The Art Techniques

The Boyana frescoes are an early example of the icon-painting style which later on was adopted in mural painting and as such they mark the beginning of specific features which strongly influenced the Tirnovo artistic school. The icon-style murals which became wide-spread in the Serbian, Russian and Mount Athos monasteries during the 14th - 16th centuries are closely related to this innovation which we find for the first time in Boyana. This fact has a special historic significance. It should be pointed out that the rich delicate pastel colours of the faces and flesh and their modeling, and also the specific way of painting the heavy cloth of the clothing were favoured by the Boyana master and are the most typical features of his style. he animates the static figures with barely noticeable gestures. He combines the large colour areas in the composition with remarkable mature skill and brings forward the figures, against the abstract, predominantly dark, background. The architectural details and landscapes do not occupy large areas in the composition and do not hamper the expression of the most important element - the figures, which the artist treats with psychological credibility and original plastic tangibility achieved through the use of a restrained and rich range of colours.

The second painter preserved the memory of more archaic models and more restricted movements. The faces and hands s feeling of volume but the play of colour is limited and replaced by a clear contour. The portraits of St. Panteleimon, St. Barbara and St. Nedelya display the most characteristics features of this manner. Some of the more primitive scenes form the sufferings of St. Nikola were also probably painted by him.

The actual technique used in the Boyana murals is still not completely clear. It was obviously influences by the technique of icon-painting. This means that most of the painting was executed with emulsion paints which reacted with the semi-dry foundation of the plaster. So far we have excepted (as a working hypothesis) that the painter started with the usual al fresco technique - on wet plaster - and then finished his work in al second manner - over dry plaster. This combined technique is also known as Byzantine technique and was typical of the wall-paintings in the Mediterranean region, including the Balkan Peninsula and Bulgaria.

When analyzing the technique of a particular painting or paintings of a certain period, it is most important to access what proportion of the painting was done al fresco and what, al secco. the results of this analysis should be compared with the techniques prevalent in the historical period concerned. In the case of the Boyana murals, it has been suggested that a smaller proportion of painting was executed on wet plaster (al fresco) that was done on dry plaster - a fact related to the direct transfer of icon- painting principles in the execution of murals.

Every scholars that has studied the Boyana Church stress the fact that the Bulgarian text found on the paintings are extremely important in determining the ethnic origin of the painters. According to A. Grabar, who was the first to notice this fact, "We have no direct evidence as to the nationality of the painters. However, the Bulgarian texts on the wall-paintings testify to their Bulgarian origin. In Boyana, as in the rest of the Tirnovo kingdom, there are no Greek texts". Later on he adds, "Some Slavonic transcriptions and translations of Byzantine words show that the work was done by Slav painters after Greek (e.g. Byzantine) originals".

Further proof is to be found in the Slavonic name of St. Nedelya (her Greek name is not mentioned). The only exception, where we have a Greek text parallel to the Bulgarian one is the scene with Holy Ghost.

The portraits of the warrior-saints (typical for the Bulgarian aristocratic family chapel), the Bulgarian saints St. Petka and St. Ivan Rilski and the portraits of actual historical personalities (Sebastocrator Kaloyan and his wife Desislava, Tsar Constantine Assen Tikh and Tsarina Irina) are a further confirmation of the Bulgarian origin of the Boyana murals and their connection with the capital city of Tirnovo.

The Boyana paintings bear the marks of a turbulent, contradictory and innovatory period in 13th Century art. What were the artistic peculiarities of that period?

For various reasons - philosophical or to do with experiments in new forms - the medieval artists gradually rejected the monumental and abstract cannon models. These models became an aesthetic basis for the further evolution of art. By the end of the 12th Century these models satisfied Byzantine aesthetics. But the economical and political changes occurring at the border line between the 12th and 13th centuries (the fall of the Byzantine Empire during the fourth Crusade in 1204) affected the cultural life of the Mediterranean region. Art looked for a new image.

The new trends were related to the problem of a more substantial and vigorous incorporation of man with his material environment. For this reason a number of painters turned towards the old Late Hellenistic art, which offered a suitable form for the expression of the new ideas. They appreciated the realistic approach of Late Hellenistic artists in the painting of form and space. As a result the medieval artists created works with renewed form, dynamic, with a lively colour range, with a definite approach to spatial problems within the limits of the mediaeval notions of reality, depth of the landscape and architectural detail.

Other painters were interested in different problems that were also related to the humanistic trends in 13th Century art. They were involved in bringing religiouns symbolism down to the eternal truths of life: birth and death, suffering, motherhood, sacrifice, loyalty and friendship, eternity. they induced the life into the hitherto right imagery. They animated the statistic figures through a slight gesture or movement; they individualized the faces. The religious characters and the Biblical episodes were used as an opportunity to paint impressions and reflections concerning the world around them.

The Boyana master is one of the most brilliant representatives of this trend. His art is very complex, contradictory and original. His remarkable achievement lies not only in the way that he humanized canonic art but also in how he attained an artistic scene of proportion in the plastic and colour treatment of form.

By the end of the century these two trends united and formed the Palaeologus style. The artists of the 13th Century were humanists and treated much more than canonic art intended merely to illustrate certain didacties.

During that period the Second Bulgarian State was the strongest on the Balkan Peninsula. The Tirnovo cultural centre was created under the patronage of the Bulgarian tsars. Its influence spread throughout the cultural processes in the entire Balkan Peninsula . The literary and artistic activity were most pronounced. The Tirnovo art school evolved upon the basis of local traditions inherited from the First Bulgarian State as well as the experience of the Byzantine art adapted to Bulgarian tastes. The artists were well acquainted with the refined art of Constantinople after the Byzantine Empire fell under the Crusaders (1204) and took refuge in Tirnovo had an important impact upon cultural life in Bulgaria. The Byzantine artists found in the Bulgarian capital a favourable atmosphere for creative work. They shared their experience and adopted new features from the Bulgarian artistic traditions.

Several ateliers existed in Tirnovo at the time. They each used different methods and their innovatory search took various paths. the most characteristic feature of the Tirnovo school lay in the original implementation of both the Byzantine experience and local traditions, and in fine psychological portayal, an elaborate range of colours, and the characteristic softened modeling of gestures and movements. the Boyana master is an outstanding representative of this school. His work manifests all the above features.

The Boyana Church of 1259, with its murals and architecture, ranks among the great achievements of the Tirnovo school and indeed of its time.

The merits of this remarkable monument of Bulgarian medieval culture have given it a place of distinction in the world heritage. In 1979 the World Heritage Committee included the Boyana Church in the List of World Cultural and Natural Heritage.