
Olimpii, Master [Olimpij] (Alimpii), b
?, d 17 August 1114 in
Kyiv. Icon painter. From 1084 he worked under Constantinople masters on the
mosaics of the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyivan Cave Monastery and learned to
paint from them. He is credited with painting the famous icon Great Panagia
now in the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow. Some scholars (V. Antonova and Hryhorii Lohvyn)
attribute the mosaics of Kyiv's Saint Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery to him.
Olimpii's works mark the beginning of a distinctive Ukrainian tradition in icon
painting. The Kyivan Cave Patericon gives an account of his life and miracles.