st.Aura · collection 2026
Series
34 series · 538 works · scroll
St. George
A horseman with a spear is the most recognisable image in Russian icon painting.View the series
Holy Trinity
Three travellers came to Abraham at noon, and he laid a table for them under the oak.View the series
Mother of God
The Vladimir icon came to Rus from Constantinople in the twelfth century, and the Russian image of the Mother begins with it.View the series
Matryoshka
The matryoshka is little more than a hundred years old.View the series
Angel and Warrior
The Archangel Michael is the only figure in Christian iconography painted with a sword.View the series
Church Architecture
A Russian church is assembled from four solids: cube, arch, onion dome, cross.View the series
Kizhi
The Church of the Transfiguration on Kizhi island was raised in 1714: twenty-two domes, tier upon tier, and not a single nail in the log frame.View the series
Bogatyrs
Three riders on a hill — Ilya, Dobrynya and Alyosha — have stood in the Tretyakov Gallery since 1898 and in every school textbook ever since.View the series
The Tale of Igor's Campaign
In 1185 Prince Igor rode against the Polovtsians, was captured and escaped.View the series
Pinewood
The pine forest is the most Russian of forests, and Shishkin painted it once and for all.View the series
Motherland
There are signs a Russian reads before having time to think.View the series
The Host
The crimson shield is the most frequent colour in Russian military memory.View the series
Moscow
Moscow has an hour when it is at its best: the lamps are already lit and the sky still holds light.View the series
Panel Blocks
The prefab panel block is the country's most common architecture, and it has a pedigree.View the series
Dymka
The Dymkovo toy comes from the settlement of Dymkovo near Vyatka.View the series
Lacquered Carpet
A carpet on the wall was a sign of plenty every apartment knew: it hung above the sofa, above the bed, in grandmother's bedroom.View the series
Ornament
Ornament was never decoration.View the series
Gzhel
Gzhel is thirty villages near Moscow where ceramics have been made since the seventeenth century, and one colour: cobalt.View the series
Boxing
The most famous photograph in boxing history was taken from above.View the series
Greenback
A banknote is the most widely printed engraving in history.View the series
Game of Thrones
Chess is a game of thrones in the literal sense: "shah" is Persian for "king", and "shah mat" means "the king is dead".View the series
Madonna
A red circle on a wall is read before anything else: it is a signal, a sun, a seal.View the series
The Feast
The table is the only stage found in every home.View the series
The Devil Wears Prada
There is a film after which a red shoe stopped being footwear.View the series
Birches
Birch bark never repeats, like a fingerprint: the black strokes on white are different on every tree.View the series
Graphics
If everything painting is about is taken out of it, what remains is what it is made of: gesture, stroke, blot, stripe.View the series
Flora
A bouquet in a vase is the oldest subject of domestic painting: it was painted on faience, on silk, on Flemish panels and on tiled stoves.View the series
Ouroboros
The ouroboros — the snake biting its own tail — is older than any culture in which it appears.View the series
Petrov-Vodkin
"Bathing of a Red Horse" was painted in 1912, two years before the war, and has been read ever since as a prophecy.View the series
The Gaze
A face is recognised before any other form: an infant finds its mother's eyes in the second week.View the series
Japan
Japanese art has the notion of "ma" — the interval, the pause, the empty place that means no less than the filled one.View the series
Silhouettes
Line is the oldest thing the hand can do: before colour, before volume.View the series
Relief Paintings
This is where the studio began.View the series