( fl second half of the 17th century). Greek painter, active in Wallachia (now in Romania). He is regarded as the leader of the Romanian school of painting at the Hurezi Monastery in Vîlcea. He studied in Greece in the studios of artists who worked in a Post-Byzantine tradition and who had incorporated elements of western European iconography and style into their art. Constantinos brought this style north to the Balkans. His first recorded work was for the church of Our Lady in Bucharest, commissioned by the wife of Prince Serban Cantacuzino (reg 1678–88) and painted by Constantinos together with the local artist Ioan. Constantinos then became a court painter to Constantine Brâncoveanu (reg 1688–1714) and worked on the decoration of the court church at Mogosoaia (c. 1690); at the great church of the Hurezi Monastery (1694), his principal commission; at the chapel of the Hurezi Monastery (1696); and at the princely court church in Tîrgoviste (1698). Local craftsmen, many of whom were already skilled and had worked previously for other patrons, assisted him with these projects. Known as the ‘school of Hurezi’, they followed the traditions established by Constantinos, practising an iconographically and stylistically ‘modern’ form of painting. Constantinos’s importance as an artist lay in his ability to give fresco painting characteristics more closely associated with easel painting. He did this by rejecting monumentality of composition and by treating each scene independently rather than as part of a continuous narrative. His works are richly and freely composed, with numerous figures and multiple planes. His figures have natural proportions and movements but also an air of mannered grace. He also painted icons, many of which are in the Hurezi Monastery and in churches in Tîrgoviste.

• Constantinos of Tîrgoviste
  • Post-Byzantine art, §III, 1(iv): Icons: Wallachia and Moldavia
  • Romania, §III, 2: Painting, graphic arts and sculpture, c 1500–c 1780
  • Romania, §X: Art education
  • works
    • Tîrgoviste