Picture of a wedding feast. Royal wedding

Boyar wedding feast - Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky. 1883. Oil on canvas. 236x391 cm

Being a passionate collector rare items different cultures And historical eras, the painter often used them to create the desired interior in his works. Using the same method, a “living picture,” this wonderful work was created, embodying a boyar wedding feast.

To faithfully recreate the surroundings, the author used his collection of antiques, and also visited many collectors and invited aristocrats as extras. The construction of the composition was preceded musical evenings, changing clothes, and then Makovsky “assembled” his silent actors into the scene in detail and explained to everyone what they should portray. A truly innovative method of that time!

This work was created specifically for exhibition in Europe. Makovsky was looking for recognition abroad, and it was no coincidence that he chose the subject - Europeans were very interested in the original Russian history at that time, so the work, which so reliably and colorfully described a scene from the life of the 17th century, was well received. However, success only strengthened the split between Makovsky and many of his artist friends, especially the Wanderers, who saw, first of all, social role art and believed that it was not right for a Russian artist to seek fame from a foreign audience.

First of all, the luxurious outfits of the boyars attract attention - rich caftans, embroidered with patterns, tall women's headdresses, heavy folds men's clothing. The walls are painted, there are goblets on the tables, and the servants are already rushing with food - everything here is imbued with the Russian spirit with an incredibly original culture.

Among everything, you don’t immediately notice the young people, because their personalities are not so large-scale compared to the real event - two boyar families are uniting. The toast was made, and to the shouts of “Bitter!” the young man tries to kiss the girl, and she bashfully averts her face, embarrassed and timid. Experienced matchmaker left hand the young man seems to be pushing his indecisive new wife. The characters look at this scene differently - a girl of marriageable age looks at her friend with envy, but the nanny looks sad, since she knows very well the difficult life of a married woman.

Ironically, one of Makovsky’s most Russian works, having changed several owners, today belongs to the Washington Museum.

The work of K. Makovsky, one of the most famous painters of the 2nd half of the 19th century century, very multifaceted. Perhaps the artist is best known for his bright paintings, describing the life and way of life of patriarchal Rus'. Makovsky is called an inspired singer of ancient Russian antiquity with its unique flavor and original charm.

K. Makovsky became the creator of the so-called boyar cycle of paintings, closely connected with Russian history. The author’s passion for collecting antiques played a huge role in its creation. Indeed, antiques found a second life on the artist’s canvases.

Perhaps one of the most famous works The boyar cycle of K. Makovsky is a large canvas “Boyar wedding feast of the 17th century”. The painting was painted in 1883 and was a huge success at the World Exhibition in Antwerp.

The viewer is presented with vaulted mansions filled with fancy overseas dishes and goblets of various shapes. The moment of the holiday is depicted when the wedding feast is close to completion - at this time the traditional “swan” dish is brought in.

Contemporaries emphasized the highest degree of historical authenticity of the painting. In this work the artist strives to true portrayal ancient Russian life, without omitting the features and details regarding the costumes of the characters, silverware, and the entire furnishings. Transferred with amazing skill physical qualities precious stones, gold, ivory, velvet, brocade.

K. Makovsky in his work very reliably and convincingly managed to resurrect a forgotten era - the 17th century. The desire for historical authenticity in the depiction of details in the canvas is combined with the fantasy and imagination of the painter, and this gives the canvas an extraordinary poetry.

In addition to the description of the painting by K. E. Makovsky “Boyar Wedding Feast of the 17th Century”, our website contains many other descriptions of paintings by various artists, which can be used both in preparation for writing an essay on the painting, and simply for a more complete acquaintance with the work of famous masters of the past.

Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

Boyar wedding feast in the 17th century

1883, 236?400 cm. Oil, Canvas

Description of the artwork “Boyar wedding feast in the 17th century”

Russian artist Konstantin Makovsky asked Pavel Tretyakov for 20 thousand rubles for “Boyar wedding feast in the 17th century.” An unimaginable price for those times! Tretyakov refused, which did not upset the artist at all. Unlike many of his contemporaries, for him the light did not converge on Tretyakov. And he successfully sold “The Boyar Feast” to the American jeweler Schumann for 60 thousand. Moreover, the buyer was completely delighted, immediately ordered another canvas - “The Choice of a Bride by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich” (1887) - and launched the production of postcards with reproductions of “The Feast”.

