Нови факти за тревненските зографи

Author(s): Mariela Stoykova / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

The main sources in this study are several notebooks and tax registers for the population of Tryavna from the “Hristo Nikiforov Daskalov” Fund, preserved in the Bulgarian Historical Archive of the National Library “Sts Cyril and Methodius”. The first document is the notebook of the painter Boncho Dimitrov, which is published partially, without any notes on his personality and activities. The manuscript contains accounts for given and due sums from 1811 to February 1819, a few recipes for making paints, oil for woodworking, gilding of silver and others, two spells against evil and an imprint of “The Crucifixion of Christ”. There are also five ink drawings. Based on the notes in the journal, it is understood that Boncho Dimitrov, besides a painter is also a woodcarver. His additional revenue came from wine, wool, cotton and wheat trade. He had a small shop, which is confirmed by other archival sources. He worked together with the icon-painters Tsanyu and Genko, and for a short time his helper is the goldsmith Pencho Genyuv. He mainly painted home icons, but also painted bigger ones for the churches in Krasen and Perushtitsa. An attempt has been made to identify the icons from the villages that are mentioned in the zograph’s notebook. In the church “St Trinity” in Krasen village, Ruse region, the work done by Boncho Dimitrov, in collaboration with Tsanyu Zahariev, Genko Minyuv and Venko, is only confirmed by the inscriptions on the western facade. The iconostasis and icons were burned around 1910. From the church “St Athanasius” in Perushtitsa, burned and partially destroyed during the April Uprising, three icons are preserved. Based on a comparative analysis with the drawings from the notebook, one of the icons presenting the images of St George and St Demetrius is attributed to Boncho Dimitrov. The stylistic distinctions of the icon, the zograph’s family and his work in Perushtitsa are grounds for supposing that he is the son of Dimitar Koyuv, whose two icons are preserved in this region with relatively close dating – 1807– 1813. Two notes from the notebook related with the name of Tsanyu Zahariev reveal kinship relations and show that the two iconographers continue to work together. The second icon from Perushtitsa – The Holy Virgin of Kykkos, which has stylistic parallels from Plovdiv, is probably also created by Tryavna icon-painter. Reasons for this attribution are several works with similar stylization and coloring, originating from the region of Veliko Tarnovo. We meet Boncho Dimitrov’s name in two more documents. In the harac tax register, dating around 1828–1830, his name was recorded in Stanchovtsi neigh212 borhood, just before the Koychovtsi neighborhood, along with his sons Minyu and Kunyu. In a trade records led from 1834 to 1844 he was mentioned as debtor with 135 groshes for the rent of a shop in 1834, and from the names recorded in 1844 we understand that his previous debts remained unpaid for 10 years. Based on the studied materials, we can assume that the birth year of B. Dimitrov is in the last decade of the 18th century, and his works can be found with dating, at least, up to 1844. Based on the drawings from the notebook and the icon with the images of St George and St Demetrius, we find a series of icons in the region of Veliko Tarnovo and Tryavna, which can be attributed to his hand. In two of the tax records there is valuable information about the families of the Tryavna masters – painters, carvers and carpenters. These records make it possible to specify the birthdays of most of the painters and their heirs. One interesting fact that we find in both documents is the absence of one of the icon-painters from the Vitanov family – Simeon Koyuv, the son of Koyu Tsonyuv. In all of the publications related to him, the data about his life and work are too contradictory and scarce. In the notebook from 1845 the place of Simeon Tsonyuv is occupied by Tsonyu Simeonov and Simeon Simeonov in adulthood – 19 and 22 years respectively. It is too courageous, but I admit that Simeon Koiuv did not exist, and those who were said to be his heirs are the sons of Simeon Tsonyuv, who, to this date, was considered to have not left offspring. Working with the archive from Hristo Nikiforov Daskalov, opens many more questions than what can be addressed in such a study. The presented materials and hypotheses reveal a small part of the rich history of the Tryavna’s artistic families and leave a considerably larger number of tasks for future works.

The Evangelists and Their Symbols in the Drawings in the Greek Manuscript in Harvard: Houghton Library, Typ 215

Author(s): Alexander Saminsky / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

The poems that introduced each Gospel in this late 10th century manuscript were once replaced by drawings of the evangelists inspired by their symbols. The interest in this subject having appeared in late 11th century Byzantium may have caused the replacement of the verses with drawings, and, moreover, the immediate correction of the order of the symbols within them by an editor. The new order and compositions, defined by symbols, connect the drawings with miniatures of the 1090s to 1100s, designating them as one of the earliest works in the group.

