Painting of the Tarnovo Artistic School

Although it was influenced by some tendencies of the Palaeogan Renaissance in the Byzantine Empire, the Tarnovo painting had its own unique features which makes it a separate artistic school.

For the first time in Eastern Europe the tempera method became widespread in the murals of the Tarnovo School of Art.

On the first layer were depicted saints who were usually stepped on a high painted plinth, which is one of the characteristic features of the School.

Widely spread was the image St Demetrius of Salonica, the patron saint of the Asen dynasty, who was particularly popular in Bulgaria in 13th and 14th centuries.

[5] There is a beautiful fresco of Emperor Ivan Alexander in the ossuary of the Bachkovo Monastery and in the church of Dolna Kamenitsa there are eleven images: despot Michael (son of Michael Shishman) his wife an unknown noble holding a model of the church; his wife and children and two clerics.

Images of warrior saints and ktitors were common in the preserved detailed mural paintings on the foundations of the churches in Trapezitsa.

The iconographic type Galaktotrophousa was a predecessor of the widely-spread images of Madonna with the infant Christ in Western Europe.

The large number of images of Jesus Christ in the Boyana Church makes an impression: Pantokrator (All-powerful); Emmanuel (Young man); Evergetes (Blessing); Mandilion; Keramidion and the unique image Christ Ancient of Days in which He is depicted as a white-bearded Old man.

Thеre are original themes in the Transfiguration of God Chapel in the Hrelyo Tower situated in the Rila Monastery.

[10] Although there are relatively few preserved monuments of the Tarnovo School of Painting, they refute the popular opinion that the religious murals are inveterate and that they are inappropriate for artistic imagination.

The archaeological research shows that some public edifices and the palaces were also richly decorated with mural paintings[11] but unfortunately the few remaining fragments are not enough for the themes to be determined.