Scarlet Flower

This small, round box was painted by Yevgenia (Zhenya) Shatokhina. It shows a scene from the popular Russian fairy-tale "The Scarlet Flower", written by S.T. Aksakov. This thrilling tale tells about love of a beautiful girl and a horrible beast that in the end of the tale turns into a handsome prince.
The box shows the girl strolling through the wonderful garden of the bewitched kingdom. Blue and green tones of tempera paints predominate here. Gold and aluminum paint is used to detail the composition throughout.
The scene is framed with a nice gold pattern. More complex gold ornamentation accented with aluminum can be found wrapping around the box's sides.
The box is constructed out of high-quality paper-mache. Black lacquer is used to paint the exterior and red lacquer is used to paint the interior of the box. The lid isn't hinged, and the box rests on a flat bottom. The work is signed with the artist's name, the title, the year of 2006 and the village of Palekh.