Icon painting

In 1901, artistic communities in Moscow and all over Russia celebrated the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the Stroganov School of Drawing. A year earlier, at the Paris World Fair, the school had been awarded two Grand Prix for the advancement of applied-arts education and silver and bronze medals for projects and products, as well as for “the ornamentation of public buildings and dwellings”. The Stroganov School was also awarded “Imperial” status in 1901.

The traditional culture of the North is rich and varied in its manifestations, and local museums hold numerous major works of northern art. These priceless monuments go back centuries and without them any study of the evolution of the material and spiritual culture of the Russian North would not be possible. It is no wonder that they continue to arouse interest.

On May 30th 2008 the Engineering Building of the Tretyakov Gallery opened an exhibition celebrating the 1020th anniversary of the baptism of Rus’. This landmark event started the process of the Christianization of the Slavic peoples of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The list of exhibits includes 89 icons painted in the period between the 14th and 19 th centuries from the major museums of Moscow, Kiev and Minsk. The Tretyakov Gallery presents a collection of the oldest icons demonstrating the variety of the art of Ancient Russia’s cultural centres in the period between the 14th and 16th centuries. The collection of the National Kievo-Pechersky Historical and Cultural Reserve reveals the evolution of local icon-painting art in the 16th-19th centuries, tracing it from the post-Byzantine period to Barocco. The National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus introduces a collection of 17th-19th century icons, including works reminiscent of the Byzantine tradition, alongside those created in a manner characteristic of Barocco and Classicism.

The "Scuderie del Quirinale” in Rome is presenting the first half of a major exhibition "From Giotto to Malevich - Mutual Admiration” that is a highlight of a joint programme "Russia and Italy: A Relationship over the Centuries”. The show, which from February 7 will be on display in Moscow at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, has been organised by major museums in both countries, with support from the Ministries of Culture and Internal Affairs of both Italy and Russia.

The Plastovs are an ancient Russian family. Their ancestors, many of whom were priests, lived in the Arzamas region. Legend has it that one of the Plastovs was a cleric in an area populated by the Mordvins (the Erzya people). Their family surname then was Sinitsyn, and among them was, in the late 18th-early 19th centuries a certain Vasily Sinitsyn, a deacon fond of painting. One of the Sinitsyn family was an apprentice with the icon painter Plastov — he painted icons with the artist travelling from village to village. When his mentor died, the apprentice took his family name: at first he was called Plastov the apprentice, and then simply Plastov. The first family member about whom anything is reliably known is Gavrila Stepanovich Plastov (1801-c.1843), whose father is known to have been a cleric. Gavrila studied at (but did not graduate from) a seminary in Kazan. He also studied at an art school in Arzamas founded in 1802 by the painter Alexander Stupin. Founded on academic principles (Stupin himself had studied at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg), the school had a curriculum combining professional education with a large range of general subjects and was endorsed by the Academy. The school placed a special emphasis on teaching icon painting.