The Virgin Mary, Cathedral of the Annunciation in the Moscow Kremlin

Theophanes the Greek (1340 – c. 1410) was a Byzantine Greek artist and one of the greatest icon painters, or iconographers, of Muscovite Russia, and was noted as the teacher and mentor of the great Andrei Rublev.

Theophanes was born in the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople. In 1370 he moved to Novgorod, and in 1395 to Moscow. His style is considered unsurpassed in expression achieved by almost mono-colored painting.