Simon Ushakov

Simon Ushakov (c. 1626–1686) was the leading Russian icon painter of the seventeenth century. Around 1648 he joined the Silver Chamber, and his bright-coloured, proto-Baroque icons brought him to the notice of Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexis, who assigned him to the Kremlin Armoury in 1664.

That same year he published a treatise on icon painting. Drawing on Western naturalism, he pioneered secular portraits, or parsuna, and book engravings, while conservatives led by Archpriest Avvakum denounced his saints as fleshly and unorthodox. He trained many pupils, and some of his icons reached Western Europe. He died in Moscow in 1686.