The Moscow school of icon painting is developing quite late. Its heyday came at the end of the 14th - beginning of the 15th century - the period of strengthening of the Moscow principality. The largest representatives of the Moscow school were almost all the outstanding icon painters of Ancient Russia - Feofan Grek, Andrei Rublev, Daniil Cherny and Dionysius.
The leading master of the Novgorod icon painting school Feofan Grek appeared in Moscow at the end of his life and career. The paintings of the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, on which he worked together with Andrei Rublev and Prokhor from Gorodets, have not been preserved. Therefore, for today's connoisseurs of ancient Russian icon painting, the Moscow school is associated primarily with the work of Andrei Rublev and artists of his direction.
Andrei Rublev and his followers
The work of Andrei Rublev is based on a philosophy of goodness and beauty, a harmonious combination of spiritual and material principles. Therefore, his Savior does not look like a merciless judge and formidable almighty. He is a loving, compassionate and forgiving God. The peak of Rublev’s creativity, as well as of all ancient Russian painting, was the famous “Trinity”, the three angels of which are a kind of symbol of Good, Sacrifice and Love.
The followers of the Rublev trend in icon painting focused not so much on the spiritual filling of images as on external features: the ease of figures, the use of smooth lines in writing faces, and the creation of a contrasting color scheme. One of the examples of this approach is the icon of the unknown Moscow master "The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem."
Another characteristic feature of the Moscow school of icon painting was the introduction of a number of iconographic images and plots of real canonized secular and religious persons.
