Sketch for the Opera, The Golden Cockerel, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 1909

Ivan Bilibin drafted this stage design for Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera, *The Golden Cockerel*. The composition, with its receding checkerboard floor and archways, creates a theatrical depth that draws the eye into the scene. The muted colors and geometric patterns give the impression of a medieval fairytale setting. Bilibin's design employs a structural formality. The symmetry in the architecture, such as the repeated archways and the heraldic lions, provides a structured order, but it is undermined by the flatness of the perspective, which feels almost two-dimensional. Semiotically, the lion motifs and the ornamental details signify royalty, while the checkerboard floor destabilizes this conventional reading, introducing an element of visual paradox. The tension between flatness and depth, order and paradox, encapsulates the artwork's core, revealing Bilibin's commentary on the stage as a space where reality and illusion are constantly negotiated.