By the Pike's Will

This traditional Palekh box is a creation of Yevgenia (Zhenya) Shatokhina. It depicts a scene from the Russian tale, "Emelya and the Magic Pike". Here we can see Emelya who approaches the tsar's palace riding a stove.
The palette consists of diverse tones that look beautiful against a striking black background. A sparkle of the snow is achieved with the help of aluminum paint while gold paint is used to detail the characters' costumes and architecture.
The scene is framed with gold beads. The box's sides are decorated with an intricate, gold pattern accented with aluminum. For additional decoration the artist has painted the magic pike using egg-tempera paints on the box's front side.
The box is made out of paper-mache. Black lacquer covers the exterior and red lacquer covers the interior of the box. The lid is hinged from the top of the scene, and the box rests on four feet. The work is signed with the artist's name, Palekh, and the year of 2006.