Museum complex

Masquerade sleigh

Russia
The Second Quarter of the XVIII Century
Российская империя XVIII в.
Wood, levkas, tempera, lacquer, metal, velvet, braid, linen, silk threads; carpentry, carving, painting, gilding, metalwork, forging, weaving, embroidery
166,0 х 194,0 х 120,0 сm
Receipt: from the Museum of Furneture in1926
Open storage

Fancy sleigh was an obligatory element for a popular entertainment of the highest class of Russian society in the XVIII Century. During the Christmas and Shrovetide festivities at the Imperial court usually were organized ceremonial masquerade parades and rides. Special vehicles were made for those rides – masquerade (fancy) sleigh. Often such rides were united by a definite theme, sometimes related to specific political or social circumstances. The building of the masquerade sleigh was entrusted to the best craftsmen and artists of the time. Those vehicles were meant for not just safe and easy ride, but they were also supposed to confirm the refined taste and wealth of their riders. Corteges of sleighs full of ladies and gentlemen in masks moved through the main streets of the cities; the passengers manifested to each other and pedestrian townspeople that were crowding around, how exquisite were their outfits and how beautiful were their rides.

More information...

Masquerade sleigh with a body in a shape of a floating Swan are a unique example of such vehicles. It was made for the court amusements in the last years of reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna (1730-1740). The sleigh is decorated with intricate carving and multi-colored painting. The figures of putti (A putto (Italian: ˈputto; plural putti) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism, the putto came to represent the sacred cherub (plural cherubs) (plural cherubim); and in the Baroque period of art, the putto came to represent the omnipresence of God. A putto representing a cupid is also called an amorino (plural amorini)) bizarrely posted by an artist along the body of the sledge, some of them are presented playing horns. This is the implementation of a popular plot "The Cupids with trumpets and others, floating on swans and fighting", published in the book "The Symbols and Emblems". The set of all elements of the ornament in decoration of the vehicle, including the shape of its body, present artistically complete composition, which was also united by understandable to contemporaries meaning. It is formulated in the motto to the emblem:"One Must surrender to love". The semantics of the decoration of the sleigh confines with the theme of many festivals and amusements of the first half of the XVIII Century, which became a model of courtly Russian court culture.

Hide
1