Biography of the icon painter Ushakov

Simon Ushakov and his school. By the Day of Slavic Writing and Culture and the Flight of the birth of the artist, art gives beauty and mental benefit. The seventeenth century was a turning point in the history of the Russian state. He completed the development of Ancient Rus' and laid the foundation for a new history - the history of the Russian state. In art, as in other areas of life, the gradual statement of the secular principle began.

Raised in the traditions of medieval Russian art, but possessing a wide horizons, thinking, seeking and ready for the perception of the new, Simon Ushakov was interested in theory and philosophy of art, reflected on his nature and purpose. He was the first to try to move away from the traditional conventional manner of ancient Russian painting and outlined the transition to the new aesthetics of realism, or, in his own words, "light-sightedness" and "liveliness".

Simon Ushakov stood a new school of icon painting. In his essay, “The Word to Any Peretniy Icon Scripture,” that is, an amateur who has become a brief set of principles on which artistic practice is being built, he discusses the educational role of painting, about its impact on the moral sense of the viewer. Ushakov sets out his views on the tasks of art, in particular, on the need to depict real life, notes as the most important position of life, which indicates deep changes in understanding the essence of the icon.

Simon Ushakov became the leading theoretician of the art of his time, his main thesis - to write “as in life happens” - entailed a change in the entire system of icon painting. Instead of traditional silhouette images, images of volumetric, flooded with chiaroscuro, instead of traditional shaded faces - “light -shaped” images, instead of conditional space - a specific, built according to the laws of a direct perspective.

A new look at the tasks and goals of icon painting is defined as “the life of memory, a monument to the previously accommodated, evidence of the past, the exclamation of virtues, the expressing of strength, the revival of the dead, immortal praise and glory, the excitement of living to imitate, the memory of the past affairs” S. Simon Ushakov was born and lived all his life in Moscow.

Being versatile gifted by a gifted person, he worked in many types and genres of fine and applied art: he wrote icons and parsuns, painted churches and tsarist chambers with frescoes, made drawings for combat banners and book engravings, drew geographical maps and plans, created sketches of household items. His brushes belongs to the very first image of Moscow in Russian art - the type of the Kremlin wall with the towers and the Assumption Cathedral on the icon "The Mother of God Vladimir", which is rightfully considered the main, software work in the work of Simon Ushakov.

The icon "The Mother of God Vladimir", a year dated the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery, has several names - "Praise of the Mother of God Vladimir", "Tree of the Moscow State", "The imposition of the Tree of the Russian state, but they are all conditional, but Ushakov himself did not inscribe his icon. This work can be called the most interesting in the work of Simon Ushakov, but also.

The outstanding monument of Russian art of the 17th century of the Late Middle Ages, this is a kind of illustration of both the political and artistic programs of that time. In this monument, there is a lot of topics: the praise of the icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir, who was considered the intercessor and patroness of the Russian state, and the glorification of the history This topic was lively.

Several genres are also connected in it - the traditional icon image includes portrait images and landscape. The entire surface of the icon is occupied by a lush vine symbol of the tree of life, decorated with multi -colored medallions, which are perceived as huge fantastic flowers. In the central, largest oval - the image of the Mother of God Vladimir. In the remaining twenty medallions - politicians of Ancient Rus', contributing to the strengthening of the Russian state.

The intricate pattern and rich color give the composition of the icon the character of Arabesque. In the lower part of the icon there is a wall of the Moscow Kremlin with towers and with the Assumption Cathedral ascended behind it, before which Metropolitan Peter and Ivan Danilovich Kalita were inclined. They plant and water the grape tree that sprouts through the cathedral. Figures of the royal family rise behind the Kremlin wall, on the left - Alexei Mikhailovich himself, on the right - his first wife Maria Ilyinichna with children Alexei and Fedor.

In the upper part of the icon there is a canonical image of Christ on the clouds that give the soaring angels a rebel and the crown, which are intended for Alexei Mikhailovich, is also addressed to him by the inscription near the figure of Christ. The icon is interesting for documentary accents: portraits of members of the reigning surname and the image of the Kremlin.Of all the portraits of Alexei Mikhailovich that have reached us, only this one is subscription and dated; He is quite vividly and vividly recreated by Alexei Mikhailovich, and the mild, charming image of the queen is probably the only portrait that has come down to date.

At first glance, the Kremlin image gives a rather accurate idea of ​​how it was in the year. The architecture of the Assumption Cathedral and Frolovskaya - now Spasskaya - the towers almost did not change on the Spasskaya tower of the clock and the solar and mechanical, but all other towers - the nabatic, Senate and Nikolskaya - were subsequently rebuilt, the tsarist tower was not yet.

