Royal wedding. Painting "boyar wedding feast", makovsky - description

White dress, an air veil, witnesses from the bride and groom, a festive escort, the exciting sounds of Mendelssohn's march and other attributes of the ceremony are indispensable attributes of a modern wedding, one of the most solemn and important events In human life. How many marriages are concluded annually in our country! Their organizers and participants, following a long-established and well-tested ritual scheme, often do not suspect that the origins of this beautiful rite go back to the hoary antiquity. folk traditions and even royal weddings. Documents of the Ambassador Prikaz, which are stored in the Russian state archives ancient acts, make it possible to reconstruct in detail the entire course of the Tsar's wedding celebrations more than three hundred years ago. Weddings Russian tsars The 16th-17th centuries, that is, before the Petrine reforms, were distinguished by an exceptional originality, which was based on centuries-old national traditions.

Konstantin Makovsky "Down the aisle"

Royal weddings of the era late middle ages surprisingly similar to one another, because they were celebrated according to a strict canon, the so-called "wedding rite", the tradition of which goes back to the times of great princes. It is thanks to the surviving and extant "wedding ranks" - these unique and detailed scenarios of celebrations - that we have a unique opportunity, for example, to find out how the wedding of Ivan the Terrible or Mikhail Romanov, Alexei Mikhailovich or Fedor Alekseevich took place.
Let's try to compose general idea about the royal wedding rituals in medieval Russia. (By the way, not so richly, but according to the same ceremonies, boyars, merchants and ordinary people celebrated weddings.)
Festive celebrations on the occasion of the weddings of Russian tsars were held in the Moscow Kremlin, in the Faceted Chamber (under Ivan the Terrible it was also called "Big Golden", and under Fedor Ivanovich - "Big Golden Signature" due to the fact that the chamber was decorated with wall paintings on gold background) and in the Golden Tsaritsyn and Zhiletskaya Chambers (the latter was intended for wedding guards - tenants, hence its name). These are the ancient residential ceremonial royal chambers, on the site of which the Terem Palace began to be erected in 1635. The wedding took place in the Annunciation Cathedral, and since 1671 - in the Assumption Cathedral.

A. Ryabushkin. Waiting for the king. 1901

All royal weddings, as already mentioned, being ceremonies "performed once and for all," that is, strictly regulated, began on Sunday or Thursday and lasted from two to four days. On the first day of the wedding, while waiting for the wedding time, the bride and groom could not see each other. The tsar, dressed as at the coronation, was sitting in his palace chambers, the princess in the Golden Chamber.

Portrait of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov

The ceremony began with the passage of the king and princess to the Faceted Chamber. But first, the tsar with his wedding "train" went to the Golden Chamber to the princess, in order to command her to go to the Faceted Chamber through his friend. According to custom, the bride was to come first to the Faceted Chamber, followed by the groom. This solemn procession was lined up in rank: candlesticks, loafers, lamplighters and friends walked in front. The schoolboy and the clerk "took care of the path," the archpriest sprinkled it with holy water. The princess was led under the arms of matchmakers, seated boyars and bedclothes, and the king was accompanied by a thousand.

A. Ryabushkin. Wedding train in Moscow of the 17th century. 1901

Modern weddings are incomparably simpler to organize, however, even now the bride and groom are always accompanied by "goers", however, they are now called differently: a witness and a witness. Loafers, bed-women, lampposts and others - today these are those who take on the functions of serving guests and arranging the celebration. There are a lot in modern weddings and rituals associated with amulets, although they are performed not by protopopes and clerks, but by everyone.

Grigory Sedov Choosing a bride by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich

After being elected to the kingdom, Mikhail Fedorovich did not dare to marry for a long time. In 1624 he finally married, but was widowed almost immediately. The king was still young, and, naturally, the question arose about a new marriage. On the appointed day, more than fifty brides of the most eminent and noble names... Each of them had a so-called "interview friend" with them. His niece Evdokia Lukyanovna Streshneva was a "friend for an interview" with the daughter of the devious Grigory Volkonsky.
The bridegroom of the brides upset the king - none of them pleased him, but, yielding to the wishes of his mother, he again went to choose the future queen. This time, his choice settled on the unknown girl Streshneva, who conquered the sovereign's heart with her beauty, courtesy and meek disposition.
The choice of Mikhail Fedorovich caused royal family disappointment, but he remained adamant. The sovereign referred not only to the feeling that arose in him, but also to his Christian duty to help the noble girl, not by blood, but in essence, to leave the house of her relatives who were oppressing her.
Having received the blessing of parents - Holy Patriarch Filaret and nun Martha, - Mikhail Fedorovich announced his marriage to Evdokia Streshneva. The royal messengers went to the remote Meshchovsky district (Kaluga province) to bring the father of the sovereign's chosen one Lukyan Stepanovich Streshnev to the court, who blessed his daughter for marriage.

