The acanthus is one of the most common plant forms to make foliage ornament and decoration. In architecture, an ornament may be carved into stone or wood to resemble leaves from the Mediterranean species of the Acanthus genus of plants, which have deeply cut leaves with some similarity to those of the thistle and poppy.
An apron, in architecture, is a raised section of ornamental stonework below a window ledge, stone tablet, or monument. Aprons were used by Roman engineers to build Roman bridges. The main function of an apron was to surround the feet of the piers.
In classical architecture, an architrave ("door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, of a frame with mouldings around a door or window. The word "architrave" has come to be used to refer more generally to a style of mouldings (or other elements) framing a door, window or other rectangular opening, where the horizontal "head" casing extends across the tops of the vertical side casings where the elements join.
An astragal is a convex ornamental profile that separates two architectural components in classical architecture. The name is derived from the ancient Greek astragalos which means cervical vertebra. Astragals were used for columns as well as for the moldings of the entablature.
An avant-corps, a French term literally meaning "fore-body", is a part of a building, such as a porch or pavilion, that juts out from the corps de logis, often taller than other parts of the building. It is common in façades in French Baroque architecture.
An awning or overhang is a secondary covering attached to the exterior wall of a building. It is typically composed of canvas woven of acrylic, cotton or polyester yarn, or vinyl laminated to polyester fabric that is stretched tightly over a light structure of aluminium, iron or steel, possibly wood or transparent material.
Balconet or balconette is an architectural term to describe a false balcony, or railing at the outer plane of a window-opening reaching to the floor, and having, when the window is open, the appearance of a balcony.
A baluster is a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its construction are wood, stone, and less frequently metal and ceramic. A group of balusters supporting a handrail, coping, or ornamental detail are known as a balustrade.
A bossage is an uncut stone that is laid in place in a building, projecting outward from the building. This uncut stone is either for an ornamental purpose, creating a play of shadow and light, or for a defensive purpose, making the wall less vulnerable to attacks.
In architecture the capital (from the Latin caput, or "head") or chapiter forms the topmost member of a column (or a pilaster). It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface. The capital, projecting on each side as it rises to support the abacus, joins the usually square abacus and the usually circular shaft of the column.
A cartouche (also cartouch) is an oval or oblong design with a slightly convex surface, typically edged with ornamental scrollwork. It is used to hold a painted or low-relief design. Since the early 16th century, the cartouche is a scrolling frame device, derived originally from Italian cartuccia. Such cartouches are characteristically stretched, pierced and scrolling.
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the structure.
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian cornice meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element - the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the top edge of a pedestal or along the top of an interior wall.
Cresting, in architecture, is ornamentation attached to the ridge of a roof, cornice, coping or parapet, usually made of a metal such as iron or copper. Cresting is associated with Second Empire architecture, where such decoration stands out against the sharp lines of the mansard roof. It became popular in the late 19th century, with mass-produced sheet metal cresting patterns available by the 1890s.
A dentil is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian Revival, Greek Revival, Renaissance Revival, Second Empire, and Beaux-Arts architecture.
Egg-and-dart, also known as egg-and-tongue, egg and anchor, or egg and star, is an ornamental device adorning the fundamental quarter-round, convex ovolo profile of molding, consisting of alternating details on the face of the ovolotypically an egg-shaped object alternating with a V-shaped element (e.g., an arrow, anchor, or dart). The device is carved or otherwise fashioned into ovolos composed of wood, stone, plaster, or other materials.
An epigraph is an inscription or legend that serves mainly to characterize a building, distinguishing itself from the inscription itself in that it is usually shorter and it also announces the fate of the building.
A festoon, (originally a festal garland, Latin festum, feast) is a wreath or garland hanging from two points, and in architecture typically a carved ornament depicting conventional arrangement of flowers, foliage or fruit bound together and suspended by ribbons. The motif is sometimes known as a swag when depicting fabric or linen.
A finial or hip knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the apex of a dome, spire, tower, roof, gable, or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure.
The Green Man, and very occasionally the Green Woman, is a legendary being primarily interpreted as a symbol of rebirth, representing the cycle of new growth that occurs every spring. The Green Man is most commonly depicted in a sculpture or other representation of a face that is made of or completely surrounded by leaves. The Green Man motif has many variations. Branches or vines may sprout from the mouth, nostrils, or other parts of the face, and these shoots may bear flowers or fruit. Found in many cultures from many ages around the world, the Green Man is often related to natural vegetation deities. Often used as decorative architectural ornaments, Green Men are frequently found in carvings on both secular and ecclesiastical buildings.