“The Boyar Feast” was first presented in the house of Konstantin Makovsky in the form of a so-called “living picture”. Such fun was extremely popular at that time in high society. The participants were divided into teams, and each showed a certain painting that the opponents had to guess. It was especially interesting to play this in the house of Konstantin and Yulia Makovsky: there was something, and there was enough surroundings for such things, and the warm, comfortable atmosphere attracted many people to their living room. interesting people. Visiting the Makovskys became in some way a matter of prestige and at the same time remained a very pleasant pastime. Moreover, for Konstantin Makovsky, “living pictures” were not only fun, but also a method creative tool. He often swapped the elements of the game, and first composed a picture in his imagination, then recreated it with the guests, this production was photographed, then Makovsky painted a picture based on the photograph. This is exactly what happened with the “Boyarsky Feast”. From this large canvas and the stage of Makovsky’s famous “boyar paintings” began, which were most often preceded by the creation of “living paintings” (1, 2, 3).

Experts note a high degree of historical authenticity in Makovsky’s depiction of clothing, decoration, accessories, and furnishings in general. Before us is a wedding ceremony in Russia of the 17th century. The artist’s wife, Julia, acted as the bride; he himself is shown as the groom. Their son Seryozha is sitting at the table next to him. Richly decorated palaces are filled with luxurious chests, precious cups, and luxurious dishes. We are shown one of the key moments of the wedding feast, which concludes the celebration: the introduction of the traditional Swan dish. And in front of the young people on a plate fried chicken. The fact is that, according to tradition, newly-made spouses were not supposed to eat at the wedding. And only at the end of the meal they were sent to the bedroom, handed this same chicken to strengthen their strength. Judging by the girl’s embarrassed face and the laughing guests, the young people are being given “advice” about behavior in the bedroom.

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About the picture:

Being a passionate collector of rare objects from various cultures and historical eras, the painter often used them to create the desired interior in his works. Using the same method, a “living picture,” this wonderful work was created, embodying a boyar wedding feast.

To faithfully recreate the surroundings, the author used his collection of antiques, and also visited many collectors and invited aristocrats as extras. The construction of the composition was preceded by musical evenings, changing clothes, and after that Makovsky “assembled” his silent actors into the stage in detail and explained to everyone what they should portray. A truly innovative method of that time!

This work was created specifically for exhibition in Europe. Makovsky was looking for recognition abroad, and it was no coincidence that he chose the subject - Europeans were very interested in the original Russian history at that time, so the work, which so reliably and colorfully described a scene from the life of the 17th century, was well received. However, success only strengthened the split between Makovsky and many of his artist friends, especially the Peredvizhniki, who saw, first of all, the social role of art and believed that it was not right for a Russian artist to seek fame from a foreign audience.

First of all, the luxurious outfits of the boyars attract attention - rich caftans, embroidered with patterns, tall women's headdresses, heavy folds of men's clothes. The walls are painted, there are cups on the tables, and the servants are already rushing with food - everything here is imbued with the Russian spirit with an incredibly unique culture.

Among everything, you don’t immediately notice the young people, because their personalities are not so large-scale compared to the real event - two boyar families are uniting. The toast was made, and to the shouts of “Bitter!” the young man tries to kiss the girl, and she bashfully averts her face, embarrassed and timid. The experienced matchmaker on the left hand of the young man seems to be pushing the indecisive new wife. The characters look at this scene differently - a girl of marriageable age looks at her friend with envy, but the nanny looks sad, since she knows very well the difficult life of a married woman.

A white dress, an airy veil, witnesses from the bride and groom, a festive escort, the exciting sounds of Mendelssohn's march and other attributes of the ceremony are indispensable attributes of a modern wedding, one of the most solemn and important events In human life. How many marriages take place every year in our country! Their organizers and participants, following a long-verified and proven ritual scheme, often do not suspect that the origins of this wonderful ritual go back to hoary antiquity folk traditions and even royal weddings. The documents of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, which are stored in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, make it possible to reconstruct in detail the entire course of the celebrations of the Tsar’s wedding more than three hundred years ago. The weddings of the Russian tsars of the 16th-17th centuries, that is, before Peter’s reforms, were distinguished by their exceptional originality, which was based on centuries-old national traditions.

