Icons Painted by the Masters of the Tsar's Court in the 17th century

The Moscow school of icon painting had one of the leading positions in the artistic life of the 17th century. The Kremlin Armory workshops where new methods and techniques were formed had considerable influence on the development of Russian art at that time. The history of the Tsar’s workshops started in 1620 when the Icon Order and the Icon Chamber were established. Art work was resumed exactly in that period of certain stabilization of the economic and social life after tumultuous events of the Time of Troubles. The Icon Order was disbanded in the 1640s and the Icon Chamber was attached to the Armory Chamber. From the very beginning, both permanent artists and city masters paid by the hour were engaged in icon painting in the workshops. When they performed large orders, such as decoration of the church with painting or creation of a new iconostasis, they invited masters from other cities and towns and united into large groups which were headed by the tsar’s painters.

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