Portal:Bulgarian Empire/Selected article/13

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The Painting of the Tarnovo Artistic School was the mainstream of the Bulgarian fine arts between 13th and 14th centuries named after the capital and the main cultural center of the Second Bulgarian Empire, Tarnovo. 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. Depending on whether it was mural decoration of the churches or easel painting it could be divided into two types: Mural painting and Iconography. Little remains of mosaics were found during archaeological excavation which shows that this technique was rarely used in the Bulgarian Empire. The works of that school have some extent of realism, portrait individualism and psychology.

For the first time in Eastern Europe the Tempera method became wide-spread in the murals of the Tarnovo School of Art. That technique allowed the work to procede slower than the fresco method as well brighter and more saturated colouring and had potential for more additional colours. The fresco technique continued to be used, for instance in the beautiful frescoes of the Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo and the chapel of the Hrelyo Tower in the Rila Monastery. The splendid frescoes in the Boyana Church are considered as forerunners of the Renaissance.