DISCLAIMER: I'm sure my facts are screwy, and though I give "history" and "background" information throughout this blog, I know that it is at times simplistic. It's more of a history as I know it, rather than it is quotable research. Sometimes Wikipedia is my main source, so what does that tell you. Hopefully it piques some interest. Oh, and that image on the right? Not mine.I took this class in college on Russian and Eastern Slavic culture. I think it was an art history class, so I can't tell you anything about the Tsars or the Soviet Union, and I didn't learn the language. Anyway, through a series of coincidences and the stars aligning, the myth of the Firebird became my main focus in the class, which permeated throughout my art as well.
In short, the myth of Ivan Tsarevich involves a mysterious firebird stealing golden apples from a tsar's tree. The tsar sends his three sons out to capture the bird. The myth follows one of the sons, who is charged with three quests to get the bird: He finds the bird in a golden cage, but gets caught trying to take it. The owner tells him to get a horse with a golden mane from a neighboring tsar,and he would exchange the bird for the horse. Ivan of course gets caught trying to get the horse, and the tsar tells him if he captures a neighboring princess with golden hair, he will exchange her for the horse. Through trickery and the help of a gray wolf, he acquires all three of the treasures, and after dying and being revived by the wolf, lives happily ever after. I guess the princess was ok with the whole thing. For a good version, visit http://altrusse.ca/FairyTales/firebird.htm
The firebird appears as Zsar-ptitsa in Slavic folktales, but also as the Phoenix in Greek mythology, the Bennu bird in Egypt, and the Huma in Sufi and Simurgh in Persian folklore. In all of these, it is described as glowing like the sun, with brilliant yellows. The Slavic version is described as emitting brilliant yellows, oranges, and golds, and also emitting light. It was usually associated with difficult quests and magic.
So for that Russian class, I combined the myth of the Firebird with another important symbol in Slavic lore: the egg. Like many symbols in Europe, it's pre-Christian, but was adopted around Easter time to symbolize life and resurrection. A chick being born is like Christ breaking out of the tomb. In Eastern Orthodox traditions, they were dyed red to symbolize the blood of Christ, and were then decorated with paint, batik, appliqué, or engraved. Here's an example on the left of some eggs from Ukraine.
So I decided to make some blown eggs and paint on them some images reminiscent of the Firebird. I painted them in the style of lacquer boxes from the region. This style, especially the tiny, feathery strokes of the blue egg on the left, I had actually adopted before this project, and was delighted that there was such a similarity between that imagery and traditional imagery. Now, this was the fledgling (ha! get it?) days of my later assemblage pieces, so I may have constructed the bases a little differently nowadays. These eggs have since died (ouch. no comment on that one). The blue one might still be around. I made a series of these for Christmas presents for the family that year (2006), so some others may have survived.
As a sidenote, I'm of Czech descent, and was interested to see engraved blown eggs on outside markets when I visited the Prague last year. They were for tourists, sure, but traditional. I like to imagine my Czech ancestors dying eggs around Easter-time. They weren't Eastern Orthodox or Slavic, but I assume they were perpetuating Czech traditions. And who knows. Maybe they were doing it in Pre-Christian times.
This is only one use of the Firebird motif in my work. Next, I'll discuss its use in other pieces.
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