Andrey Rublev’s Forehand and The Virgin of Vladimir

What young Russians want now is something like Andrey Rublev’s face: his overall ginger, his abundant hair and impish smile, his sexy somewhere in between the genders when compared with the manly past. His huge forehand, too, his entire body hurled into each shot he hits. If they could throw themselves into life like that. What Russians wanted in the Czarist centuries was something like Andrei Rublev’s most famous face, his copy of The Virgin of Vladimir.* How he added more expression in her eyes and lips so that the world of the sacred no longer seemed abstract, dead, the stuff or stuffing of centuries to make schoolboys sleep, schoolgirls rebel. More emotion. More honesty. Punch your racquet repeatedly till your hand might bleed. Write “No War” on the world’s television cameras while the war in Ukraine rages on.

Andrei Rublev (not the tennis player) was Russia’s most famous painter of icons. He developed a new style that was more realistic, more emotional. To see some of his art and learn more about Andrei Rublev, check out The Art Story. His painting of the Virgin of Vladimir is below.

Artist Bio: The artwork of Rafael Nadal is by the digital artist, Sam Brannan, from St. Petersburg, Russia. Sam’s beautiful digital artwork on tennis players can be seen on Instagram. You can also follow him and get access to all his digital art on Patreon.

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