Ivan IV was born at a time when Russian iconography had flourished for hundreds of years. Artists like Andrei Rublev (sometimes spelled Andrey Rublyov) and Theophanes the Greek had helped to increase the stature of Moscow, the city in which they lived and worked and in which the future Tsar was born.
Some of the icons, frescoes and paintings created between the 13th and 16th century are still studied today. Among them:
Now that we have taken a brief respite from Ivan Grozny’s more dastardly deeds, it is time to examine those years scholars describe as the “Bad Reign.”