A gutta (literally means "drops") is a small water-repelling, cone-shaped projection used near the top of the architrave of the Doric order in classical architecture. It is thought that the guttae were a skeuomorphic representation of the pegs used in the construction of the wooden structures that preceded the familiar Greek architecture in stone. However, they have some functionality, as water drips over the edges, away from the edge of the building.
A keystone is a wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch or typically a round-shaped one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allowing the arch or vault to bear weight. In arches and vaults, keystones are often enlarged beyond the structural requirements and decorated. A variant in domes and crowning vaults is a lantern.
A loggia is a covered exterior corridor or porch that is part of the ground floor or can be elevated on another level. The roof is supported by columns or arches and the outer side is open to the elements.
In architecture, a mascaron ornament is a face, usually human, sometimes frightening or chimeric whose alleged function was originally to frighten away evil spirits so that they would not enter the building. The concept was subsequently adapted to become a purely decorative element. The most recent architectural styles to extensively employ mascarons were Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau.
A medallion is a carved relief in the shape of an oval or circle, used as an ornament on a building or on a monument. Medallions were mainly used in the 18th and 19th centuries as decoration on buildings. They are made of stone, wood, ceramics or metal.
A niche is a recess in the thickness of a wall. By installing a niche, the wall surface will be deeper than the rest of the wall over a certain height and width. A niche is often rectangular in shape, sometimes a niche is closed at the top with an arch, such as the round-arched friezes in a pilaster strip decoration. Niches often have a special function such as an apse or choir niche that houses an altar, or a tomb.
An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found projecting from an upper floor but is also sometimes used on the ground floor.
The palmette is a motif in decorative art which, in its most characteristic expression, resembles the fan-shaped leaves of a palm tree. It has a far-reaching history, originating in ancient Egypt with a subsequent development through the art of most of Eurasia, often in forms that bear relatively little resemblance to the original. In ancient Greek and Roman uses it is also known as the anthemion. It is found in most artistic media, but especially as an architectural ornament, whether carved or painted, and painted on ceramics.
A pediment is an architectural element found particularly in Classical, Neoclassical and Baroque architecture, and its derivatives, consisting of a gable, usually of a triangular shape, placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. The tympanum, the triangular area within the pediment, is often decorated with relief sculpture. A pediment is sometimes the top element of a portico. For symmetric designs, it provides a center point and is often used to add grandness to entrances.
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wall surface, usually treated as though it were a column, with a capital at the top, plinth (base) at the bottom, and the various other column elements.
A protome is a type of adornment that takes the form of the head and upper torso of either a human or an animal. Protomes were often used to decorate ancient Greek architecture, sculpture, and pottery. Protomes were also used in Persian monuments.
A putto is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism, the putto came to represent the sacred cherub, and in Baroque art the putto came to represent the omnipresence of God.
Quoins are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner.
A rosette is a round, stylized flower design. The rosette derives from the natural shape of the botanical rosette, formed by leaves radiating out from the stem of a plant and visible even after the flowers have withered. The rosette design is used extensively in sculptural objects from antiquity, appearing in Mesopotamia, and in funeral steles' decoration in Ancient Greece. The rosette was another important symbol of Ishtar which had originally belonged to Inanna along with the Star of Ishtar. It was adopted later in Romaneseque and Renaissance architecture, and also common in the art of Central Asia, spreading as far as India where it is used as a decorative motif in Greco-Buddhist art.
A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently filled with decorative elements.
A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are typically built of stonework or brickwork, or else of timber structure with metal cladding, ceramic tiling, shingles, or slates on the exterior.
A sunroom, also frequently called a solarium, is a room that permits abundant daylight and views of the landscape while sheltering from adverse weather. Solaria of various forms have been erected throughout European history.
In Classical architecture a term or terminal figure is a human head and bust that continues as a square tapering pillar-like form. In the architecture and the painted architectural decoration of the European Renaissance and the succeeding Classical styles, term figures are quite common. Often they represent minor deities associated with fields and vineyards and the edges of woodland, Pan and fauns and Bacchantes especially, and they may be draped with garlands of fruit and flowers.
Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are called metopes. The raised spaces between the channels themselves (within a triglyph) are called femur in Latin or meros in Greek. In the strict tradition of classical architecture, a set of guttae, the six triangular "pegs" below, always go with a triglyph above (and vice versa), and the pair of features are only found in entablatures of buildings using the Doric order. The absence of the pair effectively converts a building from being in the Doric order to being in the Tuscan order.
In architecture, a turret is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle. Turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall in the days of military fortification. As their military use faded, turrets were used for decorative purposes.
A tympanum (from Greek and Latin words meaning "drum") is the semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance, door or window, which is bounded by a lintel and an arch. It often contains pedimental sculpture or other imagery or ornaments. Many architectural styles include this element.
A volute is a spiral, scroll-like ornament that forms the basis of the Ionic order, found in the capital of the Ionic column. It was later incorporated into Corinthian order and Composite column capitals. The word derives from the Latin voluta ("scroll").
Friedrich Grünanger (25 January 1856 - 14 December 1929) was a Transylvanian Austrian architect who worked primarily in Bulgaria. Born in Schäßburg in Austria-Hungary (today Sighişoara in Romania), Grünanger studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna architecture school between 1877 and 1879, under Friedrich von Schmidt.
Bansko is a town in southwestern Bulgaria, the administrative center of Bansko municipality, Blagoevgrad district. Bansko is located at the foot of the Northern Pirin at 927 m above sea level. The Pirin National Park begins near the town. The river Glazne flows through Bansko. The climate is mountainous and allows the retention of the snow cover from December to April, and the alpine nature of the Pirin Mountains provides excellent conditions for professional and amateur skiing. There is a station on the narrow-gauge railway Septemvri - Dobrinishte. Southwest of the city there are mineral waters.
Blagoevgrad is a town and municipality in southwestern Bulgaria, one hundred kilometers south of Sofia. It is the capital of Blagoevgrad Oblast. The town is about 560 meters above sea level in the valley of the River Strymon. In the Ottoman period this place was called Yukarı Cuma. This name was renamed from the Bulgarian translation Gorna Dzhumaya. In 1950, the city was named after the founder of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party, Dimitar Blagoev (1856-1924).
Gabrovo is a town in central Bulgaria, the administrative and economic center of the eponymous municipality of Gabrovo and Gabrovo district. It is located along the Yantra River at the northern foot of the Shipka part of the Balkan Mountains. In close proximity to it, in the area of Uzana, is the geographical center of Bulgaria. The people of Gabrovo are known for their love of humor, for their annual humorous carnival of humor and satire, for their mechanical engineering, and for their numerous monuments and bridges and long streets. Gabrovo is the longest town in Bulgaria with its 25 km from Yabalka district to Smirnenski dam.
Radomir is a town in the Radomir Municipality in the Pernik Province of Bulgaria. The town of Radomir is located in the Radomir valley, at the foot of Mount Golo Bardo. The town was first mentioned in the 15th century and the current form appears for the first time in a source from 1488. In 1418 a wave of discontent broke out in the vicinity of Radomir against the heavy taxes imposed by the Ottoman rulers. At that time the population did not exceed 6 to 7 thousand people in the whole valley, but it gave good handicrafts. The locals were mostly farmers and stockbreeders, but the craft went hand in hand with them. In 1918, in Radomir, Aleksandar Stamboliyski proclaimed Bulgaria to be a republic. His supporters then attempted an attack on Sofia. The Radomir Rebellion was stopped when this force was defeated by Bulgarian and German tsarists, who also did not retain control for long as Bulgaria had signed an armistice with the Allies by the end of the month.
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd (19141924) and later Leningrad (19241991), is the second-largest city in Russia. It is situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703 on the site of a captured Swedish fortress and was named after the apostle Saint Peter. Saint Petersburg is historically and culturally associated with the birth of the Russian Empire and Russia's entry into modern history as a European great power.
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It was known as Serdica in Antiquity and Sredets in the Middle Ages, Sofia has been an area of human habitation since at least 7000 BC. The name Sofia comes from the Saint Sofia Church, as opposed to the prevailing Slavic origin of Bulgarian cities and towns. Sofia's development as a significant settlement owes much to its central position in the Balkans. It is situated in western Bulgaria, at the northern foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the Sofia Valley that is surrounded by the Balkan mountains to the north.
Thessaloniki, also known as Thessalonica, Saloniki, Solun or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece. Thessaloniki is located on the Thermaic Gulf, at the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea. The city of Thessaloniki was founded in 315 BC by Cassander of Macedon and was named after his wife Thessalonike, daughter of Philip II of Macedon and sister of Alexander the Great.
