Everyday Worries and Material Life of Sovereign Icon Painters and Painters of Moscow in Pre-Petrine Rus’

Abstract

The article is based on the petitions of royal icon painters and painters of the Oruzheynaya palata, decrees, and court materials of the 1630s — 1690s. It deals with the conditions and circumstances of their daily life outside of work. It consisted of worries about salaries, his payments and increases; about housing, its arrangement and security; from fighting fires and their consequences; from conflicts with neighbors, as well as from intra-family joys and sorrows. Recruited to perform palace works from Moscow and residents of different cities, the masters of icon and painting had the status of a service population and among Moscow residents constituted a special professional community with stable connections and relationships. Palace masters turned to the king for help due to lack of funds, on the occasion of illness and other worldly misfortunes. Such assistance was provided in the form of one-time income and grain allocations or loans for the purchase of a yard, to cover debts, to restore a household that died in fires, and in connection with family matters (marriage, childbirth and baptism, death and burial of the deceased). This manifested the features of the patronage of the palace institution in relation to the masters who were under his control.