Икони на дебърски зографи в българските колекции
Icons by painters from Debar in Bulgarian collections

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with a few icons by painters from Debar kept in the collections of the National Art Gallery Museum of Christian Art (NAGMCA), housed in the Crypt of the Cathedral of St Alexander Nevsky, Sofia; of the Metropolitan See, Vidin; of the Church of St George, Zlatograd and a privately owned icon. The best part of these has never been published being an invaluable source of establishing unknown facts related to the work of the Art School of Debar. The icons by Dičo the Icon-painter, have the makings of brilliance presenting good examples of the mature period of his oeuvre. Though their provenance is not fully confirmed, they are an important part of the painter's output and an invaluable source of information about his career. A number of the icons have been painted by Dičo's descendants or journeymen Avram and Krste or by the most gifted of them, Petre. These evince that they did their best to reproduce the models of their master. Though in most of the cases the colour, modeling, proportions and the fineness of Dičo's manner were lost, his trainees remained true to the specific types and compositional methods, developed by Dičo's the Icon-painter in his work. Of these, the icon Petre Debranac excels in professionalism. The rest have been painted by Veno Kostov, Evgenij Kuzmanov, Mario Minov and Nestor Trajanov. Their works were more often than not commissioned directly by renowned members of Bulgarian clergy and intelligentsia whose activities were related to the struggle for an autocephalous Church and the establishing of the Bulgarian Exarchate. The icon-painters from Debar often worked in churches previously painted by masters from Triavna, Samokov or Adrianople, which had influenced their manner.

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