Οι καλλιτέχνες του δευτέρου μισού του 19ου αιώνα στη Φιλιππούπολη

Philippoupolis (today Plovdiv) during the second half of the 19th century was marked by different tensions between its Bulgarian and Greek inhabitants. A Metropolis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, after the foundation of the Bulgarian Exarchate (1870), without the blessing of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Philippoupolis becomes a settle of two Metropolitans, of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and of the Bulgarian Exarchate. Philippoupolis was also a capital of the founded in 1878 Eastern Rumelia, an autonomous territory of the Ottoman Empire, which soon afterwards was annexed in the Principality of Bulgaria (1885). During the second half of the 19th century in Philippoupolis were erected eight churches, and because of the Russian propaganda of Pan-Slavism and the Bulgarian National Revival, most of them were devoted to Russian or Bulgarian saints. During this period in Philippoupolis there wasn’t a local artistic school, so for their decoration the artists had to come from other parts and there are fourteen of them known by name (Nikolaos Adrianoupolitis, Dimitrios, Philippos Adrianoupolitis, Stefanos Adrianoupolitis, Philotheos Madytinos, the brothers Stanislav Dospevski and Nikola Dospevski, Stefan Andonov, Atanas Gjudženov, A. Kaloumenos, Diogenes Pazartzikiolis, Antonios Lazarou Agiografou and the brothers Georgi Dančov Zografina and Nikola Dančov). During the fifth, sixth and beginning of seventh decade of the 19th century the artists were mainly of Greek origin from Thrace, who worked only religious paintings, and on contrary, during the seventh, eighth and ninth decade of the century the artists were mainly of Bulgarian origin, who worked ecclesiastical art and portraits