Enamel appeared on the Rostov land in the 18th century as an icon-painting craft. This is a picturesque enamel on a metal base — one of the oldest methods of artistic metal processing. The enamel that decorated the items was an alloy of glass, painted with metal oxides in different colors.
Ancient Egyptians used this technique, then it was used in Byzantium. And from Byzantium it came to Rus’. Good enamels were expensive, so they were used to decorate items made of precious metals — gold, silver and copper. And it was here that the name of finift’ was given to enamels. Today, this term refers to both painting with overglaze paints on enamel and working with the enamels themselves.
In Rostov, enameling originated at the beginning of the 18th century. According to documents, the work of the first workshop dates back to the 1760-1770s. Initially, the craftsmen worked for the needs of the Orthodox Church: they decorated the clothes of clergy and objects of worship, and also painted icons using this technique. As monks of the Rostov monasteries so assigned peasants were engaged in the craft. In the 18th century, there was definitely an enameling workshop at the Rostov bishop’s court and individual craftsmen. All of them carried out exclusively church orders; secular work appeared later, and in the 20th century, with the advent of Soviet power, the products changed radically. Initially, the art of enameling was taught to Rostovites by the masters of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, who were working in Rostov at that time, fulfilling the decree of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna from 1759. According to the decree, icons in all holy churches and monasteries had to be «skillfully made.» The unskilled icons had to be re-shipped. Fulfilling this requirement, Metropolitan Arseny (Matseevich) invited craftsmen from the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius to renew the iconostases in Rostov.
It is a well-known fact that in 1751, the Trinity masters made the Gospel frame for the Metropolitan of Rostov — Arseny. Hierodeacon Clement, the icon painter from the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, worked in Rostov in 1763. And he not only renovated the iconostasis, but trained local masters, as well. At first, the skill was passed from father to son, from teacher to student. In the 1770s, a workshop of icon painters was organized in Rostov, which enamel masters were taught. But there were masters outside the workshop as well. In 1898, a special school was started in the city — Craft classes of drawing, icon painting, carving and gilding on wood. Enamel was introduced into the curriculum only in 1904. In 1911, the Educational and Demonstration Enamel School started, but closed in 1931. From 1937 to 1941, a vocational school for training enamel artists was opened, but it did not continue its activities after the Great Patriotic War. Further training of enamel masters took place in Fedoskino.
The development of enamel craftsmanship was initially facilitated by the support of the bishop’s house. Thus, Archbishop Arseny (Vereshchagin) can be considered as a popularizer of the Rostov enamel icon of the late 18th century. From the archbishop’s diaries we learn that he often blessed believers with enamel icons, and also presented people he personally knew with them. For example, such an icon was presented by Archbishop Arseny to Metropolitan Gabriel of Novgorod, Archbishop Innocent of Pskov, Archbishop Ireneus of Tver, Archbishop Ambrose of Kazan, Metropolitan Platon of Moscow, the imperial confessor Isidore, the court protodeacon Pyotr Ilyich and others.
The images varied. In the 18th century, the most common were Christ the Savior Almighty, the Mother of God, John the Baptist, and the Evangelists. They also painted selected saints, but much less frequently, with one exception: Saint Demetrius of Rostov. This saint was widely revered in those years, and his images were especially popular.
The history of the appearance of Rostov enamel and the history of the subsequent development of this art demonstrate that the craftsmanship was initially oriented toward the high art of miniature. Rostov enamel was an elite art from the moment of its birth, and only in the course of life did the level of elitism change, or rather differentiate.
Until 1917, the church direction was the leading one, but the quality of execution varied. The craftsmen made both high-class products and «souvenirs» for pilgrims. In the pilgrimage icon, the craftsmen depicted saints, famous cathedrals, and views of holy places. And these images laid the foundation for both spiritual and secular portraiture in enamel, as well as landscape painting.
Rostov enamel painting was presented both in professional and academic execution due to different tasks and pricing policies, and it significantly simplified one. Since the second half of the 19th century, secular works in enamel technique appeared, but icons of the «best writing» became a rarity. The main consumers of enamel at that time were people of average income. Finift’ had to compete with machine-made icons. All this led to a general decrease in the level of artistry, but icon painting still remained of good quality and was based on the traditions of the last century.
New themes were not an indicator of a departure from tradition. On the contrary, this is evidence of the development of skill, an indicator that the masters met the demands of the time and fully revealed the possibilities of their material, that is, enamel. After the revolution, the craft survived only because it reoriented itself to jewelry. It had to move away from its source — icon painting. But this was a way of survival.
Naturally, the main characteristic feature of Rostov enamel art was and is the copy principle. The master always worked from a model: icons, engravings, book and magazine illustrations, as well as photographs. Thanks to this, Rostov enamel had the features of easel painting.
Painting on enamel was performed on a previously applied design, which was transferred to the surface through tracing paper. Consequently, Rostov enamel was greatly influenced by professional miniatures and painting. National features appeared in this craft only in the 20-30s of the XIX century thanks to fashionable romanticism. This style forced artists to turn to Russian culture, to national features and to look for inspiration in them. But the basis is miniature painting.
All these features do not allow us to talk about Rostov enamel as an art that emerged from folk art. This type of art should be attributed to traditional icon painting on enamel, this is where the origins of this craft are. Only over time, portrait and landscape appeared in it. But both portrait and landscape were never able to substitute the icon, which is still produced in Rostov using this technique.
Rostov enamel is a painting that absorbed national features only in the process of its evolution. At the same time, the level of skill in many crafts shows that academic art should not be contrasted with applied art.
