Crimson & Cobalt & White

Cobalt (medium, vivid — the cobalt oxide painted Gzhel porcelain — the most internationally celebrated and most immediately identifiable Russian folk ceramic tradition) and White (pure, luminous — the Gzhel porcelain ground — the specific pure white of the Gzhel kaolin clay body) create the most characteristically Russian folk art and most immediately internationally recognizable cool-neutral pair. Against Crimson's passionate Zhostovo-rose warm, this creates the most specifically Russian folk art and most widely celebrated Russian decorative tradition palette.

The palette is the visual world of Russian folk art — specifically the two most internationally celebrated and most visually complementary Russian folk art traditions: the Gzhel porcelain (Гжельский фарфор — the traditional Russian blue-and-white ceramics produced in the Gzhel ceramic district — approximately 30 villages in the Ramensky District of Moscow Oblast — the most internationally recognized Russian folk ceramic tradition) and the Zhostovo decorative painting (Жостовская роспись — the traditional Russian lacquerware painting tradition from the village of Zhostovo in the Mytishchi District of Moscow Oblast — the most internationally recognized Russian lacquerware tradition). The Russian folk art palette: the deep vivid crimson of the Zhostovo rose petal (the specific vivid crimson-to-red of the most characteristic Zhostovo rose — the single most important and most frequently depicted botanical motif in the Zhostovo painting tradition — painted in the most thickly applied, most brilliantly saturated oil paint — the specific crimson that anchors every Zhostovo composition around a central flower bouquet); the medium vivid cobalt of the Gzhel cobalt painted decoration (the specific medium, vivid cobalt blue of the cobalt oxide underglaze painting on Gzhel porcelain — the most immediately internationally recognizable Russian folk art color — the same cobalt oxide used in the finest Chinese and Delft blue-and-white ceramics, but applied in the most specifically Russian folk painting tradition — with the most boldly flowing, the most calligraphically fluid, and the most expressively spontaneous brushwork of any blue-and-white ceramic tradition); and the pure luminous white of the Gzhel porcelain ground (the specific pure, translucent white of the traditional Gzhel kaolin clay body — fired at approximately 1280°C to produce the most characteristically pure white of the Russian ceramic tradition — slightly warmer than the most refined European hard-paste porcelain white, but more luminously pure than the earthenware white of the most traditional folk ceramics).