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Anika Fedorovich Stroganov (1498-1570) was
the founder of one of the most eminent and wealthy Russian families. Around
1470 this father moved from Novgorod to Solvichegodsk where he founded a
salt-works. Anika continued in this business and became involved in fishing,
and fur trading with local tribesmen and gradually created a vast and versatile
commercial empire. Ivan the Terrible granted him the right to mine in all Perm
lands, which are very rich in gold, platinum, iron and other minerals. His
descendants continued to push east and south and build up an enormous family
fortune. The Stroganovs contributed much to the conquest of Siberia, where they
built many villages. Towns and cities, together with churches and monasteries.
To protect them from indigenous tribes, they had their own army, which often
inflicted serious harm on units of the Siberian khan. In 1581 the Stroganovs
enlisted the help of the famous Don kozak Vassili Timofeyevich Yermak (Ermak)
who, at the head of his army mercenaries, captured Siberian Tatar capital. With
Yermak were three hundred of Stroganov's men, led by Anika's two grandsons,
Maxim Yakovlevich and Nikita Grigorievich. They even took three priests. A
rather easy conquest of western Siberia (1583) encouraged Ivan the Terrible to
send his units to consolidate the territories captured by Ermak and prepare
them for further expeditions. He drowned in the river Irtish in 1585 when
ambushed by hostile tribesmen. In 1586 two important military and trading posts
were established, the future cities of Tiume and Tobolsk, the latter in the
heart of the former Tatar Siberian kingdom. The Stroganov family gave Russia
several prominent men. For their services tot he country they were later raised
to the rank of nobility and became known as "Counts Stroganov."
A genuine interest in and love for art particularly distinguished the
Stroganovs. Maxim and Nikita were not only generous patrons of art, but painted
icons themselves. In their Solvichegodsk they established an icon studio and
invited the best painters and craftsmen from all parts of the country to work
for them. Unstable conditions in Novgorod prompted many to respond to the
invitation. There was plenty of work for everyone since the Stroganovs built so
many churches in the vast region over which they spread their business empire.
An uncommon practice occurred in Stroganov's studio; often on the back of the
icon the name or family seal of the Stroganov who commissioned it and the name
of the painter were written. From the names of the painters on these icons we
see that several worked in the Kremlin studios, though it is not clear whether
these painters first worked for Stroganovs and then moved to Moscow, or were
commissioned by the Stroganovs while already in the service of the tsar. Most
probably the exchange of painters was two-way. Kafter "The time of
troubles" - the period in Moscow after the death of Fedor, the son of Ivan
the Terrible, at the turn of the 16th century, in 1613, Mikhail Romanov was
elected to the Russian throne. With his reign the country returned to normal
life and, at the same time, marked the beginning of a new period of artistic
revival. It was at this time that the importance of the Stroganovs began to
decline and most of the Stroganovs' painters went to Moscow to work for the new
tsar.
We do not know of any Stroganov painter who was a monk, though they built or
helped to build several monasteries. Their iconographers were professional
painters, who in most cases had learned the trade from their fathers. Among the
well known names who worked for Stroganovs, the members of the Savin family
deserve to be mentioned first. Istoma Savin had two sons: Nazarii Istomin and
Nikifor Savin. Both were as talented as their father, and all three worked
first for the Stroganovs and later in the Moscow Kremlin. In 1626, Nazarii was
mentioned as painter for the Patriarch Philaret Nikitich Romanov, the tsar's
father, and the following year he painted the icons for the Church of the
Rizpolozhenia, located in the Kremlin. Then there is Fedor Savin, who decorated
the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Solvichegodsk. Other prominent painters
were Istoma Gordeev, Stepan Arefiev, Nikita Ivanov Pavlovets, Semenka Borozdin,
Ivan Sobololev, Posnik Dermin from Rostov, and several others.
