Lazar Seferovic

Icons
The Dimitrijevic-Rafailovic Icon-Painting School of the Bay of Kotor

The noblest Post-Classical art, Byzantine art, governed European mind as, for example, the Paris'one has done in the 20th century.

The influence of the eastern painting idiom continued to live in the late figures of the icons of Savina and the Dimitrijevic-Rafailovic Icon-Painting School of the Bay of Kotor. There is also the obvious impact of other influences besides the Byzantine one, such as: Italian-Greek, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance.

The greatest number of icons was produced in the last decade of the 13th century and the first decade of the 14th century, that is the years when a decorated partition between the altar and the nave became common. The arrival of the Turks did not break the line of icon creation, but there was a decrease in icon production and decay of artistic expression. In the 17th century a strong wave of western painting idiom flowed over the late Greek iconography, spread to Russia, and also to the local icon-painting schools. The 17th century was the golden era of icon painting in Montenegro. It began with the Hilandar master Georgije Mitrofanovic from Moraca monastery and was continued by master Radul, whose experience was exploited by the painters of the long-lived family of artists from the Bay of Kotor, the Dimitrijevic-Rafailovic family of Risan, in the course of the 17th, 18th and 19th century

The Dimitrijevic-Rafailovic Icon-Painting School of the Bay of Kotor gave eleven painters in five generation, who left thousands of icons, almost a hundred iconostases, woodcarving and fresco compositions, mainly in village churches. The progenitor of the School was Dimitrije the »dascal« (the teacher) – Miter Dascalo detto Pizas, as it was written in the »Katastik« (cadastre) in Risan.

The items of the Icon-Painting School of the Bay of Kotor are kept in the rich collection of the Regional Museum at Topla (Herceg-Novi) and in the treasury of Monastery Savina. Some of the works show certain artistic expressions often limited by provincial inspiration range and manner.

The icon of St. Nikola (Nicholas) from 1735, a gift from Hilandar, kept in the treasury of Monastery Savina is of high artistic value. We should also mention four representative works of Russian icon painting and icons of the Greek-Levantine production also kept in the treasury of Monastery Savina.

// Projekat Rastko-Boka / Umetnost //
[ Promena pisma | Pretraživanje | Mapa Projekta | Kontakt | Pomoć ]

© 2001. "Projekat Rastko - Biblioteka srpske kulture na Internetu"; Tehnologije, izdavaštvo i agencija "Janus"; kao i nosioci pojedinačnih autorskih prava. Nijedan deo ovog sajta ne smije se umnožavati ili prenositi bez prethodne saglasnosti. Za zahtjeve kliknite ovdje.