Matryoshka Doll Views

• General Goods

A matryoshka doll is a Russian doll made from wood. This Russian handicraft became popular around the world as a gift, after winning a bronze medal at the Paris World Exposition in 1900. The doll can be pulled apart at the middle to reveal a slightly smaller doll nesting inside, which in turn has another doll inside it, and so on. Each of the dolls is painted, usually as a woman, and you can find matryoshka dolls depicting famous people as well as animals. There are five matryoshka dolls in this set. Dressed in a traditional Russian sarafan and apron, with a neckerchief on the head, and holding crops or roosters in their hands, they colorfully portray the traditional Russian peasant. The dolls are 20, 16, 12.5, 10, and 8 centimeters tall.

A set of matryoshkas consists of a wooden figure which separates, top from bottom, to reveal a smaller figure of the same sort inside, which has, in turn, another figure inside of it, and so on. The number of nested figures is traditionally at least five, but can be much more, up to several dozen with sufficiently fine craftsmanship. Modern dolls often yield an odd number of figures but this is not an absolute rule; the original Zvyozdochkin set, for instance, had an even number. The form is approximately cylindrical, with a rounded top for the head, tapering toward the bottom, with little or no protruding features; the dolls have no hands (except those that are painted). Traditionally the outer layer is a woman, dressed in a sarafan. The figures inside may be of either gender; the smallest, innermost doll is typically a baby lathed from a single small piece of wood (and hence non-opening). The artistry is in the painting of each doll, which can be extremely elaborate.

Modern artists create many new styles of nesting dolls. Common themes include animal collections, portraits and caricatures of famous politicians, musicians, robots and popular movie stars. Matryoshka dolls that feature communist leaders of Russia became very popular among Russian people in the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Today, some Russian artists specialize in painting themed matryoshka dolls that feature specific categories of subjects, people or nature. Areas with notable matryoshka styles include Sergiyev Posad, Semionovo (now the town of Semyonov), Polkholvsky Maidan, and Kirov.

Matryoshkas are also used metaphorically, as a design paradigm, known as the matryoshka principle or nested doll principle . It denotes a recognizable relationship of object-within-similar-object that appears in the design of many other natural and man-made objects. Examples include the Matrioshka brain and the Matroska media-container format. The matryoshka principle is also an example of Mise-en-abyme. Compare Fractal.