Illustration by Fortunio Matania (1881-1963) of The Destruction of Kostcheï from the production of The Firebird by Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, published in The Sphere July 1912. Pen and ink and Chinese white on board.

The ballet L'Oiseau de Feu or The Firebird composed by Igor Stravinsky was presented at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, for the first time on 18 June 1912 by Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Tamara Karsavina danced the title role, with Adolph Bolm as her captor, Ivan Tsarevich, and Enrico Cecchetti as the evil Kostcheï. This illustration shows the scene outside the Enchanted Castle of the Immortal Kostcheï with Adolph Bolm as Ivan Tsarevitch playing with the egg containing the soul of Kostcheï played by Enrico Cecchetti into the air. The Tsarevna and her companions look on outside the castle gates.�

As Karsavina explained the narrative of The Firebird in the Dancing Times May 1954 'The bird of prey, endowed with a magic power, whose plumage is almost too dazzling to behold, comes every night at dawn to steal golden apples off the tree outside the castle of Kostcheï. Many beautiful maidens are imprisoned within the walls of the castle. Many valiant knights, in the attempt to rescue them, have been turned into stone by the evil sorcerer. For his power is great, his span of life unending. The soul of is hidden in an egg, the egg in a casket, the casket is in a tree hollow; no man knows the way to it.’ With the talisman feather given to him by the Firebird, Ivan Tsarevitch finds the egg in the casket and by shattering it, breaks the spell.

This illustration was published in the British magazine The Sphere in July 1912. Its artist, Fortunino Matania ( was the son of an Italian artist who studied at his father’s studio and designed his first advertisement at the age of 9. He worked in Italy for the periodical L'Illustrazione Italiania between 1895 and 1902, and in Paris for Illustration Francaise from 1902. He was invited to London to cover the Coronation of Edward VII for The Graphic in 1902, joined the staff of The Sphere in 1904 and became one of its star illustrators. He was especially well known during the Great War for his realistic wartime illustrations.