The use and making of icons had…

The use and making of icons had entered Kievan Rus' following its conversion to Orthodox Christianity in 988.

As a general rule, these icons strictly followed models and formulas hallowed by Byzantine art, led from the capital in Constantinople.

As time passed, the Russians—notably Andrei Rublev and Dionisius—had widened the vocabulary of types and styles far beyond anything found elsewhere in the Orthodox world.

A Russian church council, in response, in 1551 prescribes adherence to consecrated models, sparking a decline in icon painting that is to last until the seventeenth century.