The role of a frame is modest: it highlights the painting on the wall and emphasizes its expressiveness. However, in art collections such as the Tretyakov Gallery, there are as many frames as paintings, and they are no less diverse and intriguing.

Why are frames sometimes grand and sometimes simple, oval or rectangular, gilded or carved? Why is Karl Bryullov's "Evening" framed like a carved window, while around Ilya Repin's "Reception of the Volost Elders" are the coats of arms of provinces? What are embossing and engraving, gold leaf and overdoor? All of this is known by the little wooden bird that has flown off the frame of Konstantin Makovsky's "Artist's Studio."

Following this small guide, children examine wooden wildflowers and engraved animals, learn for which spaces the canvases were painted, and even find the portrait of a framer on Vasily Pukirev's "Unequal Marriage," whom the artist included on the painting out of respect for the craftsman.

In this way, readers of art historian Valentina Bialik's book become acquainted with classic works of Russian artists and discover what their frames can reveal about the paintings themselves, the artists, and their era.