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About Forms and Symbolic Configurations has been developed with initial and derivative assertions, having both informative and formative purposes. They propose, especially for the support of the apprenticeship stages, an overall and a detailed view, visually polarized between the macrocosmic and the microscopic, over some primary and derivative forms, organic and angular, natural and artistically created by the human being. Intending to make some inductions, which give the possibility for manifesting a creative continuum, for the emitter as well as for the receptors, I have thus conceived a wide corollary of some various visual ideas and expressions, for some symbolic configurations, which can be continued and developed on their specific coordinates, in a theoretical and applicative sense.
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The present article attempts to identify, from the different interviews in newspapers and on television given by Master Grigore Popescu, the portrait of his personality. If we watch the work manner of Master Grigore Popescu, we can understand the importance given by the painter to the sacred act he is called to answer with artistic skill and with a special soul state. That which for some artists is only a means of earning a living, a routine work, for Master Popescu is the joy to paint, as for him each element of the church must be connected to another. It is ideal that, at the beginning of such a sacred act as is the foundation of a cult place, the priest, the architect, the painter and the sculptor make together a harmonious unitary plan, in all these sections, as a whole according to the Christological teachings. This paper refers also to Master Popescu’s gift as a colourist. During the course of his career, this extraordinary passionate church painter has made over 26 works in fresco and in secco and almost as many restoration works of the pictorial ensembles part of the Romanian national heritage.
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The theme of Ecumenical Synods is one of the most significant within the Byzantine iconography of narthexes and appeared for the first time in the Serbian medieval space at the Sǒpocani Monastery’s church. Subsequently this theme became almost mandatory in narthex iconography of most medieval churches in Serbia. An original feature of the narthex at Sǒpocani is illustrated by the presence, alongside the seven ecumenical synods, of an eighth local synod, i.e. the one convened by Stefan Nemanja, founder of the Nemanjić dynasty and of numerous churches in Serbia, the ruler who unified Serbians into one of the strongest medieval states. With the passing of time, due to the assembly of Serbian local synods and their importance for the Serbian state and church, the replacement of the seven Ecumenical Synods with these local assemblies was imposed for the narthex decoration. These “alterations” in the paintings at Sopoćani were made to the Ecumenical Synods depicted in the narthex and the votive panel from the nave. The innovation brought about by these synods resides not only in the theme but also in the manner of representation. The artist at Sǒpocani is distinguished by his painting technique, clearly superior to other medieval paintings from Serbia through its refined talent and noble artistic ambitions. The characters’ faces seem to glow with kindness and calm. The beautiful faces, radiating with uplifting energy, seem to obey an inner peace and harmony.
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The basis for the development and spread of graphic design in the1920s and 30s in Estonia was the rapid progress of the country’s economy and commerce. The rise in the number of publications led to a greater need for designers. The need for local staff arose in all fields of applied graphics. In the 1930s, graphic artists were trained at two professional art schools – the State Applied Art School (Riigi Kunsttööstuskool) in Tallinn and the Higher Art School(Kõrgem Kunstikool) Pallas in Tartu. The present article focuses on the analyses of the creative work of the graphic artists of both schools, trying to mark the differences and similarities.The State Applied Art School was established in 1914. In 1920, GüntherReindorff started working as a drawing teacher. His teaching methods and the distinguished style of his creative work became an inspiration for an entire generation of Estonian graphic designers. The three well-known students and followers of G. Reindorff were Johann Naha, Paul Luhtein and Hugo Lepik. The teachers and students of the State Applied Art School shaped greatly the appearance of magazines printed in Tallinn. Of modern art movements, art deco found most followers. National ornament became a source for creative work. Distinct composition and beautifully designed legible script are also the features that resulted from the systematic education of the State School of Applied Art.The curriculum of the Higher Art School Pallas, established in 1919, was based on western European art experience. Therefore the visual language of the artists from the Tartu school is often picturesque; influences of expressionism and constructivism are visible. Individualities emerge very clearly. National propaganda is latent in comparison with the Tallinn school, but the script is often unprofessional. The most important representatives of the Tartu school were Nikolai Triik, Ado Vabbe ja Hando Mugasto. Very productive graphic designers were also Jaan Vahtra, Peet Aren, Ernst Kollom and Agu Peerna. In addition to these names, there was quite a number of self-taught graphic designers active in Estonia, such as Heino Lehepuu, Paul-Aleksander Pedersen, Karl Taev, August Vahtel, Karl Vanaveski and Valter Kõrver. They were mostly involved in advertising art.
