The Rossi Wing

Architectural Fretwork of Peasants’ Houses in the 19th Century

This room is dedicated to the carved decor of peasants’ houses in the nineteenth century from different regions of Russia. In north Russia, a gable was one of the favourite house decorations. A heavy larch or fir log crowned roof slopes and ended with the figure of a horse.

The art of the house fretwork developed in many villages of Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir Provinces throughout the entire nineteenth century. Frontons, window frames and long friezes stimulated masters’ imaginations. They were filled them with fantastic flowers and acanthus volutes, from which lions with human faces, birds of paradise, mermaids, dragons and serpents peeped out. Some masters also painted the background or details of the pattern and indicated the dates of their creation. The house fretwork of the Volga region became a prominent phenomenon in the Russian folk art of the nineteenth century.