Researching the tales: This week I started researching Russia's most well-known fairy tales and characters. I looked through some Russian legends, folk tale and fairy tale books and found my favourite stories. Alexander Afanasiev was Russia's most famous folklorist who recorded and published over 600 Russian folktales and fairy tales; his fairy tale plots are considered the closest to 'recorded originals' and form the basis of many writers' and collectors' fairy tales. His compilation 'Russian Fairy Tales' was banned due to harsh censorship during Stalin's rule in Russia - his tales were thought to be blasphemous.
('Russian Fairy Tales' Book Cover and Alexander Afanasiev's 'Russian Fairy Tales' illustrated by famous Russian artist Ivan Bilibin)
The four main fairy tales I have particularly enjoyed are The Firebird, Baba Yaga, Kaschei the Deathless and Prince Ivan. Details of all these tales are in my sketchbooks.
(Baba Yaga illustrated by Ivan Bilibin)
Russian fairy tales are much like fairy tales from anywhere else in the world - they have been passed on generation to generation by word of mouth and have been recorded by different fairy tale writers and collectors over hundreds of years. This inconsistency and freedom of storytelling has lead to many different versions of the same story, for example the tale of Baba Yaga has many different versions and different endings. People shared their favourite version or the version they grew up with. For example, in the author's note of 'Russian and Polish Folklore and Legends' by Charles Tibbits, he explains that the stories he has told are the ones he likes best and were written from memory. I had no idea that fairy tale plots were so easily changeable and inconsistent - this is something I hope to continue looking at in my research, and perhaps how I could utilise different versions of the same story in a book format.
Researching Russian Folk Culture: This week I also thought it would be helpful to look at traditional Russian art and folk culture and how they both relate to Russian fairy tales.
The left image above shows a traditional Russian Palekh lacquered box: each side of the box has an exquisite illustration of one of the Russian folktales. I have noticed how Russian artists tend to use incredibly intricate detailing with bright colours to create their artwork whether the canvas is a box, plate, fabric, tray or print. The image on the right is an example of the kind of graphic language Russian artists use within these works. The Firebird is a well-known magical creature in Russian fairy tales, which you can see in the centre image. The Firebird is an important motif in Russian art, as it is symbolic of light and it is said that when the firebird falls to the ground, a new artistic tradition is born, hence why the motif is so popular among artists.
I have also researched Russian folk costume to discover what kind of clothes the main characters would have been pictured wearing by listeners and readers of the tales. Above is an image of a girl's traditional folk costume, and is something I could imagine the character 'Vasilisa the Beautiful' wearing.
As architecture is something I am very passionate about, I was also excited to look at Russian folk architecture and folk houses. I love the details of the windows and rooves of Russian folk buildings. You can see how some illustrators have been inspired by the architecture in their interpretations of buildings in Russian fairy tales (example: Baba Yaga's hut above).
Now that I'm aware of some of the main Russian fairy tales and I have discovered the ones I am most interested in, I'm going to to move on with my research by looking into narratives and how illustrators have explored storytelling in effective ways.
Written: 14th February 2014
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