A Boyar Wedding Feast [Makovsky]

Product Description

One of Russia's most famous paintings is A Boyar Wedding Feast, which was completed in 1883 by Konstantin Makovsky (1839-1915). The occasion is a celebration of two boyar (бояр) families of sixteenth or seventeenth century Russia. Boyars were members of Old Russia's nobility and were next in rank to the ruling princes. They wielded great power and authority in Kievan Rus' and Muscovy. This painting, completed two hundred years after this event would have occurred, depicts the boyars at the height of their influence.

The guests are lavishly attired for the wedding feast. They wear handsomely embroidered garments, and the bride and several women wear a pearl-studded crown known as a "kokoshnik" (кокошник). A toast has been proposed to the bride and groom, raising a clamor. They will kiss to sweeten the wine in the gleaming silver chalices and settle down the clamor. 

This magnificent replica is skillfully hand painted in Russia, by Igor Shepel, and mounted within a handsome frame. About 23" x 15½". 

About the artist: Igor Viktorovich Shepel was born in 1961 in the city of Rostov-on-the-Don. From 1978-1984 he studied at the Rostov College of Arts (named after Mitrofan Borisovich Grekov 1882-1934, founding father of Soviet military theme and panoramic painting). Shepel is a member of the Union of Artists of Russia and participates in many regional and personal exhibitions. He works and teaches at the Grekov Art School. He specializes in museum quality art done in oil, Russian masterpiece replicas as well as replicas of Western masters, both complex and simple. He is especially fond of painting landscapes as well as renditions of famous Russian icons. Many of his works are in museums, galleries and private collections in Russia, Germany, Brazil, and Canada.