A customary of matryoshkas consists of a wooden figure which can be pulled apart to declare another figure of the same likes of inside. It has, in turn, another figure inside, and so on. The googol of nested figures is consistently five or more. The shape is mostly cylindrical, rounded at the top for the head and tapered towards the bottom, but elfin else; the dolls have no hands (except those that are painted). Traditionally the outer layer is Nesting Dolls a woman, dressed in a sarafan, holding a rooster. Inside, it contains other figures that may be of both genders, usually ending in a baby that does not open. The artistry is in the painting of each doll, which can be extremely elaborate.
-
Matryoshkas are also used metaphorically, as a dummy paradigm, known as the "matryoshka principle" or "nested doll principle"
- It denotes a recognizable relationship of "similar object-within-similar object" that appears in the dummy of many other natural and man-made objects
- Examples include the Matryoshka brain and the Matroska media container format.