Rublev, Andrei (1360 - 1430)

Andrei Rublev was born circa 1360 (presumably). According to the anonymous author of the The Lives of Russian Saints, a book compiled in the early eighteenth century, Andrei Rublev died on January 29, 1430, and was buried at the Andronikov Monastery in Moscow. Rublev's name has long become legend. Already in the fifteenth century icons painted by Rublev were considered worth their weight in gold and were much-coveted collectors' items. So great was Rublev's fame, that the Church Council, held in Moscow in 1551, thus prescribed in its statutes the official canon for the correct representation of the Trinity: "... to paint from ancient models, as painted by the Greek painters and as painted by Andrei Rublev..." No wonder numerous works were described to his brush, including such icons that were created by other painters even many years after Rublev's time. Twentieth century historians of art found that very few of his works ascribed in the chronicles, The Lives of Russian Saints and other sources to Andrei Rublev's brush have survived. Still extant among Rublev's more or less authentic works are individual icons of the festival tier in the iconostasis of the Annunciation Cathedral in Moscow's Kremlin, individual icons and frescoes of the Cathedral of the Assumption of Vladimir and The Old Testament Trinity from the Holy Trinity Cathedral at the St.Sergius Trinity Monastery. Now some of his works can be viewed in both the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.