Веселин Чакъров - второ място в конкурс "Историческа живопис" с картина "Чудото с Патриарх Евтимий"

Veselin Chakarov from Varna, 48 years old. I've been doing art my whole life. I graduated as a painter at the University of Veliko Tarnovo. I do a lot of different things, all of which are related to painting. These are illustrations, comics, illustrated encyclopedias, and painting, of course, as in Sochi. The story I chose for my painting is The Miracle with the Patriarch in Timi. It's a dark episode in Bulgarian history, when Veliko Tarnovo, our capital of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, falls. The Patriarch should be beheaded. When the executioner raised his sword to cut off Veliko Tarnovo's head, Veliko Tarnovo was paralyzed, or at least that's what the historical chronicles say. Then the Ottomans decided not to kill Veliko Tarnovo, but to send him to prison, and they sent him to the present-day Bachkoski Monastery. That is, he becomes the patron saint of the Bachkoski Monastery, and there he lives to the end of his days. The interesting thing that was a bit of a provocation for me was that the story is predisposed to something quite gloomy, but it also carries an emotional and meaningful charge as a message for our generation and for the next generation, of course. The interesting thing is that the Patriarch is in Timi in the center, and in this case, because he is supposed to be the figure that fell on his knees, optically the question arises as to how he fell, and how he is in the center of the composition and looks monumental. That's why I used a low horizon, so that the difference between the heads and the heights of the two main figures can be minimized as much as possible. At the back, one of the symbols of Tarnovo is the Patriarch. In fact, it is not exactly what the present-day Bulgarians know it as, because the restoration that is currently in Tarnovo is not exactly the same, although there are often disputes about these architectural restorations. In this case, there is an additional fence wall, and on the one hand there are the Ottomans, who decide not to kill him. This is Miftir, who stops the military commander, who is ready to kill him in a different way. Tarnovo is not the same, it is not according to the standard that exists for the whole country, and, accordingly, the population of the other country, different representatives of lower levels of aristocracy and so on. The interesting thing is that many people would ask the question what kind of Patriarch he is, he is just a priest. In fact, he looks exactly like a Patriarch. Miftir is the one who takes responsibility for the protection of the whole city on his shoulders, and he was an adherent of Isichasm, that is, in him you would hardly see a golden ring or some super expensive cross, and that's why he was made with a drawing with a small wooden cross. That's all I could say. In this case, I did not have to use Milenko's knowledge, simply because the hero himself, the composition itself, does not have so many details and historical restorations in terms of costumes, clothes and weapons, although, let's say, I was looking for these shoes for a long time on the Internet, to see what the shoes of the Ottomans were like at that time. Also, at that time, the Ottoman soldiers looked exactly like that, with stripes, almost like typical medieval knights. And what we mentioned above about Tsarevets, about the Patriarchate, but in general, in this case, there was no need. The message I would like to convey to everyone, it may be encoded somewhere in the whole picture, and the strangest thing is that now I remember the words of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the most important thing is invisible to the eyes. It is the same with us artists. And in this case, perhaps the most important thing is that there is always hope. Even the fallen Patriarch is with his head held high, he will never pray for himself or for others, and, accordingly, he is the symbol of the unyielding Bulgarian spirit. This is what I think is the most successful, what a person can interpret. There is always hope and miracles happen every day.