Baba Yaga (1900 CE)

Ivan Bilibin’s Baba Yaga is a mesmerizing illustration that vividly captures the essence of one of Slavic folklore’s most enigmatic figures: Baba Yaga, a supernatural old woman who embodies both terror and wisdom. In this artwork, she is shown flying through a shadowy forest in her wooden mortar, propelled by a pestle like a paddle, with a broom to sweep away her tracks—iconic traits drawn directly from ancient tales. Bilibin’s Art Nouveau-inspired style, with its ornate borders and folk motifs, blends horror and enchantment, offering a glimpse into Baba Yaga’s dual role as a child-devouring witch or a helpful guide in Russian fairy tales. This piece not only illustrates a specific scene from the folktale Vasilisa the Beautiful but also immortalizes Baba Yaga as a symbol of the wild, ambiguous forces in Slavic mythology, arousing curiosity about her origins in oral traditions that predate written records by centuries.

Ivan Bilibin’s Baba Yaga was created in 1900 as part of a series of illustrations for the Russian folktale Vasilisa the Beautiful (Vasilisa Prekrasnaja), which appears in Alexander Afanasyev’s seminal collection Narodnye russkie skazki or (Russian Folk Tales), published between 1855 and 1863. Afanasyev’s work compiled and documented oral stories from Slavic peasants, preserving tales that had circulated verbally for generations (or even centuries) before his publication; Bilibin’s illustrations came later, commissioned for a new illustrated edition of these already-established tales, produced by Russian state printing houses to promote cultural heritage during the late Tsarist period. This timing reflects a revival of interest in national folklore amid industrialization and Western influences.

Baba Yaga herself is a cornerstone of Slavic folklore, with roots tracing back to pre-Christian pagan beliefs among East Slavic peoples (Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians). Her name variations appear across Slavic languages, and her first clear written reference is in Mikhail V. Lomonosov’s Russian Grammar (1755), where she is listed among mythical beings without a direct Roman equivalent, emphasizing her unique cultural status. Folklore scholars like Vladimir Propp note that depictions of Baba Yaga vary across tales, lacking a fully coherent image but sharing core attributes: she lives deep in the forest in a hut on chicken legs that spins to face visitors, flies in a mortar using a pestle, and often appears with epithets like “Bony Leg” or “Iron Teeth.” In tales collected by Afanasyev—such as Vasilisa the Beautiful, Marya Morevna, and The Maiden Tsar—she tests heroes like the orphan Vasilisa or the merchant’s son Ivan, sometimes devouring failures but rewarding the clever with magical aid (e.g., a firebird or a glowing skull). Her origins may link to ancient shamanistic rituals, Finno-Ugric influences (e.g., stilted forest huts resembling her home), or Indo-European archetypes of wild women, with etymological ties to words for “serpent,” “horror,” or “witch” in languages like Serbian, Polish, and Czech. Bilibin, influenced by the Mir iskusstva movement and his later ethnographic travels in northern Russia (1902–1904), drew from these elements to visualize her, building on 19th-century lubki (folk woodblock prints) that depicted her in humorous or satirical scenes, such as battling a “crocodile” (a parody of Tsar Peter the Great).

Baba Yaga’s folklore is rich with intriguing details that highlight her ambiguity. In one tale from Afanasyev’s collection, The Maiden Tsar, the hero Ivan encounters three sister Baba Yagas in identical chicken-legged huts; the third attempts to eat him but is thwarted when he blows magical horns summoning birds, including the firebird, which carries him to safety—leaving her with only a handful of feathers. This trio motif underscores her as a multiplied archetype, perhaps representing life stages or seasonal cycles. Another anecdote ties her tools to pagan women’s rituals: ethnographer Andrey Toporkov suggests the pestle (used as a weapon in rituals) came first, with the mortar added for association, symbolizing domestic yet destructive power.

Baba Yaga occupies a profound role in Slavic cultural and artistic contexts as an ambivalent archetype: a totemic ancestress, earth goddess, or female initiator who guards the boundaries between life and death, civilization and wilderness. In folklore, she symbolizes the untamed forest (associated with wildlife and pagan spirits), testing moral fortitude—devouring the unworthy while aiding pure-hearted heroes, as in Vasilisa the Beautiful, where themes of courage, cunning, and maternal protection prevail (Vasilisa uses a magical doll from her late mother to survive Baba Yaga’s tasks). Her shamanistic traits—flying between worlds, sensing scents, and living in a rotating hut—may reflect ancient rituals involving women, mortality (e.g., “bony leg” evoking death), or seasonal cycles (winter hag vs. wise crone). Scholars like Andreas Johns describe her as “enigmatic,” capable of representing a cloud, moon, snake, bird, or phallic mother, with links to related figures like the Czech Ježibaba (a wicked nymph), Polish Jędza (fury-witch), or Romanian Muma Pădurii (Forest Mother). 

Artistically, Bilibin’s depiction elevated her to an icon of Russian identity within the Mir iskusstva movement, blending Art Nouveau decor with folk lubki, medieval icons, and Japanese prints. His stylized, ornamental approach—flat colors, intricate borders with runes and flora—contrasts realist schools, preserving folklore amid modernization. It popularized her visual motifs globally, influencing films (Disney’s Frozen), literature, and art, while highlighting Slavic oral traditions’ ritualistic meanings: the mortar and pestle as tools of transformation, the chicken-legged hut as a portal to the otherworld. This ambiguity—evil yet helpful—mirrors broader Slavic views of nature’s duality, making her an enduring symbol of feminine power and mystery.

The artwork was created using watercolor and ink, achieving a gouache-like effect for highlights and mystical glows. Bilibin employed fine brushstrokes for intricate details, black ink for bold outlines, and gold to infuse a sense of mysticism. Designed for book printing, the illustration features flat colors and ornamental borders characteristic of Art Nouveau and Russian folk art. The original dimensions are approximately 25.5 x 32.5 cm (10 x 12.8 inches).

Baba Yaga was originally produced in 1900 for a state-published collection of Afanasyev’s folktales, under the auspices of institutions like the Department for the Production of State Documents (Goznak). The original artwork is housed in the Museum of Goznak in Moscow, part of Bilibin’s surviving archive, though some of his works were lost during the Russian Revolution. Since Bilibin’s death in 1942, the illustration has entered the public domain and the image is featured in collections at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.