Simon Ushakov
{{short description|Russian icon painter (1626–1686)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
File:Ushakov Nerukotvorniy.jpg, painted for the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra in 1658]]
Simon (Pimen) Fyodorovich Ushakov ({{langx|ru|Симон (Пимен) Фёдорович Ушаков}}; {{circa|1626}} – 25 June 1686){{cite book |last1=Chilvers |first1=Ian |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists |date=27 September 2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-102417-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HFExDwAAQBAJ |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Taroutina |first1=Maria |title=The Icon and the Square: Russian Modernism and the Russo-Byzantine Revival |date=17 December 2018 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-0-271-08257-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b-rDEAAAQBAJ |language=en}} was a Russian icon painter.{{cite book |last1=Vzdornov |first1=Gerol'd I. |title=The History of the Discovery and Study of Russian Medieval Painting |date=20 November 2017 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-30527-4 |page=137 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QIJ1DwAAQBAJ |language=en}}
Together with Fyodor Zubov and Fyodor Rozhnov, he is associated with the comprehensive reform of the Russian Orthodox Church undertaken by Patriarch Nikon. Ushakov is also credited with popularizing the genre of secular portrait painting in Russia, known as parsuna.{{cite book |last1=Hughes |first1=Lindsey |title=Sophia, Regent of Russia, 1657-1704 |date=1 January 1990 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-04790-5 |page=138 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t5pbmZV1tkoC |language=en}}
Life
File:Simon ushakov last supper 1685.jpg
Almost nothing about the early years of Simon Ushakov is known. His birth date is deduced from his inscription on one of the icons: "In the year 7166 painted this icon Simon Ushakov son, being 32 years of age".
At the age of 22, he became a paid artist of the Silver Chamber, affiliated with the armory prikaz. The bright, fresh colours and exquisite, curving lines of his proto-baroque icons caught the eye of Patriarch Nikon, who introduced Simon to the tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. He became a great favourite with the royal family and was eventually in 1664 assigned to the Kremlin Armoury, run by an educated boyar called Bogdan Khitrovo.
Ushakov had a lot of pupils and associates and even published a short treatise on icon-painting entitled [http://www.krotov.info/acts/17/krizhanich/ushakov.html A Word to Loving-Meticulous Icon Painting] in 1664. Some of the more conservative Russian priests, such as archpriest Avvakum, regarded his icons as "lascivious works of devil", for they were too Western for their tastes. Avvakum, in particular, alleged that Ushakov painted his "fleshly saints" after his own portly appearance. Later scholars in the 19th-century regarded Ushakov as starting the "decline" of icon painting.
Ushakov also executed secular commissions and produced engravings for book illustrations. In other words, he was one of the first secular painters in Russia. Some of his icons, transported to Western Europe, were instrumental in fomenting interest for nascent Russian painting. He is regarded as a pioneer of Western influence in portrait painting and engravings for books.
He died on 25 June 1686 in Moscow.
Selected works
File:Ushakov Great Archierey.jpg|Christ, the Great Hierarch, State Historical Museum (1658)
File:Simon Ushakov Mary Tree.jpg|Our Lady of Vladimir, Tree of the Muscovite State, State Tretyakov Gallery (1668){{cite book |last1=Dixon |first1=Simon |title=Personality and Place in Russian Culture: Essays in Memory of Lindsey Hughes |date=2010 |publisher=MHRA |isbn=978-1-907322-03-7 |page=91 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vRbB_xAhdogC |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Crummey |first1=Robert O. |last2=Sundhaussen |first2=Holm |last3=Vulpius |first3=Ricarda |title=Russische und Ukrainische Geschichte Vom 16.-18. Jahrhundert |date=2001 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-04480-6 |page=227 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OHa3JC1uWaYC |language=en}}
File:SimonUshakov OurLadyOfEleus.jpg| Our Lady of Eleus, State Tretyakov Gallery (1668)
File:Simon Ushakov Archangel Mikhail and Devil.JPG|Archangel Michael Trampling the Devil Underfoot, State Tretyakov Gallery (1676)
File:Ushakov Christ Emmanuel.jpg|Christ Emmanuel, State Russian Museum (1668)
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- [http://nesusvet.narod.ru/ico/books/grabar/grabar_6_2_02.htm Chapter on Ushakov and his school from Igor Grabar's History of Russian Art]
- V. N. Alexandrov, History of Russian Art, Minsk, 2004, {{ISBN|985-13-1199-5}}
External links
{{Commons category|Simon Ushakov}}
- [http://www.krotov.info/acts/17/krizhanich/ushakov.html On-line text by Simon Ushakov ''A Word to Loving-Meticulous Icon Painting] – in Russian
- [http://www.krotov.info/spravki/persons/17person/ushakov.html Simon Ushakov From Alexander Men' dictionary] – in Russian
{{Authority control (arts)}}
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Category:17th-century Russian painters
Category:Russian male painters