The small box “On Vladimir land” is a brilliant example of Mstyora miniature lacquer painting. This folk handicraft came into being in a small village in Vyaznikovskiy district (the name of the district at present) in Vladimir Oblast in the late 1920s.

This folk handicraft is making of small boxes of a wide variety of forms. They were made of paper-mache, then they were painted with tempera and finally, they were lacquered.

Mstyora masters took as a basis the technology which had been developing in the village of Fedoskino located near Moscow since the 18^thcentury but they added a lot of new and distinctive features. 

The distinctive features were definite means in forming up space, methods of composition, an important role of symbolism and a metaphor, joyful light coloration of painting without the use of black color.

All the features were connected with ancient traditions of icon painting which existed in Mstyora.

In the 1960s historical and revolutionary plots prevailed in the artist’s painting, in the 1970s Nikolai Ivanovich preferred bylina and literature topics, in the 1980s a lyrical theme inspired him.

The small box “On Vladimir land” is an example of the lyrical theme. It celebrates the unity of people and their native land nature.