Icons by Fedor Rozhnov in the Context of Moscow Art of the Late 17th and the Early 18th Centuries

This thesis deals with icons created by Kazan painter Fedor Rozhnov, who was active in Moscow in the end of 17th – the beginning of 18th century. Nowadays there are 6 icons attributed to him on the basis of his signature or preserved documents, and 4 icons that are ascribed to him. Despite being well known, their stylistic features are ascribed only partly. Two main streams are usually distinguished in the Moscow art of the late of 17th – the early of 18th century: zhivopodobie (the special artistic style of the Armory painters) and the one for painters who dealt with portraits and icons painted in ‘European’ style and technique. From time to time these streams influenced each other’s style and technic. The goal of this thesis was to examine the pieces of art by Feodor Rozhnov in the context of the metropolitan art of the very period and to reveal his special artistic features. To achieve this goal, formal analyses and the connoisseurship methods were used. The objects of the research were 5 icons attributed to the painter and 1 icon ascribed to him. As the result, we came to the conclusion that in the basis of Fedor Rozhnov’s artistic style a special variant of Moscow zhivopodobie can be seen. The painter transformed it and combined with the touch of the European-oriented painters. Revealing of painter’s special features allowed to disprove the authorship of one of the icons ascribed to Fedor Rozhnov. The researched specified the concept of the Armory painters’ distinctive style and inferred the existence of icons that combined some features of 2 most common metropolitan streams.