Ἄρατε πύλας (psalm 23[24], 7-10). The Iconography of Christ Opening Hades’ Doors

Author(s): Ilias Karalis / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

This paper investigates the iconographic depiction of Christ opening the doors of Hades. The discussion is focused on the Resurrection ceremony as it is outlined in the liturgical manuscripts. This particular iconographic theme, which functioned as a kind of “sketch” for the illustrative representation of the scene, emerged in the middle-Byzantine period and the artists of the Palaiologan period used it as a source from which they borrowed iconographic elements that they later transferred to the illustration of the Resurrection. These elements were also borrowed by artists of the Italian Renaissance, who employed them in the relevant iconography. At a later time, the Palaiologan and Renaissance iconographic elements were used in combination by artists of North-Western Greece School in frescoes dating from the second phase of the Post-Byzantine period.

Narrative Sequence in the Miniatures of Tsar Ivan Alexander’s Gospel Book (British Library Add. MS 39627)

Author(s): Elissaveta Moussakova,Elissaveta Moussakova / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

Most scholars consider an eleventh-century Greek Gospel book in Paris (Bibiothèque nationale de France, MS Grec 74) the direct model for the illustrations in a Slavonic Gospel book (London, British Library, Add. MS 39627) copied for the Bulgarian tsar John (Ivan) Alexander (r. 1331–1371). In a recent monograph (2005), the philologist Iliya Talev argues that some narrative miniatures in the Paris manuscript reverse the sequence of the illustrated events, while the corresponding miniatures of the London Gospel place these events in their correct order. This shows, in Talev’s view, that the Bulgarian illustrations do not directly copy the eleventh-century Byzantine ones. Talev assumes faithful copying by means of anthivola (stencils), which could be accidentally flipped over, thus reversing the sequence of some scenes. My analysis of the miniatures shows that the painters were very sensitive to the text-image correspondence and that reversed sequence was a way to better link pictures and words. In some cases, the artists used a boustrophedon pattern, so that text lines and pictorial content could be jointly read as a continuous, non-interrupted narrative.

Prototypes, Variations & Artistic Innovation: The Iconography of St John Vladimir on the Interplay Between Frescoes, Icons, Metalwork and Copperplate Engravings

Author(s): Konstantinos Giakoumis / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

This paper investigates the mutual influence of frescoes and icons on copperplate engravings and metalwork – and vice-versa – in the iconography of St John Vladimir. The paper reviews the earliest iconographic models of the saint in frescoes and paper icons made in etching, discusses how each became model of diverse iconographic types of the saint and how, in subsequent times, iconographic types with previously distinct features amalgamate in new syntheses. Last but not least, by way of this case-study, the paper contributes to our understanding of the delimitations and syntheses of different artistic media, thereby making a contribution to our understanding of prototypes, variations and artistic innovation.

Изображенията на пророк Илия и св. Йоан Предтеча в свода на притвора на Сеславския манастир

Author(s): Maria Kolusheva / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

In the narthex of the church of St. Nicholas of the Seslavtsi Monastery (1616), in the zenith of the vault, there is a composition consisted of several fields with full length figures whose center along the east-west axis is occupied by the depictions of the Virgin Mary, St John the Baptist and Prophet Elias. The main semantic emphasis in the vault program is placed upon them: the images of the Virgin Mary (without the infant Jesus) and St John can be deciphered as the closest witnesses of the Incarnated God the Word and advocates for the salvation of the mankind while the presence of the Prophet Elias is more uncommon. His image in that prominent place can be interpreted in relation to St John the Baptist, taking into consideration that the two have been defined as precursors of the Messiah as early as in the Holy Scripture. For instance, in his interpretation of the Gospel according to Matthew St John Chrysostom speaks of Elias as precursor of the coming Last Judgment and of John as precursor of the First Advent that had already happened. In this sense the parallel between the two has also been pointed out in the hymnographic works dedicated to them. The juxtaposition of the two on yet another level is well developed in the theological thought as well: they are commensurable in terms of spiritual perfection and ascetic lifestyle and therefore were promoted to models of an anchoret exploit.

