Липсваща персоналия – зограф Йоан от Ахтопол
Absent Personalia – Icon Painter Ioan of Agathopolis

Summary/Abstract: While his name is documented, Ioan, the icon painter from Agathopolis remains unfamiliar to science. He is first mentioned by A. Vasiliev who indicates some of his icons from the Holy Trinity Church in Tsarevo, and is consequently nearly forgotten by researchers. Although only locally popular, Ioan was a renowned master with multiple icons and a mural monument – the Ascension of Christ Church in Agathopolis (1796). All his works known to me, yet almost unknown to science, encompass the period 1791–1816. Practically, they cover all the settlements on the southern coast of the Black Sea and parts of the region of Strandzha. Due to lack of biographical information regarding the icon painter it is hard to define his potential artistic relationship with other local master iconographers – whether his equals or students. However, a number of icons from the region, the dating of which overlaps with later works of Ioan, beginning somewhere from the start of the second decade of the 19th century and continuing as far as to the 1850s, demonstrate that his art has had its immediate followers. This serves as a clear evidence for the importance of his role in the artistic processes on the southern coast of the Black Sea from the end of the 18th century until the start of the 19th century.

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