The Stroganov icon-painting school (the second half of the 16^th – the first half of the 17^th century)is the most outstanding phenomenon in history of the ancient Rus icon-painting. It owes its name to the Stroganov family merchants. After the conquer of Novgorod by Ivan the Terrible, the Stroganov merchants moved from Novgorod to Solvychegodsk where they organized an icon-painting workshop. The Stroganov art school inherited the traditions of the Moscow icon-painting.

The Stroganov art school was founded by the famous masters of that time, such as Prokopy Chirin, Nikita Savin, Yemelyan Moskvitin, Semenko Borozdin, Yakov Kazantsev and Gavrilo Kondratyev. They elaborated a number of new exquisite artistic techniques in the icon-painting. In the 17^th century the Stroganov icon-painting style spread on the North of Russia reaching Moscow and towns on the upper Volga.

The Stroganov icons are characterized by small size, exquisite diminutiveness, rich half-tint palette with golden and silver colors, delicacy of characters’ postures and gestures, and a complicated fantasy of landscapes.