Zahariy Hristovich Dimitrov (Bulgarian: Захарий Христович Димитров) (1810–1853), better known as Zahari Zograf (or Zahariy Zograf; Захари(й) Зограф) is a famous Bulgarian painter of the Bulgarian National Revival, noted for his church mural paintings and icons and often regarded as the founder of secular art in Bulgaria due to the launch of everyday dynamism elements in his work.
Zahari Zograf was born in the town of Samokov in 1810 and was taught by his brother Dimitar Zograf, with whom he superior worked together, as his dad died early. A spiritual student of Neophyte of Rila before 1827, he became an equal co-conspirator of his brother at the age of 21 in 1831, i.e. he was proclaimed a master.
His best known icons are those of the SS Constantine and Helen Church in Plovdiv, the Church of the Theotokos in Koprivshtitsa, as without difficulty as a number of monasteries. Zahari Zograf’s best known frescoes are those in the main church of the Rila Monastery, in the chapel and the St Nicholas church of the Bachkovo Monastery, the Troyan Monastery and the Monastery of the Transfiguration. He painted three mural portraits of himself in the latter three, a move that was regarded as controversial during the time.
Zahari Zograf lived and worked on Mount Athos amongst 1851 and 1852, where he ornamented the outer narthex of the Great Lavra. He with did several church donor portraits in his progressive years, also desertion a large number of unrealized sketches after his death from typhus upon 14 June 1853.
Media joined to Zahari Zograf at Wikimedia Commons
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