Konstantin Makovsky "Down the aisle"

Royal weddings of the late Middle Ages are surprisingly similar to one another, because they were celebrated according to a strict canon, the so-called “wedding rite,” the tradition of which dates back to the times of the Grand Dukes. It is thanks to the “wedding rites” that have survived and come down to us - these unique and detailed scenarios of celebrations - that we have a unique opportunity, for example, to find out how the wedding of Ivan the Terrible or Mikhail Romanov, Alexei Mikhailovich or Fyodor Alekseevich took place.
Let's try to get a general idea of ​​the royal wedding rituals in medieval Russia. (By the way, the weddings of boyars, merchants and ordinary people were not so rich, but according to the same rituals.)
Festive celebrations on the occasion of the weddings of Russian tsars took place in the Moscow Kremlin, in the Faceted Chamber (under Ivan the Terrible it was also called the “Big Golden”, and under Fyodor Ivanovich - “Big Golden Signature” due to the fact that the chamber was decorated with wall paintings in gold background) and in the Golden Tsarina and Zhiletskaya chambers (the latter was intended for wedding guards - residents, hence its name). These are ancient residential ceremonial royal chambers, on the site of which the Terem Palace began to be built in 1635. The wedding took place in the Annunciation Cathedral, and since 1671 - in the Assumption Cathedral.

A. Ryabushkin. Waiting for the king. 1901

All royal weddings, as already mentioned, being “once and for all” ceremonies, that is, strictly regulated, began on Sunday or Thursday and lasted from two to four days. On the first day of the wedding, while waiting for the wedding time, the bride and groom could not see each other. The Tsar, dressed as for his coronation, sat in his palace chambers, the princess - in the Golden Chamber.

Portrait of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov

The ceremony began with the king and princess entering the Faceted Chamber. But first, the king with his wedding “train” went to the Golden Chamber to the princess in order, through his boyfriend, to command her to go to the Faceted Chamber. According to custom, the bride was supposed to come first to the Faceted Chamber, followed by the groom. This solemn procession was lined up according to order: candle makers, caravan makers, lamplighters and friends walked in front. The okolnichy and clerk “guarded the path,” the archpriest sprinkled it with holy water. The princess was led under the arms of matchmakers, sitting boyars and bed-women, and the tsar was accompanied by a thousand.

A. Ryabushkin. Wedding train in Moscow of the 17th century. 1901

Modern weddings are incomparably easier to organize, however, even now the bride and groom are always accompanied by “travelers”, although they are now called differently: witness and witness. Caravan makers, bedding makers, lamplighters and others - today these are those who take on the functions of serving guests and arranging the celebration. There are many rituals associated with amulets in modern weddings, although they are performed not by archpriests and clerks, but by everyone.

Grigory Sedov.Choice of a bride by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich

After his election to the kingdom, Mikhail Fedorovich did not dare to marry for a long time. In 1624 he finally married, but was almost immediately widowed. The king was still young, and, naturally, the question of a new marriage arose. On the appointed day, more than fifty brides of the most eminent and noble families were brought to the royal court. Each of them had with her a so-called “interview friend.” The “friend for an interview” with the daughter of the devious Grigory Volkonsky was his niece Evdokia Lukyanovna Streshneva.
The brides' parade upset the king - none of them pleased him, but, yielding to his mother's wishes, he again went to choose the future queen. This time his choice settled on the unknown girl Streshneva, who won the heart of the sovereign with her beauty, courtesy and gentle disposition.
The choice of Mikhail Fedorovich caused royal family disappointment, but he remained adamant. The Emperor referred not only to the feeling that arose in him, but also to his Christian duty to help a girl, noble not by blood, but by essence, leave the house of her relatives who oppressed her.
Having received the blessing of his parents - His Holiness Patriarch Philaret and nun Martha - Mikhail Fedorovich announced his marriage to Evdokia Streshneva. The royal messengers went to the remote Meshchovsky district (Kaluga province) to bring to the court the father of the sovereign's chosen one, Lukyan Stepanovich Streshnev, who blessed his daughter for marriage.

