Jovan Četirević Grabovan

Jovan Četirević Grabovan
Work by Jovan Četirević Grabovan
Born
Ioannes Tsetiris

c. 1720
Grabova, Ottoman Empire
Diedafter 1787
Habsburg Monarchy
EducationMoscow, Kiev Lavra
Known forOrthodox iconostases
StyleSerbian Baroque[1]

Jovan Četirević Grabovan[a] (ca. 1720–1787), was an Orthodox iconographer (zographer, zograf) active in the southern Habsburg Monarchy in the second half of the 18th century; he is regarded one of the masters of Serbian Orthodox iconography in the Baroque style. He painted the Lepavina and Orahovica monasteries, among others.

Life

Četirević (Greek: τζετήρης, romanized: Tsetiris) was born in Grabova (now in southeast Albania),[2] as he stated himself, in the "Ochrid Eparchy".[2] His parents names were Vartolomeos and Kalia.[3] Although he never specified his ethnicity, he was most likely of Aromanian origin, his birth place being almost exclusively Aromanian-inhabited at the time and his associations speaking in favour of this.[4] According to some Greek scholars, he was ethnic Greek.[5] Četirević had initial training among Greek iconographers, and he could be connected to zograph schools of northern Greece and Epirus.[6] According to his later inscriptions and writings he spoke and wrote in Greek and Serbian.[7]

On 6 September 1736 he left his home for Hungary.[8] He used the Slavic diminutive Janko(s).[8] Četirević studied painting in Moscow in 1746–50.[9] He likely studied at the Kiev Lavra and acquired the Biblia Ectypa of Christoph Weigel, from where his Western baroque inspiration came from.[9] He used the painter's manual Hermeneia Zographikes ("Hermenia of the Art of Painting").[10] It is suggested that this manual, with Greek and Cyrillic text, was a compilation from Dionysios of Fourna and Russian iconographic handbooks (podlinnik).[1] He painted at the church in Roman in Moldavia in 1754–55 then returned to Grabova and married Angelina on 26 July 1755.[11] It seems that he stayed in Grabova until he travelled to Wallachia in 1761.[11]

In 1769 he brought his family and settled down in Novi Sad (now in Serbia), Habsburg Monarchy.[12] His family was inscribed in the household list of the Serbian Orthodox parish.[13] The family was made up of his mother Kalia (d. 1775), brother Georgios, sister Helena (d. 1775), his wife Angelia (d. 16 April 1818) and six children.[14] The move happened during the sacking of Moscopole,[4] by Turks and Albanians in 1769.[15] He then moved to Osijek (now in Croatia), probably in 1771.[4] Aromanian merchants had an important role in the Orthodox community of Osijek.[16] His brother Anastas had moved to Osijek in 1765.[17] Četirević's first big project was that of the Church of the Virgin in Orahovica, also contributed to by Aromanian merchants, which he finished in 1775.[18] He then worked on a number of iconostases in northern Croatia, first at Lepavina Monastery and then in the strong Orthodox communities in Koprivnica, Križevci and Bjelovar regions, finishing in 1785.[18] The Greek merchant community, made up mostly of Aromanians, that settled Slavonia and northern Croatia in the 18th century were assimilated with the Serbian majority in the jurisdiction of the Metropolitanate of Karlovci.[19] The Orahovica community entrusted Četirević with repainting the icons of saints Simeon and Sava dating to the first half of the 16th century.[20] He was favoured among the Orthodox in Slavonia and northern Croatia.[9] His distinctive style with initial Greek training contributed to his popularity among the Orthodox that were pressured to Uniate.[9] He occasionally travelled to Hungary to work,[9] and with his colleague Grigorije Popović painted the iconostasis of the newly finished Serbian church at Székesfehérvár.[13]

He died some time after his last known work in Kula in Bačka, in 1787.[21] His two sons, Nikolas and Konstantin, were also painters.[21] He had a namesake who was active as an iconographer in Albania,[9] earlier believed to have been him,[22] however his work is obviously not in the style of Četirević.[9]

Work

His professional career began in the Habsburg territories of Slavonia, northern Croatia and Vojvodina, in the service of the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Karlovci. His style was a blend of traditional Greek-Byzantine iconography (zographos) with Western (baroque) influence. His works are found in Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries scattered across north Croatia, Vojvodina in Serbia and south Hungary.

