The Stroganov school () is a conventional name for the last major Russian

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...

-painting school, which thrived under the patronage of the fabulously rich Stroganov family of merchants in the late 16th and 17th centuries. The Stroganov school owes its name to frequent mentioning of the Stroganovs on the markings on the back of the icons of Yemelyan Moskvitin, Stefan Pakhirya, Prokopy Chirin, Istoma, Nazariy, and Nikifor Saviny. Most of these icon painters, however, did not belong to the Stroganov school. They were icon painters from

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

and executed commissions by the

tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

. Many of their works were eventually acquired by the Stroganovs, who had been known as connoisseurs of sophisticated craftsmanship. The works of art of the Stroganov school have quite a few features in common, such as small size, exquisite diminutiveness, refined palette (mostly achieved with half-tints, golden, and silver colours), the density of paint layers, graphic precision of details, the fragile and somewhat pretentious delicacy of characters' postures and gestures, the richness of their vestments, and complicated fantasy of landscape background.

References

* Igor Grabar ''History of Russian Art'', available online a

External links

{{Russian art movements Russian art movements Eastern Orthodox icons Russian icon painters Icon-painting schools