His Holiness Patriarch Filaret blesses his son, Tsar Mikhail, for the marriage. Description in persons of the celebration that took place in 1626 on February 5 at the wedding of the Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Fedorovich with the Empress Tsarina Evdokia Lukyanovna of the Streshnev family.

The entire course of the wedding celebration was described in the front (illustrated) manuscript entitled "Description in persons of the celebration that took place in 1626 on February 5 at the wedding of the Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Fedorovich with the Empress Tsarina Evdokia Lukyanovna of the Streshnev family."

The marriage train of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Description in faces ...

The marriage train of Queen Evdokia Lukyanovna Description in faces.

The ceremonial hall of the Faceted Chamber, at that time the largest in Russia, was prepared in advance according to the occasion. The floor was covered with Turkish and Persian carpets, expensive colored cloth, the place of the bride and groom was raised on a locker (a large chest that served as a stand). It was upholstered in worm-like, that is, red, velvet and decorated with gold-embroidered pillows and sables. Festive table, covered, according to custom, with three tablecloths (the first was used before the wedding, the second was given to the newlyweds with refreshments in the bedchamber, the third was left for the guests to feast on), was lined with precious dishes.
At the first exit of the bride and groom to the Faceted Chamber, they were greeted by a wedding table with bread, cheese and salt - these most ancient pagan symbols that personified the month and the sun, marriage and prosperity.
As you can see, the modern beautiful wedding ritual of meeting the young with bread and salt has long roots.

Makovsky: Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich's choice of a bride

Here took place an interesting ceremony the royal wedding: in the ceremonial hall of the Faceted Chamber, under the prayer of the priest, the combing of the heads of the bride and groom took place. Tysyatsky's wife, dipping a comb in wine or honey, combed the hair of the tsar and the princess, thereby symbolizing their transition to a new quality, and then put on a veil for the bride - a sign of her "invisibility", modesty, bashfulness, showered the bride and groom with hops, which was a pledge fertility, wealth and prosperity, fanned, like a fan, with sables, meaning royal wealth. (Even in the Middle Ages, when there were incomparably more furs in Russia than today, sable fur was considered truly royal.)
Nowadays, from this beautiful wedding ritual, perhaps only a veil and shedding remained, however, more often not with hops, but with grain, money, flowers, and sometimes sweets. A veil today mainly serves as a decoration and does not carry the same ritual significance as in the distant past.
When the tsar and the princess were combing their hair, the groom's friend fed the guests with bread and cheese, and the bridegroom's friend presented gifts to the king on behalf of the princess. Here, the stewards, on behalf of the young, strictly according to the painting, presented gifts to their parents and closest people. And then there was a symbolic farewell of the bride's parents to her daughter and her transfer to the groom - rituals, in different variations surviving to this day.

I. Repin. Choosing a bride for the Grand Duke

But then the solemn moment came when the bride and groom set off from the Faceted Chamber to be married to the cathedral. In pre-Petrine Russia, there were two customs of the arrival of the future royal couple to the church: winter and summer. In winter, the groom came on horseback to the cathedral with his "train" before the bride. The princess with her "poezzhanyi" followed in the sleigh.
Nowadays, the bride and groom very often go to the registry office or to the church. different cars, and back - in one, thus repeating the old custom.
When the royal wedding was celebrated in the summer, the tsar and the princess, holding hands, walked to the cathedral on foot. According to custom, the stewards and the solicitors laid paths of beautiful fabric under their feet. But whenever there was this magnificent ceremony, in winter or summer, it was always accompanied by many actions, meaning all kinds of amulets, and the ringing of all the bells of the Kremlin and other Moscow churches.

