a set of three dolls:

My original photo

As an ornament theme I used a Russian traditional ornament style called Gzhel.

image from pixabay

I try to paint my Matryoshkas in painting traditions of different Russian regions:

My original photo

Since then, every time I come to Russia, to my hometown, I buy a set of Matryoshkas to paint them in France, where I currently live, and to offer a piece of Russia to my foreign friends and relatives.

My original photo

I hope that this short article opened the door to Russian culture and my soul for you .

See you!