Georgije Mitrofanović ( sr-cyr, Георгије Митрофановић; 1550–c. 1630) was a

Serbian Orthodox The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian churches. The majority of the populat ...

monk and

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

, remembered best for his work on the

Morača monastery The Morača ( cnr-Cyrl, Морача, ) is a major river in Montenegro that originates in the northern region in Kolašin Municipality under Mount Rzača. It meanders southwards for before emptying into Lake Skadar. Its drainage basin covers ...

church and the

frescoes Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

(wall paintings) inside the Krupa monastery church. Mitrofanović, a monk, had trained at the

Hilandar The Hilandar Monastery (, , , ) is one of the twenty Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Mount Athos in Greece and the only Serbian Orthodox monastery there. It was founded in 1198 by two Serbs from the Grand Principality of Serbia, Stefan Neman ...

monastery workshop, situated on

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; ) is a mountain on the Athos peninsula in northeastern Greece directly on the Aegean Sea. It is an important center of Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox monasticism. The mountain and most of the Athos peninsula are governed ...

, before coming to Montenegro where he worked on frescoes in the Morača monastery. He had many pupils and associates, but his most famous follower was Zograf Jovan. His contemporary was Zograf Longin. Serbian Patriarch

Pajsije Pajsije of Janjevo (; Janjevo, 1542? – Peć, 2 November 1647) was the Archbishop of Peć and Serbian Patriarch from 1614 to 1647, seated at the Patriarchal Monastery of Peć. He was also a writer, poet, composer, educator, and diplomat. The ...

initiated the restoration of the old 13th- and 14th-century churches of the

Patriarchal Monastery of Peć Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term ''patriarchy'' is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in fem ...

in 1620. Its restoration marked the symbolic beginning of the

renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

of true artistic activity in the territories subordinate to

prikaz A prikaz (; , plural: ) was an administrative, judicial, territorial, or executive bureaucracy , office functioning on behalf of palace, civil, military, or church authorities in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Tsardom of Russia from the 15th ...

es of the

Serbian Patriarchate of Peć Serbian Patriarchate of Peć (, ''Srpska patrijaršija u Peći''), or simply Peć Patriarchate (, ''Pećka patrijaršija''), was an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate that existed from 1346 to 1463, and then again from 155 ...

. All the

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

s of the churches were covered with lead, the Church of St. Demetrius was practically rebuilt, and almost half of the frescoes were restored by Mitrofanović, giving them a new layer. The major part of the early 17th-century frescoes in the church is found in the

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

and in the space between the

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

. Retaining the old subjects and respecting the preceding compositional solutions, Mitrofanović tended to approach the artistic attitude of master painter John's from the 14th century retaining at the same time his own warmer coloring.

Work

* The icon of Saints Demetrius, George, Artemius and Procopius, at

Monastery,

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, 1618 * The fresco of Patriarch Jovan, 1619-1620 * The icon of Annunciation. Centre door of an iconostasis of Saint Tryphon Church in Hilandar Monastery, Mount Athos, Greece, 1

Annotations

External links

* 16th-century Serbian people 17th-century Serbian artists 17th-century painters Serbian Orthodox clergy Serbian monks Serbian painters 1550s births 1630s deaths Place of birth unknown Members of the Serbian Orthodox Church History of the Serbian Orthodox Church 17th-century people from the Ottoman Empire 17th-century artists from the Ottoman Empire People associated with Hilandar Monastery {{Serbia-painter-stub