Шкатулка с эмалевой миниатюрой по картине Васнецова “Иван-Царевич на Сером Волке” (Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Grey Wolf), 1889.
Boxes
Russian Silver and Faberge
Fedor Ruckert
The popular subject was taken from an old Russian fairy tale collected by the folklorist Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki (Russian Fairy Stories), published between 1855-1863. To summarize the tale, Ivan, the youngest of the Tsar’s three sons, seized a feather from the tail of a firebird. When the tsar offered half his kingdom to whichever son who captured the firebird, Ivan departed on his horse, which was devoured by a wolf one night. Subsequently, the beast agreed to serve as Ivan’s mount in the horse’s stead. En route, Ivan was captured by a second tsar, who offered to spare him providing that he deliver the beautiful princess Anne to become this tsar’s bride. Again the wolf came to the rescue: Anne is carried off by Ivan mounted on the wolf.

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