Ballet "Icarus" E Maximova V Vasiliev

The central panel shows a bare-chested, winged male dancer kneeling on rocky ground, raising a ballerina in a short pink tutu onto his shoulder as she lifts her arms overhead. Two birds and a pale sun hang in the tan sky above blue mountain ranges. This scene is set within an elaborate painted surround of carved-looking columns, gilded scrollwork, and tiled borders, with lettering and a title cartouche along the base.

Cool blue-grey mountains contrast with the warm ochre sky and rosy flesh tones of the dancers, modeled smoothly for a solid, sculptural effect. The surrounding frame is painted in gold, bronze, and dark teal with crisp decorative patterning, giving the whole a theatrical, stage-like grandeur.