Ktetor portraits of church dignitaries in Serbian Post Byzantine painting (part one)

Church dignitaries were often represented as ktetors in Serbian painting of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, primarily in wall paintings and on icons. The first part of this paper discusses twelve ktetor representations of Serbian patriarchs and metropolitans. By analyzing the ktetoric projects of Orthodox Serbs within the Ottoman Empire, the historical framework and description of every portrait, it explores the questions regarding not only the self-referentiality of the ktetors from the highest circles of the clergy under the Patriarchate of Pee, the patterns and ways they wanted to be represented and remembered, but also the ideological and program context as well. Finally, this two-part study attempts to examine the question of individual and collective identity, imagery and ideas constructing the visual culture of clerical ktetorship in Serbian Post-Byzantine painting.