The major artistic centers
in the Middle Ages
(14th–15th century)

The “Republic” of Novgorod in the 14th and 15th centuries

In the early 14th century, the map of Russian territories was a mosaic of principalities of very different sizes. One of the most powerful was Novgorod, in the north-west of the former Rus'; its power extended as far as the White Sea and toward the Ural Mountains. Until its annexation by Moscow in 1478, the city was ruled by a popular assembly—an oligarchy of merchants and property owners representing each of the city's neighborhoods. Novgorod belonged to the Hanseatic trading league that dominated the Baltic, bringing furs, wax, and raw materials from the hinterland. German trading posts were established in the city, a major link with the West. Like most medieval Russian cities, Novgorod had its own school of architecture and painting, boosted by the power of the archbishops and the largesse of the elites.

The major cities of medieval Russia

Most of the large medieval Russian cities had their own schools of art. This was the case with Pskov, a member of the Hanseatic League which freed itself from the control of Novgorod in 1348. After an initial resemblance to the Novgorod school, the Pskov school of painting reinterpreted the Byzantine art of the Palaiologan Period, retaining its great elegance and particular sensitivity to the effects of pure color. The city of Tver, lying north-west of Moscow on the road to Novgorod, became a principality in the mid-13th century and the seat of a bishopric around 1271. It competed politically with Moscow, and was finally absorbed by the latter in 1485. The Tver school updated traditional painting in the 15th century, remaining true to Byzantine artistic canons, with narrative interpretations and a harmonious palette featuring several tones within one dominant color.