Vienna is the national capital, largest city, and one of nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's most populous city, and its cultural, economic, and political center. Vienna's ancestral roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city. It is well known for having played a pivotal role as a leading European music center, from the age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic center of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque palaces and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.
Boris III the Unifier (His Majesty Boris III, by the grace of God and the People's Will, King of Bulgaria, Prince Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Duke of Saxony) was heir to the throne and Prince of Tarnovo from his birth on January 30, 1894 to October 2, 1918. and king of Bulgaria from his coronation on October 3, 1918 until his death on August 28, 1943. He was the son of Tsar Ferdinand I, who abdicated in his favor after the defeat of Bulgaria in the First World War.
Cyril (born Constantine, 826869) and Methodius (815885) were two brothers and Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries who were born in Thessaloniki. For their work evangelizing the Slavs, they are known as the "Apostles to the Slavs". They are credited with devising the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet used to transcribe Old Church Slavonic. After their deaths, their pupils continued their missionary work among other Slavs. Both brothers are venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as saints with the title of "equal-to-apostles". In 1880, Pope Leo XIII introduced their feast into the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1980, the first Slav pope, Pope John Paul II declared them co-patron saints of Europe, together with Benedict of Nursia.
Ivan Stefanov Lazarov is a Bulgarian sculptor, Honored Artist (1952), People's Artist (1969, posthumously), academician of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences since 1941. Ivan Lazarov was born on October 2, 1889 in Karlovo. In 1912 he graduated from the State Art and Industrial School. Specialty Sculpture with Professor Zheko Spiridonov. He then specialized at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (1917 - 1919) and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden, as a scholarship holder of the Ministry of Education. In 1919 he became a teacher of painting in Sofia, and later a teacher of sculpture at the State Academy of Arts. Professor since 1924. In the 1930s he was elected rector of the State Academy of Arts and remained so until 1945.
Lady Justice is an allegorical personification of the moral force in judicial systems. The origin of Lady Justice was Justitia, the goddess of Justice within Roman mythology. Justitia was introduced by emperor Augustus and was thus not a very old deity in the Roman pantheon. Though formally called a goddess with her own temple and cult shrine in Rome, it appears that she was from the onset viewed more as an artistic symbolic personification rather than as an actual deity with religious significance.
The Armistice of Thessaloniki was signed on 29 September 1918 between Bulgaria and the Allied Powers in Thessaloniki. The convention followed a request by the Bulgarian government for a ceasefire on 24 September. The armistice effectively ended Bulgaria's participation in World War I on the side of the Central Powers and came into effect on the Bulgarian Front at noon on 30 September. The armistice regulated the demobilization and the disarmament of the Bulgarian armed forces. The signatories were, for the Allies, French General Louis Franchet d'Espérey, commander of the Allied Army of the Orient, and a commission appointed by the Bulgarian government, which was composed of General Ivan Lukov, Andrey Lyapchev and Simeon Radev.
Chorbaji was a military rank of the corps of Janissaries in the Ottoman Empire, used for the commander of a regiment, approximately corresponding to the rank of colonel. The word in Turkish literally means "person in charge". In several predominantly Christian areas of the Ottoman Empire, such as current North Macedonia, Serbia, and Bulgaria, as well as many parts of Eastern Anatolia, the term chorbaji was also used as a title for Christian members of the rural elite, heads of villages and other rural communities and rich peasants
The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League (the Kingdoms of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro) against the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan states' combined armies overcame the initially numerically inferior (significantly superior by the end of the conflict) and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success. The war was a comprehensive and unmitigated disaster for the Ottomans, who lost 83% of their European territories and 69% of their European population. As a result of the war, the League captured and partitioned almost all of the Ottoman Empire's remaining territories in Europe.
The First World War began on July 28, 1914, and lasted until November 11, 1918. It was a global war and lasted exactly 4 years, 3 months, and 2 weeks. Most of the fighting was in continental Europe. Soldiers from many countries took part, and it changed the colonial empires of the European powers. Before World War II began in 1939, World War I was called the Great War, or the World War. Other names are the Imperialist War and the Four Years' War. There were 135 countries that took part in the First World War, and nearly 10 million people died while fighting. Before the war, European countries had formed alliances to protect themselves. However, that made them divide themselves into two groups. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated on June 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia and declared war on it. Russia then declared war on Austria-Hungary, which set off a chain of events in which members from both groups of countries declared war on each other.