His Holiness Patriarch Filaret blesses his son, Tsar Michael, for marriage. A description in the faces of the celebration that took place on February 5, 1626, during the marriage of the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Fedorovich with the Empress Evdokia Lukyanovna from the Streshnev family.

The entire course of the wedding celebration was outlined in a front (illustrated) manuscript entitled “Description in person of the celebration that took place in 1626 on February 5 at the marriage of the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Fedorovich with the Empress Evdokia Lukyanovna from the Streshnev family.”

The wedding train of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Description in person...

The wedding train of Tsarina Evdokia Lukyanovna Description in faces.

The main hall of the Faceted Chamber, at that time the largest in Russia, was prepared in advance for the occasion. The floor was covered with Turkish and Persian carpets and expensive colored cloths, and the place of the bride and groom was raised onto a locker (a large chest that served as a stand). It was upholstered in worm-like, that is, red, velvet and decorated with gold-embroidered cushions and sables. Festive table, covered, according to custom, with three tablecloths (the first was used before the wedding, the second was given to the newlyweds with refreshments in the bedchamber, the third was left for the guests to feast on), was lined with precious dishes.
At the first exit of the bride and groom to the Faceted Chamber, they were greeted by a wedding table with bread, cheese and salt - these ancient pagan symbols that personified the month and the sun, marriage and well-being.
As you can see, the modern beautiful wedding ritual of meeting the newlyweds with “bread and salt” has long roots.

Makovsky.Choice of a bride by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich

Here was committed most interesting ritual royal wedding: in the main hall of the Faceted Chamber, under the prayer of the priest, the heads of the bride and groom were combed with a comb. The thousand's wife, dipping a comb in wine or honey, combed the hair of the king and princess, thereby symbolizing their transition to a new quality, and then put on a veil for the bride - a sign of her "invisibility", modesty, bashfulness, showered the bride and groom with hops, which was a guarantee fertility, wealth and prosperity, fanned herself like a fan with sables, signifying royal wealth. (Even in the Middle Ages, when there was incomparably more fur in Russia than today, sable fur was considered truly royal.)
Nowadays, all that remains of this beautiful wedding ritual is, perhaps, a veil and showering, although more often not with hops, but with grain, money, flowers, and sometimes candies. The veil today mainly serves as decoration and does not carry the same ritual significance as in the distant past.
When the hair of the Tsar and Princess were combed, the groom's groomsman fed the guests bread and cheese, and the bride's groomsman brought gifts to the Tsar on behalf of the princess. Here, on behalf of the young people, strictly according to the painting, the steward presented gifts to their parents and closest “travelers.” And then there was a symbolic farewell of the bride’s parents to their daughter and handing her over to the groom - rituals that have survived to this day in various variations.

I. Repin. Choosing a Bride for the Grand Duke

But then came the solemn moment when the bride and groom set off from the Faceted Chamber for the wedding to the cathedral. In pre-Petrine Russia, there were two customs for the arrival of the future royal couple to church: winter and summer. In winter, the groom arrived on horseback to the cathedral with his “train” before the bride. The princess and her “riders” arrived in a sleigh behind them.
Nowadays, the bride and groom very often go to the registry office or to church in different cars, and back in one, thus repeating the ancient custom.
When the royal wedding took place in the summer, the king and princess, holding hands, walked to the cathedral. Under their feet, the stewards and solicitors, as usual, laid paths of beautiful material. But whenever this magnificent ceremony took place, in winter or summer, it was always accompanied by many actions, meaning all kinds of amulets, and the ringing of all the bells of the Kremlin and other Moscow churches.