K. Makovsky Boyar wedding feast in the 17th century. 1883

Participants of the modern "wedding train" - several cars decorated with ribbons, flowers and balloons - all the signal, and do not suspect that this is a relic of the ancient safety magic whip). Ringing church bells in the old days and the horns of wedding cars today - various forms notifications of the "whole world" about the wedding being celebrated.
Finally, after all the preliminary stages, the climax came wedding celebration- wedding. The transfer of his place during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich from the home church of the Russian tsars, the Annunciation Cathedral, to the Assumption Cathedral spoke of the change in ideas about the wedding of tsars. Everything that was important for the state in the royal wedding was no longer embodied by the entire "wedding rite", but only by the act church wedding... It was during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich that its importance increased immeasurably, which is why the place of the wedding was also moved to a cathedral intended for events of state importance (and the old wedding "rank" gradually faded into the past).
So, the wedding. In the cathedral Kremlin church, the bride and groom stood near the altar on a sable, covered with dams (the so-called silk ornamental fabric), and the sacred wedding ceremony began, at the end of which the young drank wine from one vessel and kissed. From now on, they were united "eternally and eternally" by God himself and acquired a new state-significant status. The newlywed tsar goes through, as it were, a second, after the coronation, procedure of approval in power, he is now perceived as a "mature" ruler who guarantees by his marriage the continuation of the dynasty, which means the preservation of the stability of Russia. After all, her power, in the traditional Russian system values ​​based on strength royal power... The newlywed in the new status of the queen (so they called her only after the wedding) was perceived as future mother heir to the throne, in other words, the guardian of the dynasty.

G. Myasoedov. The bride's show

After the wedding, the young people and guests went to the Faceted Chamber for a wedding feast. The tsar and tsarina occupied their former places, where they scratched their heads with a comb before the wedding, and the guests sat down according to their rank and position. In the center there was a large table, at the head of which the newlyweds sat, and around it there was a "curve" that skirted a large table in the shape of the letter "P". By old custom at the wedding feast, the newlyweds did not eat or drink anything.
After sitting for a while, the king and queen left the noisy feast and went to the bedchamber. The royal bedchamber closed the row of rooms of the palace - Front, Cross and Altar, that is, the sovereign's office. Its low doors were upholstered with fabric to keep warm, the floors were covered in several layers of carpets, because the bedchamber was not heated. The central subject of the whole decoration was, of course, the bed. In the old days they said - "bed". In its wealth and luxury, it resembled a magnificent tent. Made of expensive wood, the canopy-topped bed was cleaned in a special way... Rye sheaves covered with a carpet were laid down (sheaves from ancient times in Russia were considered a symbol of income in the house), on the carpet - up to a dozen featherbeds, a headboard and two pillows rose on the featherbeds, everything was covered with silk sheets and blankets - cold and warm, sable or marten, in feet laid a fur coat and carpet. To top it off, the bed with all the accessories was covered with a sheet. The bedclothes, the most trusted and reliable people of the king, were responsible for the decoration of the bedroom and bed, whose duties included the observance of all precautions.

Ivan the Terrible chooses a bride "
Gorokhovskaya T

Another curious ritual was taking place in front of the bedroom door. Tysyatsky's wife in an inverted sheepskin coat (a symbol of the carnal beginnings and a new family life) showered the newlyweds with hops. The king's friend brought them bread, salt and chicken from the wedding table, wrapped in a tablecloth, and left them alone.
The next morning, the newlyweds washed in the bath. This was also a symbolic rite of purification and entry into new life with pure intentions. The Tsar's bathhouse, or soap, was located on the lower floor of the Terem Palace, in one of the distant rooms. Water was specially brought into the soap in the 16th century, and from 1633 it began to be supplied by the water-lifting machine of the Kremlin's Vodovzvodnaya Tower from the Moskva River. In the XVI-XVII centuries, there was still a custom according to which the thousand and the friends accompanying the king, and the queen, matchmakers and boyars, washed the newlyweds with wine and honey. After the bath, the tsar and tsarina had breakfast in their mansions.
The royal wedding was concluded with festive dinners, reception of congratulations and distribution of sovereign favors on the occasion of the wedding celebration. Graces were due to everyone who took part in the royal wedding, from the metropolitan (since 1589 - the patriarch), who blessed the marriage, to the centurion who guarded the Kremlin.

