Draft:Jovan Teorijan

Jovan Teorijan or in English: John Theorian(c. 1320 - 1399) was a 14th-century Serbian icon and fresco painting master who lived and worked in Old Serbia, now part of North Macedonia. Only recently with more research on medieval art in what is today North Macedonia brought painters such as Jovan Teorijan to prominence. The image of Saint Naum on a double sided icon for religious processions from the Church of the Holy Virgin Peribleptos, also known as St. Mary Peribleptos in Ohrid is attributed to the school of the painter John Theorian. The Art Encyclopedia of Yugoslavia (Likovna enciklopedija Jugoslavije) states that Jovan Teorijan lived and worked in 1345 during the time of Stefan Dušan.

Today Greeks, Bulgarians and Macedonians share him as their own, but nowhere did he reveal his ethnic origin and on very rare occasion did he sign his work, with the exception for "his signature on Archangel Michael's sword in the scene of King David in Penitence" at the St. Sofia church in Ohrid. We know very little about Jovan Teorijan who taught a generation of painters in his workshop as head artist of the Gregory's Gallery in the cathedral Church of St. Sophia in Ohrid during Marko Mrnjavčević's rule, better known as Prince Marko. Also, Jovan Teorijan and his students (some of whom were identified as Isajlo, Rahila, Rufin) were credited with painting the small churches dedicated to the Saints Kuzman and Damjan since the painting of Jovan and his collaborators was far better than the unknown painters in the region.