For greater persuasiveness or by virtue of its punctuality, Ushakov even shows a seemingly insignificant detail as the descent of the Kremlin wall to the left to the Moscow River. The artist sought to express a symbol of the unity of the state and the church in reliable architecture, to show the Moscow Kremlin as a stronghold of tsarist and church power. The icon "Archangel Michael, a tracing the devil", made in the year, is the most elegant, the most beautiful in color.

The figure of the archangel in a picturesque red cloak with an exquisite cascade of folds, in luxurious military armor with an intricate pattern, was executed voluminous, in compliance with the correct proportions. The pose of the archangel is elegant, beautiful, the scope of large, strong wings. The face is made using light -leaf modeling. The icon combines picturesque and graphic manners.

Figures of saints planned contour form the background. Graphically depicted under the feet of the archangel Satan with all his devilish attributes. In these drawings, the icon was affected by the skill of Ushakov-Banner. In the icon "Archangel Michael, the tracing of the devil" the ornament is distinguished by the splendor, wealth of the artist’s creative imagination, virtuosity.

The art of the XVII century is characterized by abundant patterned, decorativeness, which sometimes come to a replacement of spirituality. But in the icon of Ushakov, the measure is observed, that is, the ornament does not distract the viewer from the images themselves, and at the same time there are quite a lot to show the unearthly beauty of the clothes of the archangel.

At the same time, the figure of the Archangel is improperly impassive, calm, its movements. A year before the death of the artist, in the year, the icon "Secret Office" was written. This icon may seem more traditional than considered above. But at the same time, in this work of Ushakov strives for the almost realistic image of the "gut of the Helminer" that the interiors in the XVII century were called the line inherent in the Russian art of this time.

The artist contrasts two images - Christ and Judas. The pose of Christ is completely calm, the pose of Judas, on the contrary, expresses confusion, uncertainty, with one hand he hides a bag of money received for betrayal on his chest, and the other holds for the seat. Christ and His faithful disciples appear in the golden radiance of the halo, Judas without a halo, isolated by a dark, rather gloomy spot.

A group of apostles is located a tight, monolithic ring, which is torn by the figure of Judah. Simon Ushakov remains faithful to his favorite luminous technique for the execution of faces. The desire of Ushakov, his students and followers to the voluminous image, to the transfer of really tangible beauty at first met the ardent rebuff of the antiquity of antiquity, who called the new painting "Fryazya", "Fryazh letters", "Nemestachina".

For many years, Simon Ushakov headed the icon -painting workshop at the Armory in the Kremlin, which since the mid -17th century became the center of the entire artistic life of Russia. In many ways, the heyday of the icon workshop in these years is associated with the activities of the artist. During this period, the arms chamber concentrated the best icon painting forces in Russia. Here, specific forms of expression have acquired new ideas and ideas about the nature and tasks of art.

Traditional forms continued to live here, gradually filled with new content and modifier. Working side by side with foreign artists, Russian icon painters, brought up in the traditions of canonical artistic thinking, gradually turn to the experience of Western European art. More confidently they use the laws of direct perspective, anatomy, a flat interpretation in their works gives way to voluminous, lighten.

Simon Ushakov possessed an outstanding pedagogical talent, his associates, students and followers were such famous artists as Guri Nikitin, Georgy Zinoviev, Ivan Bezimin, Nikita Pavlovets, Mikhail Milyutin. The circle of works performed by the masters was quite wide: the painting of the cathedrals and the residential chambers "wall" letter; writing and repair of icons, banners; The decoration of household items is painted with tables, chess boards, poles, wooden Easter eggs, etc., with the formation of a secular worldview, the role of aesthetic criteria in the assessment of the icon, as well as the authority of its creator - the icon painter.

Realizing themselves as a creative person, the masters increasingly signed their work - what was previously an exception, gradually became the norm.The creation of a true artist, according to Simon Ushakov, is always fulfilled by a special depth, it contains "Life of memory, a monument to previously lived, evidence of the past, an excess of virtue." Literature: Antonova, V.

Experience of historical and art classification: in 2 volumes of Antonova, N. Bekenev, N. Simon Ushakov,-Bryusova, V. Bryusova, special photography Yu. Bulkin, V. Bogoyvensky, Gusev, V. Russian Museum. Daniel, S. Leonov, A. Muravyov, T. Profitkov, V. Through the heat of the soul: about three ancient Russian painters. Russian icon painting. Smirnova, E.

Iovlev, N. Sheredyga, L. Markin and others, N.