On an Iconographic Version of the Vision of St Peter of Alexandria from the 15th – 16th Century

Author(s): Tsveta Kuneva / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

The article examines the iconographic version of the Vision of St Peter of Alexandria, which by painting liturgical text onto the saint’s scroll fits into the concept of the Adoration of the Sacrifice while also preserving its main symbolic meaning associated with the Tri-unity. This iconographic version of the Vision also includes the image of infant Jesus with a mandorla and a torn robe stepped on the Holy Table, and the depiction of the heretic Arius in the yawn of the infernal monster. The examined examples show that this is an innovative interpretation of the icon-painters of the Kastoria artistic circle of 15th – 16th centuries.

Темата „Христос Лоза“ в декоративната програма на един кивот за мощи

Author(s): Darina Boykina / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

The article discusses once again the reliquary, which belongs to the Intercession of the Theotokos Monastery in Samokov. This is among the well-known artifacts of goldsmiths in Bulgaria during the 19th century, and information about it has been published several times in the Bulgarian literature, but still numerous problems in its history, the donator and the contained relics are unsolved. However, the study deals with the reliquary’s decoration and its function. The first chapter of the text presents the stylistic and iconographic characteristics of the object, focusing on the composition Christ the True Vine placed on the lid of the reliquary, which is very rare in Bulgarian lands in this period. The examples of iconographic variations of the composition show that the unknown goldsmith from Vidin was influenced by the models used by the contemporary woodcarving craftsmen in the workshops of the Mount Athos, who followed the iconographic tradition of the 16th and the 17th centuries. At the end, the study presents briefly the liturgical relation between the image of Christ and the relics of the saints, according to The service for the consecration of the churches, in Vidin in 1881. The analysis shows that the decoration has liturgical function related to the specifics of the reliquary and its usage as a so-called “taxidiote” box.

Произведения на светогорски зографи в Рилския манастир от края на ХVІІІ век

Author(s): Aleksander Kuyumdzhiev / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

Due to fabled accounts as well as numerous incorrect attributions, it has been perceived for decades in Bulgarian scholarship that several frescoes and icons from the Rila Monastery were created by the Samokov painter Hristo Dimitrov. In fact, they were made by the Athonite masters Zacharius and Veniamin of Galatista. The frescoes in question are those in the old Krelio’s church (1794), in the cemetery church in the Rila monastery (1795), in the chapel of St Demetrios in the monastery of Zograf (1797) and in the church of St Luke in the Rila Monastery (1798–1799), as well as a great number of icons dating back to the last decade of the 18th century. The attribution of these works to the masters from Galatista not only rehabilitates their presence in the Rila Monastery but also filled a substantial gap in their early professional biography. Limiting the number of paintings created by Hristo Dimitrov leads to the need for his entire work to be fundamentally revised. The advent of new themes and models in our National Revival art must be connected directly with the production of the Athonite icon painters in Bulgaria and not with the Samokov painting school. Undoubtedly, in the future, more examples of the work of the masters from Galatista in the Bulgarian lands will be added, as there are a number of icons stored in different churches and museum collections that could be attributed to them. All this will be necessary not only to fully rehabilitate their presence in Bulgaria but also to gain a more realistic picture of the processes and events in our religious art at the boundary between the 18th and the 19th century.

Неизвестна фотография от църквата „Св. Георги Мали“ в Несебър

Author(s): Ivan Vanev / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

The present study is dedicated to a hitherto unpublished photo from the Mavrodinov family archives, which is part of the mural programme of an unknown church. The upper end of the plate featured an inscription ‘St Spiridion’ on the emulsion. There are three pencil inscriptions on the reverse of the photo: „St Spiridon“?“, „Where?“, „Melnik?“ However, in the course of the present study, it emerged that the photo in question corresponds to the information left by André Grabar and Asen Vasiliev about the St George the Lesser church in Nessebar. It is a small, single-aisled structure with one apse and a prothesis and diakonikon niche at the eastern wall. On the basis of the hitherto known photos, the preserved murals and the published plan, researchers conditionally date the construction of the church in the Ottoman period. The research of Ivanka Gergova, Emanuel Moutafov and Georgi Gerov date the murals in the very beginning of the 17th century. Most of the murals were detached in 1946 and today are part of the funds of the National Institute of Archaeology and Museum of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The church was demolished the same year. We owe most of the information about the mural paintings’ distribution in the church to the research of André Grabar, who visited Nessebar in 1920, and to Asen Vasiliev, who studied St George the Lesser in 1946. However, their information does not overlap completely. The photo is even more valuable because today we know of only small fragments of the murals in the altar that have been preserved. One discerns from the photo that the upper register on the north wall in the altar ended with the scene of Pentecost. The Vision of St Peter of Alexandria is below. The scene „Manifestation of Christ before the Myrrh-bearing women“ was depicted on the east wall, above the prothesis niche. According to the photo, Christ in the Tomb was represented in the prothesis niche. Between that niche and the apse St Archdeacon Stephen was featured.