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The present article is an attempt to find reasons why a certain iconhas been of extraordinary importance in the religious life of local peasants. Is it due to the iconographic type with its connotations; were these known and possibly modified and accommodated according to the needs of worshippers? Is it due to the person of the saint depicted, his contamination with historical and mythological characters? Answers to these questions are sought from the folklore,beliefs and customs of the Setus, a Fenno-Ugric Orthodox group inhabiting the Southeast corner of Estonia, as well as from the travellers’ and clergy’s descriptions of the image of St Nicholas of Mozhaisk, located in the Petseri monastery.
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The Story of the miracle-working icons of the Hilandar monastery, written down in 1558/9 in Moscow, contains an interesting legend about the processional icon of the Mother of God Abramiotis(s)a with Christ and the representation of the Prophet Elijah on the background, still kept in the treasury of the Serbian monastery on the Holy Mountain. According to the legend, this icon, which was taken from Bitolj by the Serbian ruler Stefan Dusan, played the decisive role in the Serbian conquest of Serres in 1345. This Mother of God with Christ belongs to the rare Pelagonitissa type and it used to have revetment. To judge by its later copies, the icon was held in high reverence on the Serbian Court and later in the Hilandar monastery, where the legend says the Serbian imperial couple brought it on the occasion of their visit to the Holy Mountain in 1347/8. On the basis of its style, the icon can be dated around the middle of the 14th century and it is a copy of the older and now non-existent Mother of God from Bitolj. However, the iconographic type was in existence also independently of Pelagonia, and it is safe to assume that its sources were probably in Constantinople. The unique epithet of the Hilandar icon also points to the Capital, or, more precisely, to the monastery tSv AppocuiTSv, as the place of origin. In the second half of the 9th and in the 10th century, this monastery treasured a venerated icon of the Mother of God which was considered as Acheiropoietos. Nothing is known about the appearance of this icon, unless the Hilandar icon, dealt with in the present paper, represents its replica. The miracle-working icon of Pelagonitissa from Bitolj was probably treasured in the city cathedral, i.e. in the seat of the Pelagonian bishopric, dedicated to the Virgin, up to the Ottoman conquest and subsequent destruction of the town in 1385.
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In this article the author observes limited number of laced motives applying a working model of loop and spike. This simple pattern — being used as a model for analising the headpieces in manuscripts and the ornamental motives of interlaced patterns in architectural sculpture of Morava School — has been found in a Serbian manuscript of Panteleimon Monastery (Rossikon) on Mount Athos (MS 2, fol. 82r). A loop, similar to an iron link of a chain, has been clasped by a spike resembling the common paper clip in designe of this vignette (fig. 1). The principal idea of theoretical approach proposed by author was that the spikes make the structure fast or do fix it based on certain display of loops. Proposed model, in visual (fig. 1) as well as verbal sense (loop and spike), can be of good effect by describing simple or not too complicated interlaced patterns. In case of the in labyrinthine way designed examples, the working model should be replaced, totally or only in part, by a concept found in terms of weaver's craft: warp and woof. As an introduction to this article the author brings the summary of two earlier papers of his own (cf. notes 5 and 7) as well as the important one of prof. V. Korac (cf. note 16) — for reson of geometric disposal and simple designed elements of examined patterns. The author's intention was to show the importance of paying attention to geomertic scheme and auxiliary net of diagonals in examined exempla. This geometry serves to enable the correct creation of the shapes of cords (yarns, vines, stalks etc.; see fig. 8) to be transformed in a designe of interlaced ornaments. After the author's opinion the appearance of floral or vegetal motives in that kind of ornamentation can be a testimony of origin of the interlaced patterns in fantastic botany. This statement can be clearly proved in squere headpieces with animals, of what in oblong examples only a hint can be find. After observing of certain number of interlaced designes in manuscripts and shallow stone carwings on the churches of Morava scool, it can be said that the warp (loop) usually is found to be simpler than the woof (spike). The same was the case in marginal marker (fig. 1) used in this analysis as a model to approach the problems of structure of interlaced ornaments. The second member of the choosen model, adressed as spike or woof, shows its character as pictorial one. The picturesqueness of woof can be better observed on the compound ornamental structures. The labyrinthin interlacings of woo/are limited by geometric settings of warp.
