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The talented Russian 17th century top court
painter (tsar's izograf) Simon Ushakov was not spared the sobriquet
"Friaz," though he quite successfully combined traditional icon
painting with the western style which spread throughout Russia during his time.
The bitter attacks of Archpriest Avvakum against iconographers who painted
"The blasphemous Friaz icons" had been addressed to Ushakov too.
Regardless of the opposition of the Church and the relentless efforts of
Avvakum, the trend of westernization and secularization of iconography, to
which Ushakov contributed greatly, forded lay and ecclesiastical opponents
gradually to accept it.
Ushakov's Christian name was Pimen, though he changed it to Simon for unknown
reasons. As a young man he worked for the Armory Chamber, first as a designer
in the Silver Chamber, where silversmiths and goldsmiths made all sorts of
decorative items. He attracted the attention of his superiors with his
beautifully designed vessels and other times, among which was the miter worn by
Patriarch Nikon. At the very early age of 22 he was appointed "Tsar's
izograf," with an annual salary of ten Rubles and about twenty bushels of
wheat. Continuing to work hard. He earned a great reputation, and in 1664
became head of the Icon Chamber. Later he painted several well-known icons
which brought him fame during his life-time; a special house -studio was put at
his disposal and he earned a good salary. But even more important was the fact
that Ushakov entirely controlled the artistic activity of the Tsar's Icon
Painting School and, for a time, imposed his won style on it. Some say that
even the Tsar listened to him and accepted his views on all matters of
iconography, including Ushakov's determination to turn to the west for
inspiration. His influence continued for many years after his death.
The shift from the traditional iconography to more naturalistic and more
beautiful presentation of religious art was not an easy one. For pious Russian
icon painters it was not simple to turn their backs on "Podliniki"
and accept the ideas of the heterodox. Ushakov and most of this fellow painters
must have endured many hard moments, and documents show that the matter was
thoroughly discussed among them before the final decisions were made. The story
goes that a Serbian monk, Ioann Pleshkovich, came to see Ushakov just when he
and another izograf, Iosif Vladimirov, were discussing their artistic problems
and at the same time, scrutinizing Ushakov's new painting of Maria Magdalene.
It appears that when the Serbian monk saw Maria's beautiful face, he spat and
was horrified, declaring that people would not accept such icons at home. It
was this scene which prompted Vladimirov to address an epistle to Ushakov in
which he made his views clear. Vladimirov approached the guide lines for
painters that were listed in paragraph 53 of the HUNDRED Chapters with respect,
but suggested that the "Podliniki" should be revised occasionally and
made to correspond to the faces and figures seen on earth. He was against dark,
tortured-looking faces that hardly differed one from another and were far from
natural. Obviously, Vladmirov had a delicate taste for beauty, and he denounced
the conservative accusation that beautiful faces on men and women saints would
provoke carnal feelings in believers. In his opinion the Tsar would object if
his portrait was made ugly, and so would the "Tsar of Heaven." He
felt that painters should paint real faces and the actual life that surrounds
them, and he saw no need to prevent foreign artists from painting icons.
Ushakov sided with his colleague and in his reply stressed that the ideal of
art was to faithfully reproduce reality, as a mirror should do. He refused to
accept the conservative notion that beautiful faces in icons violated divine
laws. He underlined the popularity of art in the West and advised his fellow
painters to follow foreigners in their presentation of nature. On the Tsar's
recommendation the Church Council of 1667 discussed new trends in art,
particularly the painting of new icons, as the result of which the Church
opposition to it diminished considerably. The edict that was issued jointly by
the Patriarchs, of Moscow, Antioch and Alexandria, permitted secular painting
and defined its aims. The Archpriest Avvakum and his followers remained the
only opponents to what they called "Blasphemous new icons."
There is no question that Ushakov added something new to the art of iconography
in Russia, though he did not necessarily make it better. In fact he may be said
to have deprived it considerably of its national character. Most art critics
agree that his novelties were the result of compromise, and not only artistic
but political compromise. The roots of his art were in the Stroganov and Moscow
Schools, from which he learned the techniques of precise drawing and decoration
with gold, an inclination towards narration and illustration, improved
composition, softer coloring etc. To this he added what he had borrowed from
foreigners, the desire to paint more realistic and more beautiful faces and
figures and give them more life, to dress them in rich vestments and costumes,
to add more interesting and updated landscaping and architecture to his
backgrounds, and to make his icons and paintings look less flat than before.
From tempera colors mixed with egg-yolk and Kvas, he switched to oil colors, a
novelty in Russian painting, and Ushakov was the first to paint faces in
chiaroscuro, which was indeed an important step Of course, he could not master
all these novelties successfully, and a good part of his paintings leave the
impression of being unfinished.