Этническая травестия в романе Давида Маркиша „Белый круг”

Author(s): Eleonora Shafranskaya / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2020

The author tries to explain the riddle presented in the novel by the modern writer David Markish, The White Circle, about the ethnic identity of the character Matvey Katz, whose prototype is the avantgarde artist Sergey Kalmykov (1891–1967). The name and lifestyle of this artist became the reason for the birth of a personal myth, which formed the basis of the novel semi-detective plot. If in the discourse of the second half of the XX century and in the XXI century (mythology, cinema, a number of literary texts), Sergey Kalmykov, a Russian by origin, appears as a half-mysterious, half-mad person, an Alma-Ata freak, but under his real name, then, in Markish’s novel, he is a Russian artist of “Jewish origin”, living in the fictitious Central Asian topos named Kzylgrad. To explain the ethnic travesty that runs counter to historical reality, to “decipher” the location of the novel associated with the last years of the artist’s life are the tasks solved by the author of the article.

La laura y coenobium de San Pedro de Rocas. Un complejo rupestre de origen bizantino en el noroeste de la Península Ibérica

Author(s): Jorge López Quiroga,Natalia Figueiras Pimentel / Language(s): Spanish Issue: 1/2020

The building we see today when we approach the monastery of Saint Pedro of Rocas reveals the modern architecture: the priory house. But this architecture "hides" another one that corresponds to the various construction phases carved in the rock, both in its worship, residential and funerary function. An architecture excavated in the rock that is directly related to its hermitic origins linking Saint Pedro of Rocas with an anchoretic tradition characteristic of the territory in which it is located and which we know as Ribeira Sacra. Many are the questions, and the enigmas, which still contains Saint Pedro of Rocas and it is precisely in the rock where we find the answers to those questions. We do not intend to solve them within the framework of this article, but we will point out some reflections that allow us to understand the complexity and enormous historical dimension that enclose the rock of Saint Pedro of Rocas. The data that we are obtaining from the interdisciplinary research that we have been carrying out points to a clear oriental origin in the forms of community life that took place in Saint Pedro of Rocas. The influence of Saint Martín of Dumio (bishop of Braga, in the second half of the 6th century) in the importation of monastic life forms of Syrian-Palestinian origin ended up configuring an architecture carved into the rock at the service of a clearly Byzantine liturgy.

Новият път, новият човек, новите теми (Върху отношението власт-музика-наука в Социалистическа България по примери от практиките на културния и научния фронт в началото на 50-те години на ХХ век)

Author(s): Ventsislav Dimov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2020

After September 9, 1944, the new authorities created new avenues, tasks, and opportunities for musicians and performers, as well as for folk music researchers. Immediately after the establishment of the Institute of Music (1948), a department of folk music was established and assigned the task to conduct fieldwork and record new folk songs about the revolutionary struggles, guerrilla movement, the new village. The article focuses on the paths taken by Bulgarian folklorists (Raina Katsarova, Elena Stoin, Ivan Kachulev) in search, recording, and presentation of these new songs and their singers. Archival records at the Institute of Art Studies, BAS and published studies of the 1950s are used.

Mem – specjalne medium informacyjne. Stan badań polskiego piśmiennictwa m.in. w dziedzinie nauk o kulturze i religii

Author(s): Jolanta Kokoszka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

The article provides the state-of-the-art of the research on the phenomenon of meme and of the Internet meme in the field of culture and religion, as well as history, linguistics, literary studies and cultural studies. The authors of the article have analysed the publications in order to show the way Polish researchers perceive the notion of the meme and the Internet meme, as well as the characteristics and functions they have been ascribed to them. The authors took into account the research studies published in 2000–2019 based on the data from the NUKAT catalogues, National Library in Warsaw, and Google Scholar.

