Tretyakov Gallery

     Yesterday we visited the Tretyakov, Moscow's great gallery of Russian art.  We saw what is probably Russia's holiest icon - Our Lady of Vladimir - reputedly painted by St. Luke but actually dating from the 12th Century.  The other icons were pretty amazing as well - pieces by Theophanes and Dionysus and Andrei Rublev's Old Testament Trinity.  The 'Old Russian Art' section also had an 11th Century mosaic of St. Demetrius from Kiev (a few decades older than Balliol) and an 11th Century stone relief of two horsemen.
     In the paintings section, our favourites included Ivan Argunov's Unknown Woman in Russian Dress, Orest Kiprensky's portrait of Pushkin, Ivan Kramskoy's Nameless Lady (which adorned the cover of my Penguin Classic edition of Anna Karenina), Ivan Shishkin's Rye and Tree-Felling, Vasily Surikov's The Morning of the Execution of the Streltsy on Red Square (featuring a bilious-looking Peter the Great) and Boyaryna Morozova, Repin's portrait of Ivan the Terrible cradling his dying son, Vrubel's Demon and Demon Overthrown, Konstantin Korovin's Roses and Violets, Valentin Serov's Girl With Peaches and The Rape of Europa and Zinaida Serebryakova's At the Dressing Table.
     Check out:
http://www.tretyakovgallery.ru/en/collection/_show/image/_id/316