Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Magic carpet

Magic carpet


In Russian folk tales, Baba Yaga can supply Ivan the Fool or Tsarevich Ivan with a flying carpet or some other magical gifts (e.g., a ball that rolls in front of the hero showing him the way or a towel that can turn into bridge). Such gifts help the hero to find his way "beyond thrice-nine lands, in the thrice-ten kingdom".

In 1880, the rich industrialist Savva Mamontov commissioned Viktor Vasnetsov to illustrate the folk tale about Tsarevich Ivan and Firebird. The painting represents Ivan returning home after capturing the Firebird, which he keeps in a cage. Ivan is riding the flying carpet in the early morning mist. This work was Vasnetsov's first attempt at illustrating Russian folk tales and inaugurated a famous series of paintings on the themes drawn from Russian folklore. When exhibited at the 8th exhibition of the Peredvizhniki, the painting was panned by leading critics as a commerically motivated betrayal of realism and return to the aesthetics of Romanticism. On the other hand, it was enthusiastically received by the Slavophile artists from the Abramtsevo art colony.

Vasnetsov's painting provides an exceptional illustration of the article magic carpet. The image is high quality and high resolution. You feel like being transported into a fairyland.


 * Nominate and support. - Ghirla  -трёп-  14:43, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Support. --KFP (talk | contribs) 15:49, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Support. Excellent, eyecatching, beautiful. (And no blown highlights... ;-) --Janke | Talk 16:57, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Support Actually, if you look closely, the neck of the firebird looks like it has blown highlights. | A ndonic O  Talk 19:19, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Support Great quality, and an amazing outfit! • Le  on  01:32, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Support. Even the oil dabs on canvas are visible. Is it your first FP nomination, Ghirla? :) --Brand спойт 13:19, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
 * It was me who uploaded Image:Lugano prokudin.jpg and the original version of Image:Sochi edited.jpg, although the latter was reuploaded with miniscule changes and no attribution as to the first uploader. -- Ghirla -трёп-  14:30, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Support per all above, although I do not want to be transported to fairyland. Too many fairies. --Bridgecross 14:15, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Support, impressive, excellent image. - Mailer Diablo 15:41, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Support, great picture, great quality. I've cropped it just now to make a desktop and it looks great on my widescreen monitor.  --Xtreambar 21:52, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Support. Great scan of an interesting image. Nautica Shad e  s  07:01, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Support Excellent image, terrific quality. Hello32020 00:40, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Support I find it to be a highly amusing and skillful painting, scanned in high-quality. Jellocube27 18:26, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

--KFP (talk | contribs) 11:15, 24 November 2006 (UTC)