Мирослав Йотов - първо място в конкурс "Историческа живопис" с картина "Прием при цар Симеон Велики"

My name is Miroslav Jotov. I'm 43 years old. I'm from Isperih. I've been living in Varna for 13-14 years. I've been painting since I was a child. I've been a historian for two years. What drives me? The conversation between me and Evelin Mikhailov. At first, I didn't know what kind of water I was getting into. I didn't imagine it would be so difficult. Because to create a picture, a light, a color, is one thing, but to do it adequately, with a specific era, for a specific painting, is a very difficult task. Yet, the difficult tasks are challenging. And, in fact, I found myself passionate about Turkish painting. It flows. The painting is called The Reception at Tsar Simeon Veliki. I've been working on it for two months. It's an optical technique. As I said, it's an optical technique. It's a way of creating this kind of... The technique itself is to draw on layers. You gradually move up the layers, and you end up with something like a big chess game. In a moment, I'll show you the restoration. I'll tell you more about the details and the information related to this painting. But my goal was to recreate an environment in which every object, except the ones that are characteristic of it, of the era, such as clothes, shoes, equipment... My idea was to capture the psychology of different nationalities, the Tsar's sleep, even the look of the Tsar's daughter, which the Byzantines see, the trembling guards. And, yes, it was a two-month, fun, depressive journey, because when you get into such a big painting, you inevitably fall into something like emotional waves, up and down. Milena? I forgot. This is Milena Petrov, the restorer I work with. Without sounding pompous, she's the best in Bulgaria, and it's an honor and pride for me to work with such a person. He'll tell you a little more about the information in this painting. Hello from me. My name is Milena Petrov, and I'm glad to be here with you to present the painting of my friend Miroslav Iotov. The painting, received from Tsar Simeon, depicts Bulgaria in one of its most emblematic moments, the Golden Age, the end of the 9th century, the beginning of the 10th century, and the spirit of the Bulgarians. In fact, it represents the ever-changing world, the nations of the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe. I will draw and describe some of these characters to show their characteristics and what the role of the restorer, of people like me, is in the development, in their work, in the construction of such a painting, an art-historical painting. As you can see, there is a whole plethora of images here, starting with the Bulgarians, of course, starting with the ruler, I'm wearing characteristic ruler's clothes for this period, the guard, that is, the soldiers who surround him, characteristic for the era of success, helmets, spherical helmets, which are found in the North Black Sea, in the Pre-Caucasus of this period, the veiled iron scarves, the colored cuffs, characteristic for the period, and, of course, the whole outfit and equipment of the soldiers. Let's move on to the civilian characters, which are also depicted by the Bulgarians, information about which we have obtained from the selection of Prince Svyatoslav, which has long been considered the selection of King Simeon the Great, and Svyatoslav's selection is his slightly later transcription. These are the images of the Bulgarians, of the aristocracy, of the Bulgarian aristocracy, with the characteristic clothes for them, a very emblematic woman's dress, that is, the outfit of a woman from nature, of an aristocrat, which is a very rarely seen image, and, of course, the characters that represent the surrounding nations, people from the Pratenits, from the North Caucasus and from the North Black Sea, these are Alans and Khazars, characters from the Middle East, from the Arab caliphates, which are depicted in the chronicle of Skilitsa Kedrin, and, of course, our closest neighbors, the Romans, the brothers of the Roman Empire, in the characteristic clothes for them, made of copper, with specific characters, floral, isomorphic elements on their clothes, representatives of the nations from the Pannonian war, that is, the Magyars of that period, who are very strong, our neighbors, in which we are constantly in diplomatic relations or military conflicts, about which I will also speak, I hope, the reconstructor from Hungary, as his name was, Janusz, who will also present these characters, for whom he has helped with their development, and, in fact, this whole process, in which such a historical picture is built, is a collection of the activities of many people, starting from historians, consultants, we go through the reconstructors, the restorers, who carry out the details of the clothes and the design, and we get to the artist, whose work is the