On a par with the Moscow region, which is known for the high technical and artistic quality of its lathe woodworks, fame has also been earned by the Nizhni Novgorod area, where one of the first places is held by legendary Khokhloma. The art of making Easter eggs was apparently known there from time immemorial. Khokhloma painting uses two types of ornaments: overlay painting and painting to fit the background. Overlay painting is done by paintbrush strokes over the surface of the background, creating a light, lacy pattern. The golden background shines through the plant ornament with flowers, blades of grass, and berries. The painting to fit the background has a golden silhouette drawing surrounded by a black or colored background. This old industry has existed since the 16th century. That is why the designs of Khokhloma ornaments contain many elements going back to the ornament of Ancient Rus. The Khokhloma Easter egg created by Y. Dospalova, chief painter of the association Khokhlomskaya Rospis (Khokhloma Painting), is so perfect that one cannot help recalling the legend about a golden egg. The golden egg was what most peoples used to give as a present in both pagan and Christian times. Every Russian knows from childhood the popular fairy tale about the Spotted Pullet, which laid an egg for Grandpa and Grandma, not a simple one, but a golden one.

While in popular artistic centers of woodworking the art of making lathe ornamented eggs survived even in the Soviet period, in the traditional centers of lacquer miniature painting on papier-mache it appeared only in post-Soviet times, after a long interval of oblivion. Among the first to return to the painting of Easter eggs were the miniaturists of Mstyora, understanding their ornamentation in a purely religious sense. With the tradition of painting Easter eggs begun by the Tyulin brothers and O. Chirikov standing before them as an example, modern Mstyora handicraftsmen meritoriously continued their tradition. At the various exhibitions held in Novgorod to commemorate 1,000 years of Christianity in Russia, religious personalities noted that, of all the centers of tempera miniature painting on papier-mache, Mstyora was the one which preserved the most the traditions of ancient Russian painting.

As before the 1917 revolution, Easter eggs with lacquer miniature painting of the traditional centers of Fedoskino, Palekh, Mstyora, and Kholuy are made to order and are fairly expensive. Usually, Easter eggs in those centers are painted only by experienced, highly skilled professionals. The painting of an Easter egg requires good knowledge of iconography. Those centers had more than just icon-painting studios. Ancient Russian art was an art of synthesis, uniting icon painters, chasers of framings, enamel and filigree makers, gold embroidery makers, etc.

Today Easter eggs painting is reviving not only at the Center of Mstyora Lacquer Miniature Painting but also at the enterprise Nstyorskiy Yuvelir (Mstyora Jeweler). There they manufacture a series of eggs adorned with openwork twine made on the basis of geometrical plant ornaments. The art of Kholmogory handicraftsmen is known from time immemorial. Czar Alexis in the 17th century used to invite them to his court to make bone articles; in the 18th century they were brought to the new capital city of St. Petersburg, where they created works of art unsurpassed in their handicraft. The creations of Kholmogory handicraftsmen are particularly smart and solemn; they are distinguished by high artistry, significative of peculiar artistic traditions of this center in the village of Lomonosovo in Kholmogory district. Today, Kholmogory artisans create Easter eggs unique in their method of making. The work of S. Minin is an openwork case made of a single piece of mammoth ivory whose base is an opening gilded silver egg. When necessary, it can easily be turned into two small liquor glasses of equal size. This laborious jewelry work took more than half a year to do; one wrong movement, and the openwork mammoth ivory case could fall to pieces.

Probably the most ancient of all existing Easter eggs from various materials are the eggs from semiprecious and precious stones and minerals. Semiprecious stones are divided into hard, medium-hard, and soft ones. The hard stones include jasper, agate, malachite, nephrite, azurite, jade, and others. The group of medium-hard stones includes marble, porphyry, onyx, and others. The soft stones include selenite, calcite, serpentine, and others. Easter eggs have been and still are made of semiprecious stones of different groups.

Ceramic enterprises manufacturing porcelain, delft, and majolica articles prefer mass production of eggs. These artistic enterprises approach the decoration of Easter eggs in a fairly traditional way. The Easter eggs manufactured by the Gzhel Company - made of porcelain with cobalt and majolica with polychrome painting - are widely known from prerevolutionary times. They continue the classic tradition of Easter eggs painting of the M.S. Kuznetsov Company porcelain factories. Flower compositions and those depicting Orthodox temples are the most widespread. Gzhel Easter eggs can be of various sizes. Rechitsy Porcelain Factory, located close to the village of Gzhel, has recently started producing Easter eggs with flower painting.