M. Shibanov. Marriage contract. 1777

This is how, royally solemnly, richly and beautifully, the weddings of all were celebrated in the XVI-XVII centuries Russian sovereigns... Some of the ritual parallels found in them with modernity are quite indicative. The era of the Russian late Middle Ages in terms of the evolution of wedding rituals became a turning point. Never after have the royal wedding rituals, not yet "reshaped" in the Western manner, been so nationally unique and close to the folk.
Remnants of archaic beliefs, legends, customs, which were formed in different eras and continue to live to this day, are still found in the royal wedding rituals.
In subsequent periods, everything changed. The era of Peter the Great marked a sharp break in the wedding culture, when wedding ceremonies of various strata of society began to develop in their own ways. The traditional "arranged" royal wedding with its "quirks" remained forever in the XVI-XVII centuries, having not survived the cultural trends of modern times. And the folk wedding has adapted to the changing cultural and historical realities, has survived in its essence and has survived to this day.

M.Klodt. Terem princesses

Wedding rank - detailed description the entire course of the royal wedding ceremony from the first to last day with a list of all guests "by rank", in accordance with which they performed the ritual functions strictly assigned to them. Wedding ranks were drawn up for the Russian tsars in the Ambassadorial Prikaz from the middle of the XVI to end of XVII centuries.
The wedding train - the royal courtiers lined up in a strictly defined order.

Friends - court wedding ranks in Russia in the XV-XVII centuries. Their role at the wedding was to call guests, deliver ritual speeches, and distribute gifts and treats.

Candlesticks, loafers, lamplighters are court officials in Russia who performed certain ceremonial and economic functions.

Okolnichy - a court rank, who was in charge of ceremonies.

The seated boyars are courtiers whose role at the wedding was reduced to an honorary sitting in the Faceted Chamber at the wedding table.

Bedclothes, bedclothes - court wedding ranks who guarded the marriage bedroom.

Tysyatsky is the court chief rank on the part of the groom, who accompanied him everywhere during the wedding ceremony.

Stewards, solicitors are court officials in Russia who performed economic and ceremonial functions.

The work of K. Makovsky, one of the most famous painters of the 2nd half of the XIX century, very multifaceted. Perhaps, the artist is best known for his vivid paintings describing the life and life of patriarchal Russia. Makovsky is called an inspired singer of ancient Russian antiquity with its original flavor and original charm.

K. Makovsky became the creator of the so-called boyar cycle of canvases, closely associated with Russian history. The author's passion for collecting antiques played a huge role in its creation. Indeed, antiques found a second life on the artist's canvases.

Perhaps one of the most famous works boyar cycle K. Makovsky is large canvas"Boyarsky wedding feast of the 17th century". The painting was painted in 1883 and was a huge success at the World Exhibition in Antwerp.

The viewer is presented with vaulted mansions filled with fancy overseas dishes and cups of various shapes. The moment of the holiday is depicted when the wedding feast is close to completion - at this time a traditional dish"Swan".

Contemporaries emphasized the highest degree of historical reliability of the picture. In this work, the artist strives for a truthful depiction of ancient Russian life, not missing the features and details regarding the costumes of the characters, silverware, and the entire furnishings. WITH amazing skill transferred physical qualities precious stones, gold, ivory, velvet, brocade.

K. Makovsky in his work very reliably and convincingly managed to resurrect a forgotten era - the 17th century. The desire for historical accuracy in the depiction of details in the canvas is combined with the painter's fantasy and imagination, and this gives the canvas an extraordinary poetry.

In addition to describing the painting by K. E. Makovsky "Boyar wedding feast of the 17th century", our website contains many other descriptions of paintings by various artists, which can be used both in preparation for writing an essay on the painting, and simply for a more complete acquaintance with the work of the famous masters of the past.

Description of the painting by Makovsky "Boyarsky wedding feast of the 17th century"

In the work of Makovsky there are a lot of paintings that describe the life and life of Russia in patriarchal times.
He is one of the most famous painters 2nd half of the 19th century.
His work can be called versatile.
He is also called the inspired singer of ancient Russian antiquity, he has his own view of the color and life of that people.

This painting belongs to the boyar cycle and closely links the artist with history.
Makovsky himself was engaged in collecting antiques, which could not but leave an imprint on his work.
He paid a lot of attention to depicting antiques.

