Collaboration with St. Andrei Rublev
Daniel is known chiefly through his partnership with St. Andrei Rublev, whom the medieval Russian chronicles name as his co-worker on the two major fresco commissions attributed to the pair. As the senior of the two, he is generally regarded as Rublev's elder companion, and later accounts present the two as collaborative peers among the foremost icon painters of medieval Russia.
According to the chronicles, Daniel died before Rublev. After Daniel's repose, Rublev returned to Moscow's Andronikov Monastery, where he painted his last work, the frescoes of the Saviour Cathedral. Rublev himself reposed about 1430.
Works
In 1408 Daniel and Rublev repainted the interior of the 12th-century Dormition Cathedral at Vladimir, a commission that included the cathedral's iconostasis; some of these icons are now held in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.
Between roughly 1425 and 1427 the two were summoned to decorate the Trinity Cathedral at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra with frescoes. Works believed to be Daniel's are preserved in major Russian collections, including the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg. A fresco of the 'Bosom of Abraham' is among the works documented as attributed to him.
Veneration
Daniel is commemorated within the Synaxis of All Saints of Andronikov Monastery on June 12/13, alongside Andronicus, Sabbas, and Alexander, abbots of Moscow, where he is named as 'Daniel the Black, the icon painter.' He is also numbered among the Synaxis of the Saints of Radonezh (July 6) and, on a movable feast before August 26, among the Synaxis of the Moscow saints.
The anchor record notes his canonization in 1988, consistent with the glorifications of the Russian Orthodox Church at the Millennium of the Baptism of Rus'. No external source independently confirming that specific date was located, and detailed information on his relics or shrine has not been established in the available sources.