But, the most outstanding painters were Emelian (Yemelian) Moskvitin and
Prokopii Ivanovich Chirin. Emelian's nickname "moskvitin" shows that
he was from Moscow, and we know that Chirin came to Solvichegodsk from
Novgorod. They both distinguished themselves with rich and pure colors,
delicate lines, elongated outlines of the persons they painted, and individual
approaches to their work. Chirin was the most gifted of all. He won his fame
when he moved to Moscow to paint for Mikhail Romanov, the first tsar of the new
dynasty. The patterned garments of Saints Dimitri of Salonika and Tsarevich
Dimitri which he painted on the icon of the same name, are of extraordinary
richness and beauty, and it was here that Chirin indeed excelled. In the
Kremlin Chirin, Savins and several other former Stroganov iconographers trained
a new generation of painters for the tsar and undoubtedly influenced many of
them. Chirin died in the early sixteen-twenties.
The early icons of the Stroganov masters show considerable influence by the
Novgorod School, and some of them remind us of Dionisii's frescoes. While
elongated and graceful figures, usually with small heads, would continue to
appear on later Stroganov icons, most of the rest of their style would be
essentially their own. The Stroganov painters could be recognized most easily
by the great care that they took in the design, their meticulous execution of
details, particularly of vestments, and an exuberant use of gold. They even
used gold to design their saints and most of the details of the icon and, of
course, for the background, which made the colors even more glowing and gave
their icons their captivating appearance. The decorative element became of
primary importance in their ar, a clear departure from Byzantine traditions as
they had been understood by Novgorod. The treatment of detail in Stroganov
icons reminds us of oriental miniatures and sometimes of fine jewelry. It would
be normal to assume that the preference of he Stroganovs for this particular
style was partly consequence of prolonged commercial contact with their
southern and eastern neighbors. The Stroganovs also had a high regard for
folding icons (skladen), which became very popular in the second half of the
16th century. These icons were usually painted on three hinged tablets a
triptych, or five tablets. On some of them could be seen not only Christ, the
Virgin and the major saints but all the icons that usually appeared on a
three-or-five-tiered iconostasis, and all on three or five tablets sometimes no
bigger than four by six inches. Istoma Gordeev distinguished himself by
painting these folding icons for the Stroganovs.
The followers of the Stroganov painters could not duplicate the purity of tone,
harmony of colors and originality of composition that had distinguished their
teachers, and instead turned to a painstaking miniature-painting in which the
ornamentation became the most important par of the work. An abundance of detail
could be seen everywhere on the new icons, except in the rather lifeless
expressions of the faces, which were crushed by an over abundance of gold, and
exceedingly ornate vestments. Animals, vegetation and architecture were often
included in the background, primarily for decorative purposes. It was clear
that the new icon painters had learned to use rich colors perfectly and to
paint the most complicated details, including some of microscopic size, but
they were unable to produce a simple and vibrant painting. It was because of
this formal and graphic handling of icon painting that some academically
minded, 19th century historians cast doubts on the artistic merit of some of
the old Stroganov painters and, considered their followers more as craftsmen
than as genuine painters. It has always been difficult to draw the line between
painter and craftsman. The distinction has become even more arbitrary with the
spread of abstract and modern art. If they lived now, these art critics would
certainly have an entirely different opinion about the Stroganov masters.
Nevertheless, during the 17th and most of the 18th centuries the Stroganov
style found followers throughout Russia, mainly in small local art centers,
such as Palekh, Mstera, Kholui etc., where iconographers continued to paint
icons in privately owned workshops. By the end of the 17th century their
technical skill was almost perfect. Even today the Palekh painters paint in the
same way as did their ancestors in the 17th century and the Stroganovs'
painters before them. Palekh survived even the Bolshevik revolution. It is true
that the painters had to alter their subject matter, though not entirely; now,
instead of icons, they paint all sorts of papier-mache boxes, and work in the
same workshops as their grand-fathers.
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