The liberation of Bulgaria covers the events related to the restoration of the Bulgarian statehood after almost five hundred years of Ottoman rule. This happened as a result of the national Revival, which led to the recognition of the Bulgarian Exarchate and to the organization of the April Uprising. The uprising prompted Russia to start the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878).
Proshekovi Brothers Brewery is a former brewery, headquartered in Sofia. It was built in 1881-1884 by the Czech brothers Jiri Proek and Bogdan Proek and was registered as a general partnership in which Alexander Kulov and Dr. Urban participated, and later Stefan Pipev. Its main activity is beer production. On August 1, 1978, the Proek brothers' factory was closed, with all personnel and production transferred to the brewery in Gorubljane.
The 1944 Bulgarian coup d'état, also known as the 9 September coup d'état, was the forcible change of the government of Kingdom of Bulgaria carried out on the eve of 9 September 1944. In Communist Bulgaria it was called People's Uprising of 9 September - on the grounds of the broad unrest, and Socialist Revolution - as it was a turning point politically and the beginning of radical reforms towards socialism.
The Second Balkan War, also called the Inter-Allied War, was a conflict that broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 June 1913. Serbian and Greek armies repulsed the Bulgarian offensive and counter-attacked, entering Bulgaria. With Bulgaria also having previously engaged in territorial disputes with Romania and the bulk of Bulgarian forces engaged in the south, the prospect of an easy victory incited Romanian intervention against Bulgaria. The Ottoman Empire also took advantage of the situation to regain some lost territories from the previous war. When Romanian troops approached the capital Sofia, Bulgaria asked for an armistice, resulting in the Treaty of Bucharest, in which Bulgaria had to cede portions of its First Balkan War gains to Serbia, Greece and Romania. In the Treaty of Constantinople, it lost Adrianople to the Ottomans.
The Second World War was a global war that involved fighting in most of the world. Most countries fought from 1939 to 1945, but some started fighting in 1937. Most of the world's countries, including all of the great powers, fought as part of two military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. It involved more countries, cost more money, involved more people, and killed more people than any other war in history. Between 50 to 85 million people died, most of whom were civilians. The war included massacres, a genocide called the Holocaust, strategic bombing, starvation, disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons against civilians in history.
Hristo Ivanov Lekarski is a soldier-fighter, Bulgarian politician, and public figure. He was born in 1851 in Kyustendil. He comes from the prominent Kyustendil Lekarski family, son of the Renaissance physician Ivan Lekarski, brother of Vasil Lekarski and Konstantin Lekarski, grandson of Hristo Lekarski. He graduated from a Bulgarian school in Kyustendil. Together with his brother Konstantin, he went to study in Pisek, Czech Republic. After completing his high school education, he went to Geneva, where he became a medical student. In October 1880, he was elected mayor of Kyustendil. After the establishment of the mandate regime (1881 - 1883), headed by Prince Alexander I of Battenberg, new elections were held in the country and his mandate was terminated on October 25, 1881. He began work as a bailiff and secretary of the prosecutor's office in Kyustendil. In the elections of 1884, he was elected for the second time as the mayor of the city. Having justified the trust of the citizens, he was re-elected as mayor 2 more times and held the position of mayor for a total of 3 consecutive terms, from November 29, 1884 to October 13, 1893.
Nikola Stoyanov Dimkov is a Bulgarian engineer and public activist, author of "Star of Consent", a project to create a world organization to protect peace and promote cooperation between countries, peoples, and religions in the world. The project was printed in French, German, Turkish, and Greek, and through the embassies in Constantinople, Dimkov sent it to many heads of state and government, including American President Woodrow Wilson, who later issued his famous Fourteen Points.
Vladimir Dimitrov - Maystora (1 February 1882 - 29 September 1960), was a Bulgarian painter, draughtsman, and teacher. He is considered one of the most talented 20th-century Bulgarian painters and probably the most remarkable stylist in Bulgarian painting in the post-Russo-Turkish War era. His portraits and compositions have expressive and vivid color, idealistic quality of the image, profound symbolic strength, and originality. The main topic which he explores is the relation between man and nature. Although he does not consider himself religious, he regards Nature as governed by a supreme spirit; he shares that the main purpose of his paintings is to elevate man and humanity, to bring it closer to harmony, represented by this omnipresent spirit.