Lately in Moscow there began to appear artistic enterprises manufacturing small quantities of ceramic articles. One of them is Nikand, with its samples of porcelain with cobalt painting. Most of Nikand's porcelain eggs are individual authors' works. Thus, Easter eggs are painted by (S.R. Kern. Predominant are Christian motifs, as well as architectural landscapes. High professionalism of artists and craftsmen is also typical of another Moscow porcelain enterprise, Daki, born in 1992. Together with cobalt painting of porcelain articles, this company has started producing biscuit, that is, porcelain without glazing, decorated with molding and painting. Easter eggs at Daki are normally manufactured in single copies, made to order. Well known are the eggs of porcelain with molding produced by the Feniks company in the city of Kislovodsk and delft eggs with painting made by the Aksinya enterprise in (Semikarakorsk, both in southern Russia. The decoration of Easter eggs at these porcelain enterprises sticks to its own artistic style.

Major renowned centers of popular art are going through a process of breaking up into smaller units. They spawn small workshops and studios, which are faster to meet the needs of modern society. Such is the Sakva firm, which has appeared in the village of Mstyora. There you can order an Easter egg, which will be made by a particular author. Peculiar motifs are present in the painted eggs of the popular art production company Vyatskiy Suvenir (Vyatka Memorabilia). This center has traditionally worked with straw inlay, but it also produces eggs with paintings on religious subjects, in particular «Christmas.»

A similar tendency of using Christmas motifs in decorating samples is found in the Association of Arts and Crafts of (Saint Petersburg and Leningradskaya Oblast. Apparently, this is an influence of the West European civilization, for which Christmas is the most significant religious holiday. There is a German proverb about this: «No nest is higher than that of the eagle; no holiday is higher than Christmas.» One more phenomenon in the modern art of decorating the Easter egg is linked to artistic traditions of prerevolutionary St. Petersburg: the creation by (St. Petersburg handicraftsmen of Easter eggs following Faberge patterns. (Standing out among them are miniature pendants featuring both Christian and pagan symbols. Openwork pendants are an exact copy of the openwork beads on the small shoulder mantle worn by ancient czars the day of their coronation found in the Ryazan treasure, dating back to pre-Mongol Rus.

The first attempts to imitate the Faberge style were made in the early 1980's. One of the initiators of reviving the traditions of the famous jewelry firm was Andrei Ananov. After Mr. Ananov had given a locket in the form of an Easter egg to a Faberge representative, the Cartier company gave its opinion about its quality. A contract was signed with Mr. Ananov, and a special stamp was worked out: «Faberge by Ananov.» Mr. Ananov had refused to simply stamp his works «Faberge.» Eggs by Ananov's firm are owned by Monserrat Caballe, Placido Domingo, and former first ladies Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush.

Modern Easter eggs by individual authors are an original phenomenon in the Russian artistic culture of the late 20th century. They are fruits of living, free artistic creative work. Modern Easter eggs by individual authors can be divided into several motif groups: religious, architectural landscape, simple landscape, literature (Russian epic poems, Russian popular fairy tales, works by Russian writes), pagan motifs, symbolic, etc. Such a diversity means that the art of the modern Russian Easter egg is developing in various directions. It is note worthy that some professional artists who a short time ago began painting matryoshka dolls, switched tree or four years later to Easter eggs, and then took up icon painting. Thus, it is to say that the evolutionary road, which, in the opinion of the Russian theologian, philosopher, and scholar, Rev. Davel Florenkiy, has led from the decorated Egyptian sarcophagus through the Al Fayyam portrait to the icon, has been retraced.

Russian poet Marina Tsvetayeva once said that all gifts are given to the ignorant and the ungrateful, except the gift of the soul, which is nothing but conscience and memory. The best examples of Easter eggs with religious images are charged with such energy and impact so strongly that they really can rouse historic memory and illuminate our souls.

The art of Easter eggs is a whole new world, a feature in the living image of Russia. The Easter eggs are one of the best Russian souvenirs!