Grabovan participated in the Serbian Baroque, which replaced the Late Byzantine style in the Metropolitanate of Karlovci through the symbiosis of styles, at first Russian-Ukrainian and later Western European influence.[23] While the earlier iconographers were unamed, they were replaced by notable painters in the 18th century.[24]

Grabovan painted a number of iconostases, all of them in Serb churches and monasteries. This is a list of some of his works:

  • Iconostasis at church of Molovin in Srem (1772)
  • Iconostasis at Orahovica Monastery in Slavonia (1775)
  • Iconostasis at Lepavina Monastery in northern Croatia (1775)
  • Iconostasis at church of Székesfehérvár in Hungary, together with Grigorije Popović (1776)
  • Iconostasis at church of Veliki Poganac (1779)
  • Iconostasis at church of Velike Sredice (1780)
  • Iconostasis at church of Vojakovac (1782)[18]
  • Iconostasis at church of Slatina (March 1785)
  • Many icons, held at monasteries, churches and museums.

See also

Annotations

  1. ^
    Known predominantly as Jovan Četirević Grabovan (Serbian Cyrillic: Јован Четиревић Грабован).[25] He signed his name as Jovan Četirević Grabovan in an iconostasis at Velike Sredice,[26] and as Jovan Četir Grabovan in an iconostasis at Veliki Poganac.[2] Grabovan is a demonym of his birth place.[27] In Greek, his name was written Greek: Ιωάννης τζετήρης, romanized: Ioannes Tsetiris.[28]

References

  1. ^ a b Moutafov 2002, p. 217.
  2. ^ a b c Kučeković 2018, p. 351.
  3. ^ Moutafov 2002, p. 221.
  4. ^ a b c Kučeković 2018, p. 352.
  5. ^ Moutafov 2002, p. 227.
  6. ^ Davidov 1990, p. 60.
  7. ^ Kučeković 2018.
  8. ^ a b Moutafov 2002, p. 222.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Kučeković 2018, p. 362.
  10. ^ Kučeković 2018, Moutafov 2002, p. 217
  11. ^ a b Moutafov 2002, p. 223.
  12. ^ Kučeković 2018, p. 352-353.
  13. ^ a b Davidov 1990, p. 61.
  14. ^ Moutafov 2002, pp. 222–223, Davidov 1990, p. 61
  15. ^ Nicolau 2002, pp. 83–85.
  16. ^ Kučeković 2018, p. 353.
  17. ^ Kučeković 2018, pp. 354–355.
  18. ^ a b c Kučeković 2018, p. 355.
  19. ^ Kučeković 2018, pp. 356–358.
  20. ^ Kučeković 2018, p. 360.
  21. ^ a b Kučeković 2018, p. 363.
  22. ^ Moutafov 2002, p. 225.
  23. ^ Davidov 1990, pp. 58–59.
  24. ^ Davidov 1990, p. 59.
  25. ^ Kučeković 2018, Kučeković 2004, Davidov 1990, Popović 1990
  26. ^ Kučeković 2018, p. 350.
  27. ^ Kučeković 2018, Moutafov 2002
  28. ^ Kučeković 2018, p. 351, Moutafov 2002, p. 225

Sources

  • Davidov, Dinko (1990). Споменици Будимске епархије. Belgrade: Balkanološki institut SANU. pp. 59–61, 381, 418. ISBN 978-86-07-00480-5.
  • Kučeković, Aleksandra (2018). "Jovan Četirević Grabovan – an 18th-Century Itinerant Orthodox Painter. Some Ethnic and Artistic Considerations". ИЗКУСТВОВЕДСКИ ЧЕТЕНИЯ. 1.
  • Kučeković, Aleksandra (2004). "Ikonostas Jovana Četirevića Grabovana u Orahovici". Zbornik radova Narodnog muzeja-Istorija umetnosti. 17 (2): 219–242.
  • Moutafov, Emmanuel (2002). "Ioannes Tsetiris from Grabovo or Jovan Chetirevich Grabovan?". Ζητήματα μεταβυζαντινής ζωγραφικής. Αθήνα: 217–229.
  • Nicolau, Irina (2002). Come On, Now!: A Personal Journey Through the World of the Aromanians. East European Monographs. ISBN 978-0-88033-495-2.
  • Popović, Dušan J. (1990). Srbi u Vojvodini (II.): Od Karlovačkog mira 1699 do Temišvarskog sabora 1790. Novi Sad: Matica srpska. pp. 421–422.
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