Managing substitutive and complementary technologies in cultural institutions: Market/mission perspectives

Author(s): Artur Modliński,Louis Pinto / Language(s): English Issue: Spec/2020

Digitalization and artificial intelligence are changing modern business organizations. New technologies help to analyze business environment, track customers, control work performance and improve products. The aforementioned phenomenon has received considerably little attention in current literature on culture management. Our goal is to find (1) what types of technologies are used by cultural institutions (CIs) and (2) for what reason. The hypothesis of the article is that CIs use various technologies and tools. Websites, leaflets and audiovisual materials of 139 CIs around the world (theaters, art galleries, opera houses, museums) were analyzed. It was found that CIs use both complementary (CT) as well as substitutive technologies (ST) for managerial and mission-oriented purposes. In our article, the matrix of technologies used by CIs is proposed. Our findings suggest that CIs adapt to changing technological environment by implementing tools that support them in the mission’s fulfillment and management. Moreover, new technologies are used by CIs as both employees’ reinforcement as well as their replacement.

The relevance of EU external cultural synergies: The external action strategy and institutional intercultural attitudes

Author(s): Ljiljana Simić / Language(s): English Issue: Spec/2020

European Union (EU) is a supra-ideological construct in permanent change. Changing times bring the European External Action Service (EEAS) to its cultural strategy. EU external cultural strategy with the complexity of political and social realities defines the two main steps followed in this study: a) EU intercultural strategy analysis, and b) the role and the place of EU Delegations (EU Dels) and the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC). The basis of the analysis is the qualitative approach. It analyses various institutional manifestations of power and status discrepancies in the EU on a macro and micro institutional level. How does the EU manage to communicate its values and identity in a context of potential cultural and ideological differences? Does ”wanting to understand the other” seem neglected, whereas ”wanting to get understood“ seems to have become an EU intercultural attitude driver? The aim of this paper is to identify the process and relevance of EU cultural synergies and its external intercultural image through various involved actors.

Tereza Sinigalia, Doctor Honoris Causa. În dialog cu Anca Dină, 19 iunie 2020

Author(s): Tereza Sinigalia / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 9/2020

Tereza Sinigalia, PhD in Art History The „G. Oprescu” Award of the Romanian Academy for the work “Civil wall architecture in Wallachia. 16th – 18th centuries”, 2000; Grand award of the Ministry of Culture and Cults for the year 2000 (Ex aequo with Oliviu Boldura and Voica Maria Puşcaşu) for the International Project “Conservation and Restoration of Probota Monastery”. Order “Cultural Merit” ranked as Commander, 2004 „Professor Emeritus” – National University of Arts ”G. Enescu”, Iași 2018 „ Honoris Causa Doctorate" – Title offered by the National University of Arts „G. Enescu” in Iași in October 2020 Honorary member of Art Conservation Support since 2010, colleague and dear friend of the CAS team, Mrs. Tereza Sinigalia still has a lot to say regarding the study of art history in Romania.

Танцовата практика през XVI век и музиката за лютня

Author(s): Yavor Genov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

Dance pieces emerged as one of the three main instrumental genres of the 16th century. It is perhaps no coincidence that both instrumental music and choreography simultaneously gained and developed their status as independent arts on the basis of their own authoritative figures, theoretical grounds and codes. Dance music consists of that part of the repertory which is in closest relation to its primary function, namely providing dancers with rhythmical, melodic and general structural framework. The same framework, on the other hand, gave instrumentalists good opportunities to explore and experiment with their compositional, improvisational and technical skills and limits. In the 16th century certain sets of instrumental pieces based on dance forms appeared. They played a crucial role in the development of the repertory over the following 17th and 18th centuries. Did these forms still keep their initial relation to dancing or did they rather change into stylized pieces with completely different functions? The present survey aims to shed light on the problems of when and how dance music became “purely” instrumental and separated from its initial role, and the extent to which dance and music kept their close interaction in the 16th century. In the search for answers the paper attempts to contextualize the two processes and practices by means of delineating their social functions and roles in the period and by relying on the testimonies of leading authorities on dance art during that time.

Интеграцията на ромите чрез обучението по изобразително изкуство в начална училищна степен

Author(s): Aneta Atanasova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2020

The Roma are one of the most stigmatized, marginalized and discriminated groups in Bulgaria. It has been proven that the social distance is what is huge, but it is the largest in your country in Central and Eastern Europe, which can concentrate over two thirds of the European Roma. The full integration of the Roma in Bulgarian society is located in the direct place from the creation of conditions for preservation of individual civil rights and coverage of their unequal treatment in the Bulgarian society. Improve the attention contained in art. This attitude they have preserved for centuries. Gypsy national art, combined with the art of friends of nations, has always enjoyed a unique payoff. Express means in the images that art by stimulating children and have a positive impact in the process of this integration in the mainstream school.

À la recherche du sens : Tzvetan Todorov et les peintres

Author(s): Jana Damianova / Language(s): French Issue: 49/2020