This painting is one of his famous works, it was painted in 1883 and was a huge success at the Antwerp exhibition.
We see vaulted mansions filled with a variety of dishes and cups of all shapes.
The artist captured the moment of celebration when the wedding feast comes to an end and the traditional dish "Swan" is brought out.

Critics paid special attention to the realism of the depicted event, and the reliability of the picture.
In his painting, the artist, with a special desire, tries to depict the life of the ancient Russian people as close as possible to the original, with all the traditions and characteristics.
Paying attention to costumes, cutlery and furnishings.
With amazing beauty he depicted jewelry, gold, ivory, velvet.
In his picture, he tells us about the traditions of that era, as if he spends sightseeing tour.
I was interested in his work, and I wanted to know in more detail about that time, how people lived and what they believed in.
Thanks to Makovsky for giving me freedom in my thoughts and reasoning on the topic of rituals in ancient Russia.

In a historical novelAlexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy"Prince Silver" (1863), dedicated to the era Ivan the Terrible (1547-1584), describes the "kissing ceremony" in the house of the disgracedBoyar of the Druzhina Morozova, according to which his young wife Elena was obliged to go out to the guests -outside men- in festive attire and kiss each, having previously presented him on a tray a glass of wine.

On the plot of the novel in 1895 g. Russian artist K.E. Makovsky painted my picture"Kissing Rite":

Kissing ritual Makovsky.

In the 16th century and earlier in Russia, women lived in a rather closed way - they sat in a tower, weaved and communicated only with close relatives. The church was visited on major holidays, and they moved through the streets in closed carriages.

And around the 17th century, the so-called kissing rite arose. After the end of the feast, the wife or daughter of the owner of the house came out to the guests, brought a glass of drink to the guests, and received a kiss on the cheek from the guest. There is a version that the ceremony could have been borrowed from foreigners living in Russia.

For the first time, the "kissing rite" among the Russians was described by the Austrian (ie, Holy Roman Empire) Ambassador BaronAugustin Mayerberg in 1661:

“Sometimes at these feasts there is no shortage of gifts of a kind. Always enters the dining room and the owner's wife in the most elegant quilted coat and in all female attire, accompanied by two or many servants; she gives the noblest of interlocutors a spell of vodka, soaking the edges of her lips in it. And while he is drinking, she hastily leaves for her room, puts on another padded jacket and immediately comes back to fulfill the same duty to another interlocutor.

After repeating this rite with each of the other guests, then she always stands at the front wall: standing there with her eyes lowered to the floor and folding her arms hanging down at her sides, she gives her patient lips to the kisses of her interlocutors who approach her according to the degree of self-worth and from whom so and reeks of an unpleasant smell of everything they ate and drank ... "

Currently, among the scientists-researchers of the everyday culture of Muscovite Russia there is no consensus about the origin of this rite. G.P. Uspensky believed that the ceremony could be borrowed from foreigners living in Russia. I.E. Zabelin ("The Household Life of the Russian People") took him out of"Pagan worship".

In the work of Makovsky there are a lot of paintings that describe the life and life of Russia in patriarchal times. He is one of the most famous painters of the 2nd half of the 19th century. His work can be called versatile. He is also called the inspired singer of ancient Russian antiquity, he has his own view of the color and life of that people.

This painting belongs to the boyar cycle and closely links the artist with history. Makovsky himself was engaged in collecting antiques, which could not but leave an imprint on his work. He paid a lot of attention to depicting antiques.

This painting is one of his famous works, it was painted in 1883 and was a huge success at the Antwerp exhibition. We see vaulted mansions filled with a variety of dishes and cups of all shapes. The artist captured the moment of celebration when the wedding feast comes to an end and the traditional dish "Swan" is brought out.

Critics paid special attention to the realism of the depicted event, and the reliability of the picture. In his painting, the artist, with a special desire, tries to depict the life of the ancient Russian people as close as possible to the original, with all the traditions and characteristics. Paying attention to costumes, cutlery and furnishings. With amazing beauty he depicted jewelry, gold, ivory, velvet. In his picture, he tells us about the traditions of that era, as if conducting an introductory tour. I was interested in his work, and I wanted to know in more detail about that time, how people lived and what they believed in. Thanks to Makovsky for giving me freedom in my thoughts and reasoning on the topic of rituals in ancient Russia.