ICONS OF THE VIRGIN MARY AND JESUS CHRISTFROM THE CHURCH OF SAINT MARKO IN DONJE VRANJE

Abstract

Throne icons of the Virgin and Christ from the Church of Saint Marko in Donje Vranje are subject of analysis in this paper. The Church of Saint Marko is one-walled and simple looking, but with a relatively complex solution of the altar space. It is also a five-sided apse, and with the side-by-side quadrangular parts, inside and out. It is separated from the naas by a mural altar barrier. Due to this structure of the altar space, it is possible to consider with great certainty that the church in Donetsk is an older building, although it can not be said with precision from which time. It suffered in World War I and World War II, and was mostly restored in 1972. The icons of the Virgin and Christ are almost the only historically valuable items in it. There are no signatures or records on the icons, but it is obvious that they are the work of the same painter. The icons are the work of a very good master, if certain anatomical and perspective imprecisions are excluded. By analogy with dated examples, based on their artistic characteristics, primarily strong colors and striking styles, they can be dated in the last decade of the 18th and early 19th centuries. On the icons, there is a retrospective in the repetition of the iconographic lines of the iconography from the period of the 16th - 18th century, most of all, from the field of critical painting. They were certainly conceived as a pair of throne icons. Most likely they are the work of some of the active zoography families from the past, from the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula, perhaps from Ohrid or the surroundings. A couple of throne icons from the church in Donji Grad represent an important contribution to the knowledge of the Serbian regions of the poorly preserved iconography of the 18th and early 19th century.