Jovan Četirević Grabovan
Jovan Četirević Grabovan (Serbian Cyrillic: Јован Четиревић Грабован; ca. 1720–81), was a Serbian icon painter active during the 18th century; he is regarded one of the masters of Serbian Orthodox iconostasis painters. He painted the Lepavina and Orahovica monasteries, among others.
Life
Četirević was born in Grabovo, near Ohrid.[1][2] His family was of Aromanian descent,[3] from Albania.[4]
His professional career began in the Habsburg territories, such as Osijek (today in Croatia), and what is today Vojvodina, in the service of Orthodox Serbs (the Metropolitanate of Karlovci). Although his painting style was from the southern Balkans, he was influenced by western art style, in order to fulfill the wider tastes of his employers.[4] His works are to be found in Serbian Orthodox churches scattered across Croatia (Slavonia), Hungary and Vojvodina.
From the church registers we know that Jovan Grabovan lived in Osijek with his mother, brother, sister and six children. It was here that Grabovan got acquainted with baroque painting that would transform his work. He remained living in this town until his death and he signed most of his icons as the “inhabitant of Osijek” (stanovnik osečki).
Work
Grabovan is considered to be one of the best icon painters of the period. He modeled notions of late medieval, so called “zoographic” painting which he brought from his native land and absorbed the much sought new, baroque style. He developed an original style, somewhat more traditional in comparison with other Serbian icon painters of the period. On the other hand, Grabovan was an inquiring mind and he adopted many baroque features developing a bolder, more independent style, with exquisite baroque modeling of figures which are now much less static, naturalistic portraits and absence of golden background. In some of his works (Szekesfehervar iconostasis), with his light palette Grabovan even comes close to Rococo style.
Grabovan painted a number of iconostasises, all of them in Serb churches and monasteries. This is a list of some of his works:
- Molovin church in Srem (1772)
- Orahovica church in Slavonia (1775)
- monastery of Lepavina in Croatia (1775)
- Szekesfehervar church in Hungary (together with Grigorije Popović, 1776)
- Slatina church (1785)
- Pavlovac church in Croatia
His last work dates from 1780.
It seems that he was also working as a wood carver.
References
- ↑ Dušan J. Popović (1990). Srbi u Vojvodini. Matica srpska.
Његов земљак Јован Грабован Чатир (Четир, Чатировић, Че- тировић, рођен је око 1720. у Грабови, у околини Охрида) остао је у традицијама нашег средњовековног зографског сликарства. Овај одлични мајстор израдио је ...
- ↑ Matica srpska (Novi Sad, Serbia). Odeljenje za društvene nauke (1959). Zbornik za društvene nauke. 23-28. Matica srpska.
Тако је утврђено ... да је Јован Четиревић Грабован родом из села Грабова код Охрида
- ↑ Dinko Davidov (1990). Spomenici Budimske eparhije. Просвета.
славне црквене општине уведена је и цинцарска породица Грабован. Ту је записано и име сликара Јована, који је у овом граду живео са мајком, браћом, сестром, женом и шесторо деце. Највероватније је у овом граду имао ...
- 1 2 Dejan Medaković (1980). Srpska umetnost u XVIII veku. Srpska književna zadruga. pp. 52–54.
- Dinko Davidov, Spomenici Budimske eparhije, Beograd – Novi Sad 1990, pp. 60–61, 418
- Dejan Medaković, Barok kod Srba, Zagreb 1988, pp. 143–144
- Kučeković A. 2004. Ikonostas Jovana Četirevića Grabovana u Orahovici. Zbornik radova Narodnog muzeja - Istorija umetnosti 17, (2): 219-242 (excerpt in English: *http://scindeks.ceon.rs/article.aspx?query=ISSID%26and%263700&page=9&sort=8&backurl=%2Fissue.aspx%3Fissue%3D3700)
- Dr Dušan J. Popović, Srbi u Vojvodini 2, Novi Sad 1990, pp. 421–422