K. Makovsky. Boyar wedding feast in the 17th century. 1883

The participants of the modern “wedding train” - several cars decorated with ribbons, flowers and balloons - honk at the top of their lungs, and do not suspect that this is a relic of ancient safety magic (when before they went to get married not in a car, but in a stroller, the ritual noise was created by clicking whip). Ringing church bells in the old days and sound signals wedding cars Today - various shapes notifying the “whole world” about the wedding being celebrated.
Finally, after all the preliminary stages, the culmination of the wedding celebration came - the wedding. The transfer of its place under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich from the home church of the Russian tsars, the Annunciation Cathedral, to the Assumption Cathedral indicated that ideas about the wedding ceremony of tsars had changed. Everything that was important for the state in the royal wedding was no longer embodied by the entire “wedding rite,” but only by the act of a church wedding. It was under Alexei Mikhailovich that its importance increased immeasurably, which is why the wedding venue was moved to a cathedral intended for events of national importance (and the ancient wedding “rite” gradually became a thing of the past).
So, the wedding. In the cathedral Kremlin church, the bride and groom stood near the altar on sables covered with damask (as silk patterned fabric was called), and the sacred act of wedding began, at the end of which the young people drank wine from the same vessel and kissed. From now on, they were united “eternally and forever” by God himself and acquired a new state-significant status. The newlywed tsar undergoes, as it were, a repeated, after coronation, procedure for confirmation in power; from now on he is perceived as a “mature” ruler, who with his marriage guarantees the continuation of the dynasty, and therefore the preservation of the stability of Russia. After all, her power, in traditional Russian system values, relied on the strength of royal power. The newlywed in the new status of queen (she was named so only after the wedding) was perceived as the future mother of the heir to the throne, in other words, the keeper of the dynasty.

G. Myasoedov. Bride's wedding

After the wedding, the newlyweds and guests went to the Palace of Facets for the wedding feast. The king and queen occupied their old places, where before the wedding they scratched their heads with a comb, and the guests were seated according to their rank and position. In the center there was a large table, at the head of which the newlyweds sat, and around it there was a “curve” that went around the large one in the shape of the letter “P”. By old custom At the wedding feast, the newlyweds did not eat or drink anything.
After sitting for a while, the king and queen left the noisy feast and went to the bedchamber. The royal bedchamber closed a number of rooms in the palace - the Front Room, the Cross Room and the Throne Room, that is, the sovereign's office. Its low doors were covered with fabric to preserve heat, and the floors were covered with several layers of carpets, since the bedchamber was not heated. The central piece of all the decoration was, of course, the bed. In the old days they used to say “bed”. In its wealth and luxury it resembled a magnificent tent. Made from expensive wood, the bed topped with a canopy was cleaned in a special way. Sheaves of rye covered with a carpet were placed down (sheaves from ancient times in Rus' were considered a symbol of income in the house), up to a dozen feather beds were placed on the carpet, a headboard and two pillows were raised on the feather beds, everything was covered with a silk sheet and blankets - cold and warm, sable or mustel, in feet were covered with a fur coat and a carpet. To top it off, the bed and all its accessories were covered with a sheet. The bed attendants, the king's most trusted and reliable people, were responsible for decorating the bedroom and bed, whose duties included observing all precautions.

Ivan the Terrible chooses a bride"
Gorokhovskaya T

Another curious ritual took place in front of the bedroom door. Tysyatsky's wife in an inverted sheepskin coat (a symbol of the carnal principle and the new family life) showered the newlyweds with hops. The king's friend brought them bread, salt and chicken from the wedding table, wrapped in a tablecloth, and left them alone.
The next morning, the newlyweds washed themselves in the bathhouse. This was also a symbolic rite of purification and entry into new life With pure intentions. The royal bathhouse, or soapbox, was located on the lower floor of the Terem Palace, in one of the far rooms. Water was specially brought to the soap box in the 16th century, and from 1633 it began to be supplied by the water-lifting machine of the Kremlin Vodovzvodny Tower from the Moscow River. IN XVI-XVII centuries There was still a custom according to which the thousand and friends who accompanied the Tsar, and the matchmakers and noblewomen who accompanied the Tsarina, washed the newlyweds with wine and honey. After the bath, the king and queen had breakfast in their mansions.
The royal wedding concluded with festive dinners, the reception of congratulations and the distribution of sovereign favors on the occasion of the wedding celebration. Favors were granted to everyone who took part in the royal wedding - from the metropolitan (since 1589 - patriarch) who blessed the marriage, to the centurion who guarded the Kremlin.

