Старозаветни лица и събития в средновековната стенна живопис по българските земи (IX – XIV в.) (= Кирило-Методиевски студии. Кн. 12)
Personalities and Events of the Old Testament in Mediaeval Mural Painting in the Bulgarian Lands (9th–14th Centuries) (= Cyrillo-Methodian Studies. 12)

Author(s): Lilyana Mavrodinova
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Theology and Religion
Published by: Кирило-Методиевски научен център при Българска академия на науките
Summary/Abstract: A study of the Old Testament subjects and personalities depicted in the mediaeval murals in today's Bulgarian lands. The development is followed up of the invested in them inner sense of the Old Jewish and Early Christian emphasis on God's might, omnipotence, on the new Christian symbolism reflected in the liturgical rite – the typological link between the two Testaments: the Old as the "Entrance" to the New and respectively, the Old Testament subjects and prophecies as the prefigurations of the basic events of the New Testament: the coming of the Messiah, i. e. the incarnation of God-the-Word, the Eucharistic sacrifice – symbol of the redemption of the sins by the Saviour and the Last judgement. The first part of the article is dedicated to the scenes from the Old Testament on the walls of mediaeval churches. By Byzantine masters are painted the earliest murals in "The SS Archangels" in Kastoria. As an example of official Byzantine typology are examined those in "St. Sophia" in Ohrid, commissioned by the Byzantine archbishop Leo in the 11th c.; in the Bachkovo ossuary, as well as the Bulgarian monuments: the "SS Forty Martyrs of Sebaste" in Turnovo, the "Archangel Michael" chapel in the monastery of the same name at Ivanovo, the chapel in Hrelju's Tower at Rila Monastery, the churches "St. Dimiter" in Patalenitsa, in Lyutibrod, in Zemen, "St. Marina" near Karlukovo, etc. In the second part are considered the images of prophets carrying scrolls withe the texts of their prophecies for the principal events in the New Testament. The inscriptions have been made out and specified on the scrolls of most of the prophets in the church of Zemen, the church "St. Peter" in Berende and the layers of the 12th and the 14th centuries in the "St. George" old church in Sofia, the majority of which had so far not been deciphered.

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