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The iconography of St. Prokopios (July 8) is understudied in comparison to that of the saints of the same category, such as St. George, St. Demetrios and St. Theodore (note 1, 2). The representation of the scene of Prokopios' Vision of the Cross is widely held to be confined to the 12th century Cappadocia (note 3). The vita of this saint is attested in two basic versions. Born in Jerusalem, the saint is described as a lecturer in the first version, whereas the second depicts him as a military commander. In both versions his name is Neanias; in the second one, he is said to have taken the name of Prokopios after converting to Christianity (notes 6-12). Byzantine synaxaria and other manuscripts mention a couple of saints carrying this name (notes 13-14). The oldest places of worship devoted to this saint are known only from written sources — Caesarea in Palestine, Gerasa, Constantinople, Scythopolis and Antioch (notes 15-17). At the end of the 12th (John Cinnamus) and the beginning of the 13th centuries (the correspondence between the Pope Innocent III and the Bulgarian Emperor Kaloyan), the relics of this saint and a church devoted to him in Nis are mentioned, but its traces have not been found yet (notes 18-20). There is in Prokuplje near Nis a restored medieval basilica of St. Prokopios, in which St. Prokopios' relics are said to have been transferred after the Turkish conquest of Nis at the end of the 14th century. The church in Prokuplje has only in part been archeologically investigated (notes 21-23); the relics of the saint were removed from there at the end of the 17th century (note 24). Not many churches in medieval Serbia were dedicated to St. Prokopios (note 25), which also holds true for the situation in Greece (note 26). St. Prokopios was always painted as a beardless young man with a hair of medium length, cut straight and combed behind the ears, dressed either as a nobleman (martyr) or as a soldier. Similar to other holy warriors, his soldier image became predominant from the 11th — 12th centuries (note 27). The first picture of St. Prokopios we know of, the one in the Church of Maria Antiqua in Rome, is not preserved, the oldest preserved ones coming from Cappadocia, among whose murals of the period from the 10th/11th to 13th centuries a number of representations of Prokopios survive (notes 28-30). It was in Cappadocia that the scene of the Vision of the Cross was formed, probably when the town of St. Prokopios (Urgup) near Caesarea became the seat of a bishop in the 10th century (notes 31-32)...