Ushakov painted faces very well; they became very popular and were the base of
his tremendous success. The foreign influence on Ushakov was most evident in
his faces, and it was primarily because of his beautiful faces that Ushakov
ranks in popularity immediately after Rublev and Dionisii, and is called by
some art students the Russian Raphael. Within Russian boundaries Ushakov not
only created his own style, but was also the founder of a new school of art.
With the help of soft colors, chiaroscuro, and delicate lines, Ushakov gave new
life to Jesus' face, a new human look that expressed love and suffering and
made of Him the incarnation of goodness and mercy. It was not surprising that
simple and humble people liked Ushakov's gentle faces. They saw in these faces
somebody who loved them, and , they returned that love. It is hard to say if
the perfection of the faces he painted forced Ushakov to neglect the rest of
his figures, in which mediocrity prevailed, or whether he simply could not
handle the many orders he received and had to enlist help to paint the rest. It
is now a proven fact that on many icons Ushakov painted only the faces, and
possibly just he face of Jesus, which is usually the best. In the best of his
icons, The Savior, he proved able to march European painters in technique and
subtlety. His collaborators Yakov Kazantsev and Gavrilo Kondratiev, often
painted the rest; who favored a baroque style: One of the most popular icons of
the three masters is the Annunciation, which they painted in 1659 for the
Moscow Church of Our Lady of Georgia, also known as the( Church of the Trinity
at Nikitnikakh).. The main icon has twelve small panels (akafists) around its
edges, the "Kleima," showing scenes from the Virgin's life. Documents
record that the faces were painted by Ushakov and the rest by the two other
painters. The critics agree on the high quality of the composition of the icon,
but they disagree about whom to credit for it, since both Ushakov and Kazanets
were at that time famous izpgrafs of the tsar, and sometimes Kazanets name was
listed before Ushakov's, which has always been an important detail in Russian
hierarchy. Ushakov's icon "The Virgin of Vladimir," attracted
particular attention, because of its originality and its political
implications. It was painted in 1668. Sushakov put the Virgin in the middle of
the icon and surrounded her with the branches of the great "Tree of the
State of Moscow." The tree appears to grow out of the Kremlin's Cathedral
of the Assumption, with the Grand Duke Ioan Danilovich Kaita planting the tree
and Moscow Metropolitan Peter watering it. The reigning Tsar, Alexsei
Mikhailovich, is standing behind the Metropolitan and , on the opposite side,
behind Kalita, is his first wife, Mariand, and his two sons, Aleksei and Fedor.
In front of them is part of the Kremlin wall that faces the Red Square, a
valuable detail because it shows how the wall looked in the second half of the
17th century. It is hard to say what prompted Ushakov to paint this icon,
whether obedience, flattery or devotion to the regime and the Tsar, or simply
the fact that he wanted to be the first Russian artist who could be compared to
court painters in the West. His other most important icons are The Savior, The
Trinity, and The Versicle. Ushakov was a versatile artist; besides iconography
he tried his lick in some other fields. He restored old frescos and icons,
redecorated palaces, made engravings and eau fortes, painted maps and even
designed new coins. Some critics tend to blame Ushakov for westernizing Russian
art, as if this process could have been stopped. They compare the art of
Ushakov with the great art of Rublev and Kikonisii and then conclude that
Russian art had lost its originality and opened the way to decadence. While
part of this is true, it is hard to understand why Ushakov must be considered
primarily responsible. Ushakov was an apprentice when western art began to
penetrate into Russia, and he made the best he could of it. Only a genius could
resist such a historic process, but Ushakov was not a genius. He was a gifted
artist who happened to live during a period of great change, and who understood
that the time had come to turn to the West. He was successful and he was able
to impose his artistic preferences to all around him. They were, most probably,
the result of compromises he made, but it would be unfair to rate his
achievements, as some ar historians do, as just a little better than the icons
painted by the (craftsmen) from Palekh and Mstera. His influence on Russian art
was tremendous and was continued through his school. Among his followers the
best known were Filatiev, Pavlovets, Zubov, Ulanov, Saltanov, Bexmin, and
Poznansky. Saltanov and Tezmin made a few original icons, which they partly
painted and partly covered with silk taffeta, thus preceding by over two
centuries the "Collage" rediscovered by Picasso and others in the
beginning of the 20th century. Poznansky was the first Jew, converted to the
Orthodox religion, who became the tsar's "Izugraf" of the Armory
Chamber. He painted a few icons for the iconostasis of the Church of the
Crucifixion in the Kremlin, which had a small chapel to the left of the altar,
where tsar Alexei could , and often did, attend mass without being seen. His home was in Kitai Gorod near the
Church of the Trinity of Nikitnikov.
Here we have three examples of Ushakov's artistry.
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