A Boyar Wedding Feast, by Konstantin Makovsky

This painting depicts the moment of people talking a toast to the bride and the groom, during the feast at the wedding. This wedding was one of the most important social events in the Old Russian Federation, a demonstration of the unification of two boyar families that had a great influence on Moscow’s politics. The wedding takes place in a guest room with a vaulted ceiling, that looks like palaces of the Moscow Kremlin. In the center, there is a round table with people surrounding it. The young couple sits at the head of the table (on the right side of the canvas), where the groom presents his fiancée to the guests after first seeing her not covered face. The entire room is decorated with overseas dishes, gold and silver cups, and cups of various shapes specially created for the wedding. In the foreground in the lower left-hand corner of the canvas is a carved ivory casket on which stands an enameled silver bowl.

In high-light environments, guests depicted in luxurious clothing, whimsically decorated with gold needlework, including women with funny Russian women’s headdresses, sit at a table that is full of various nurseries and drinks. In the center of the print on canvas, there is a fat man, dressed in a fur coat, decorated with red velvet. The man lifting up a silver cup. A very interesting fact that on the painting is depicted the moment, when the servant bringing to the room on a big silver plate The Fried Swan – the last serving dish, before the honeymooners going to a bedroom. All things depicted in the piece of art took place approximately in the 16th or 17th century. Before the end of the party, according to a common tradition, guests began drinking wine and shouting “bitterly”, hinting at the bitterness of the wine and encouraging newlyweds to kiss each other, which will make the drink sweeter. However, the bride looks shy and standing in front of the groom with a sad face and unwilling to give him a kiss. The elderly matchmaker on the left-hand side of the bride or a mother gently pushes her daughter closer to the groom, urging her to kiss her future husband. At the same time, the girl sitting in the center of the canvas looking at the newlyweds with envy, and in the upper left-hand corner with the sed thoughts standing the nanny, perhaps she knows from first-hands how difficult it to be a bride.

Name: A Boyar Wedding Feast

Artist: Konstantin Makovsky

Type: Canvas Print

Condition: Stretched (Ready to hang) or Rolled

Quality:

Permanent Waterproof

Fresh Color Forever

Bright-coloured

Permanent sun-resistant