Metropolitan Jovan Zograf

Metropolitan Jovan Zograf (the Icon Painter) lived and worked in the 14th- and early 15th-century in Medieval Serbia of the time, now North Macedonia. We only know him by his baptismal name Pribila whose father was a builder by the name of Hajko who became a monk and took the name of Hariton in the monastery of Zrze, not too far from Prilip. Pribila like his brother Prijezda were tonsured as monks like their father in the same monastery. Pribila became known as Jovan and Prijezda as Makarije, better known as Makarije Zograf, and both became well-known icon painters during their lifetime. Monk Jovan was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan in the Serbian Orthodox Church, though he continued to paint frescoes and icons. His most famous work is "Jesus Christ, Saviour and Life Giver", painted in 1383 at Zrze during the time when Marko Mrnjavčević (1371-1395) ruled the region. Today the original painting is found in the Museum of the Republic of North Macedonia at Skopje. We know Metropolitan Jovan Zograf, who lived during the time of Lazar of Serbia and Stefan Lazarević, had two assistants, monk-painters Grigorije and Aleksije. The monk-painter of the church of the Virgin in the village of Globoko at the Prespa Lake (end of the 14th century) signed: "Aleksije, the pupil of Jovan Zograf".