Meaning and Content of Figurative Cycle „Ordeals of Soul“

Abstract

Lyubomir Traykov, Meaning and Content of Figurative Cycle „Ordeals of Soul“. This article introduces the reader to a specific pictorial cycle that appears in the iconographic programs of churches and monasteries during the Bulgarian National Revival (18th-19th century AD). The study highlights the main monument, the Vitae of Basil the New, which determines the structure of the pictorial cycle. A comparative and critical analysis of a significant number of written monuments, such as the collections of Damascenus Stidites from the 18th-19th century in Bulgaria, allows for the categorization of the main influences on the cycle "Ordeals of the Soul." Additionally, the article explains the specific model in which painters coordinated their interpretations of this theme in Bulgarian church painting.