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Churches erected after the death of the last emperor of the Nemanjic dynasty raise the question of the identity of the painters who worked for the rulers in the north of the formerly vast state territory, namely in Ravanica, established by Prince Lazar, in Ljubostinja, the memorial of Princess Milica, and in Resava, raised by Despot Stefan. The Ascension Church in Ravanica was adorned with paintings on three occasions, the decoration being finally completed between 1384 and 1387. The dome was decorated by a painter of modest talents, possibly a local craftsman (fig. 1). In the second group were masters with apprentices educated in workshops in which the adherence to the classicist ideal was demanded. The artistic treatment of three of them is recognizable in the Church of Christ-Sophia, called Old Metropolis, in Voden, today Edessa, painted between 1375 and 1385 (figs. 2-3, 4-5, 6-7). The third group comprised only two artists, both of them trained in the workshops that cherished the classical heritage, who seem to have taken part in the decoration of the catholicon of the Monastery of Pantocrator on the Mount Athos, painted between 1360-1370 (figs. 9-10, 11-12). Judging by the few remaining frescoes in the narthex, it was embellished by two painters who had a propensity to a somewhat pronounced expressivity (figs. 14-15); it is possible that they joined the guild after the completion of the work in Pantocrator Monastery. The Dormition Church in Ljubostinja was not adorned by one single group of painters, either. The dome and pendentives of the naos were decorated first, in the eve of the Battle of Kosovo (1389), whereas the paintings of the church and the narthex date from the time after the death of the founder, probably between 1406 and 1408. For the embellishment of the dome of her church, Princess Milica engaged a moderately gifted painter (fig. 16) who wrote a few inscriptions in Greek; this may be interpreted as an indication of his Byzantine origin. His work was interrupted and his paintings were plastered over, and another group of painters created new frescoes on this new layer. The few preserved paintings allow only for a partial identification of the artistic hands of different painters. It may be assumed with some probability that one whose works are preserved in the southern choir and in the lower zone of the naos decorated the whole church with a colleague of his (figs. 17-18). The remaining frescoes in the lower registers of the narthex do not display any major divergences which would point to different hands. They were probably made by the painter Macarios, who signed his name in the narthex above the lunette of the door leading into the naos (figs. 19-20). This painter is usually identified with the homonymous monk, brother of the Metropolitan John, painter from Zrze...
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Seules les descriptions de l'aspect exterieur de l'eglise de l'Ascension du Christ a Decani recourent a des termes aussi elogieux que ceux employes роur parler de l'eglise du Saint-Sauveur a Zica. Et, de fait, La beaute de cette derniere a notamment ete tout particuilierement soulignee par les anciens ecrivains, Domentijan et Teodosije. Tout le sens de leurs paroles n'a toutefois ete percu qu'a la suite de recents travaux de restauration entrepris sur l'eglise s'etant soldes par le degagement de restes de couches de peinture recouvrant ses murs exterieurs et ayant, de ce fait, permis d'entrevoir l'as-pect originel de la decoration polychromatique exterieur de l'eglise.
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Article about iconography of Virgin's transformations in 14th and 15th century painting.
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The founder's inscription situated at the foot of the tambour in the Church of the Virgin in Studenica originating from 1208/9, is one of the oldest dated specimens of Serbian literacy. It was uncovered in 1951, during the conservation works in the monastery. Former research (conducted by Dj. Trifunovic), has ascertained that inscriptions on the scrolls, books and frescoes in the monastery were written by the Greek artists who decorated the church. Scribal errors indicate beyond any doubt that Slavic was not the mother tongue of the scribes, and that they were not, or at least not sufficiently, familiar with the orthography of this language. In this paper, the main focus has been directed at the founder's inscription, which has been put under detailed orthographic and palaeographic scrutiny. The morphology of some letters — the Greek "K", non-distinguishing between izica (ippsilon) and the Cyrillic "Č" - clearly indicates that in all probability the author of the inscription was a Greek, perhaps the very painter who signed his name in the Greek language on the Mandelion beneath the large founder's inscription.
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In this interview Dr. Aida Abadzic Hodzic discusses graphic arts in the sixties and the seventies of the 20th century in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but she also reflects upon the works of fine arts throughout Europe as well. The sixties and the seventies of the twentieth century have been exceptionally dynamic years in social, political and cultural history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dr. Aida Abadzic Hodzic discusses meanings and implications of terms “modern” and “postmodern”, stating that “the pluralism of postmodern era has turned into a norm that abolishes all the other norms”. She further explains why the term “urban” has lost its meaning in our BiH context. Primarily, it implies deterioration of specific urban values and the lifestyle. Bosnian and Herzegovinian cities were once the models of exceptional synthesis of various architectural epochs baring unique and attractive traits of European architectural theory and practice. The new structure of the government, however, sadly reflects in unhealthy, unplanned and often unattractive picture of our sometimes ago beautiful cities.
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Art in the future will be categorized in different ways. Some will be seen and lauded as luxury goods; others will develop into art-anthropological projects and become accessible to the masses, outside of museums.
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