M. Shibanov. Marriage contract. 1777

This is how the weddings of all Russian sovereigns were celebrated in a royal, solemn, rich and beautiful manner in the 16th-17th centuries. Some ritual parallels with modernity discovered in them are very significant. The era of the Russian late Middle Ages from the point of view of the evolution of wedding rituals became a turning point. Never since then has the royal wedding ritual, which has not yet been “reshaped” in the Western style, been so nationally original and close to the folk one.
In the royal wedding rituals, remnants of archaic beliefs, legends, and customs that were formed in different eras and continue to live to this day are still found.
In subsequent periods everything changed. The era of Peter the Great marked a sharp break in wedding culture, When wedding ceremonies different layers of society began to develop in their own ways. The traditional “performed” royal wedding with its “quirks” remained forever in the 16th-17th centuries, without surviving the cultural trends of modern times. And the folk wedding adapted to the changing cultural and historical realities, remained at its core and has survived to this day.

M. Klodt. Tower of the princesses

Wedding ceremony - detailed description throughout the course of the royal wedding ceremony from first to last day with a list of all guests “by rank”, according to which they performed the ritual functions strictly assigned to them. Wedding rites were compiled for Russian tsars in the Ambassadorial Prikaz from the middle of the 16th century to end of XVII centuries.
The wedding train consists of royal courtiers lined up in a strictly defined order.

Friends - court wedding ranks in Rus' XV-XVII centuries. Their role at the wedding was to convene guests, make ritual speeches, and distribute gifts and treats.

Candlemakers, loaf makers, lamplighters were court ranks in Rus' who performed certain ceremonial and economic functions.

Okolnichy - a court rank in charge of ceremonies.

Sedentary boyars - courtiers whose role at the wedding was reduced to an honorary seat in the Faceted Chamber behind wedding table.

Bed makers and bed maids were court wedding officials who guarded the bridal bedroom.

Tysyatsky is the chief court official on the part of the groom, who accompanied him everywhere during the wedding ceremony.

Stolniks, solicitors - court officials in Rus' who performed economic and ceremonial functions.

In a historical novelAlexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy"Prince Silver" (1863), dedicated to the era Ivan the Terrible (1547-1584), describes a “kissing ritual” in the house of a disgracedboyar Druzhina Morozov, according to which his young wife Elena was obliged to go out to the guests -strangers- in festive attire and kiss each, having previously presented it to him on a tray a glass of wine.

Based on the plot of the novel 1895 Russian artist K.E. Makovsky painted his picture"Kiss Rite":

Kissing ritual. Makovsky.

In the 16th century and earlier in Russia, women lived quite closed - they sat in the mansion, weaved and communicated only with close relatives. The church was attended by big holidays, moved through the streets in closed carriages.

And around the 17th century, the so-called kissing ritual arose. After the end of the feast, the wife or daughter of the owner of the house came out to the guests, brought the guests a glass of drink, and received a kiss on the cheek from the guest. There is a version that the ritual could have been borrowed from foreigners living in Russia.

For the first time, the “kissing ritual” among Russians was described by the Austrian (i.e., Holy Roman Empire) ambassador BaronAugustin Mayerberg in 1661:

“Sometimes at these feasts there is no shortage of gifts of their kind. The owner's wife always enters the dining room in the most elegant quilted jacket and in all feminine attire, accompanied by two or many servants; she gives the noblest of her interlocutors a spell of vodka, dipping the edges of her lips in it. And while he drinks, she hurriedly goes to her room, puts on another padded warmer and immediately comes back to perform the same duty with another interlocutor.

Having repeated this ritual with each of the other guests, then she always stands at the front wall: standing there with her eyes lowered to the floor and her arms hanging down at her sides, she gives her patient lips to the kisses of her interlocutors, who approach her according to the degree of their dignity and from whom so and reeks of the unpleasant smell of everything they ate and drank..."

Currently, among scientists and researchers of the everyday culture of Moscow Rus' there is no consensus on the origin of this ritual. G.P. Uspensky believed that the ritual could have been borrowed from foreigners living in Russia. I.E. Zabelin (“Home life of the Russian people”) took him away from someone"pagan worship".