most important, and who realizes all this, our ideas, thoughts and lessons, on the canvas. As you understood from Milen Petrov, a lot of people participate in the creation of such a picture, specifically in this one, he was a leading restorer, but here, there were three others besides him, Jasmin Parvanov from Avituhol, and Galina Atanasova-Badumba, who also sews clothes, but especially for the help of the Hungarian restorers, I used, I went from the source, as it is called, I used the opinion and knowledge of the Hungarian restorer, Janusz Meseler. Greetings! My name is Mesh Tader Janusz, I am the leader of Karate Sevetchik and chairman of We are reenactors and reconstructors of the early medieval Hungarian culture. I would like to talk about Miroslav Jotun's newest painting and the historical park of Bulgaria. I had the honor to help and advise Miroslav with the creation of the Hungarian characters on his new painting, where the Khan accepts the ambassadors of different nations in his throne room. Among these ambassadors there are the Hungarians as well. About Miroslav Jotun's work, I must say that he is creating an exceptional fine art with his historical theme paintings. From one hand, the pictures are quite authentic with the surroundings, the attires and the material culture that is depicted there. We could surely say that such paintings indeed have a scientific value in the reconstruction field because of these aspects that I mentioned. And believe me, to make such accuracy requires a lot of study from the artist even before he starts the actual painting. On the other hand, as well because of the artistic skills of Mr. Jotun, the paintings are really much lifelike, filled with energy and life. The people and the situations are humane, real. If we look at them, we could feel that we are standing among them, slipped into the historical atmosphere what the painting creates. This aspect makes enjoyable these pictures to any kind of viewers. What I must mention about the Hungarian characters of this new painting is that their gear is mostly from the Upper Tisza region of Hungary, where we know the most specific and beautiful objects in connection with the Hungarians of the so-called Conquest era. These are the head-tip from Bereg Szász, the gilded silver-plated pouch and the mounted belt from Karos, what we can see on the leader who is standing on the left in the full silk kaftan. His men, who are bringing the chest, are also wearing characteristic Hungarian belts and pouches. Their hairstyle is also a typical one, long hairs braided to free pigtails. Their attire are also classic steppe gear of this age. Different types of kaftans and fine-made boots are suitable for horseback lifestyle and horseback warfare. I offered several options to Miroslav, and from these, he was able to choose the best ones that are most suitable for his artistic work with the Hungarians. And I must say that he did a wonderful job there. They look real nice. Maybe they are the best-looking characters of the painting. And this picture, this painting will be available to view in the large art gallery of historical paintings in the park. And indeed, this gallery is worth a visit among the other historical reconstruction sites there. I strongly advise everybody to check out the park because it is a truly monumental and unique project that revitalizes several architectural monuments and objects of material culture from a large historical scale from modern-day Bulgarian territory. And thus, thus offers nice activity and experience even for those who aren't historical enthusiasts like myself. And indeed, the surroundings of the park, the Varna region, Dobrunsha, have many unique historical sites, monuments and museums that display the greatness and historical significance of the first and second Bulgarian kingdoms. We had so far four journeys as reenactors to Varna region and we visited these fantastic sites and I only could recommend everybody to check out Pliska, Madara, Veliki Preslav, Shumen and of course Varna. So, the Historical Park is truly a wonderful place and it's a very nice project, unique in its kind in, I can say, in whole Europe. I wish we could have such a project here in Hungary, but sadly we do not. So, our best option is to support the Historical Park and visit as often as we are able to. So, please, keep up the good work and continue to enlarging the circle of the spectacles that we are able to check out on the Park. Thank you very much for your attention. In the end, he did not fully agree with every single detail. And this is how the final result looks like. In the end, you just see a picture, a picture, and you say, well, historically something is drawn there, but is it from the epoch? No, no, things are much more complicated and as I said in the beginning, it is normal for the author to go through some internal fluctuations until he finishes. Thank you.