This can be inferred from the large portrait of the ruler who also shared the ideas of Hesychasm, and was depicted in the narthex as the donor and benefactor of the monastery. Among them is also the earliest descriptive thematic narrative in Bulgarian art - the life of St. Gerassim, traced consistently and in detail. Despite the purely technical difficulties, the mediaeval artist had succeeded in observing real and accurate proportions. The credo of the Turnovo School of Painting is clearly evident here. Soft and gentle colours have been used to paint exquisite figures who, at the same time, are also imbued with the kind of dramatism which is not typical of Byzantine art.
Dramatic feelings emanate from the faces and figures which are alive and worldly very much.
The poses and actions are quite natural, invariably subjected to an impetuous striving. This movement, leading to expression, lends occasionally a very interesting asymmetrically to the portrayal. The artist worked freely, unrestricted by canons, following his own interest and taste. The murals abound in antique motive - nude caryatids, columns atop lions, masks. They are an example of the revived attention towards antiquity and its culture, which in the 14th century renewed the whole of Eastern Christian art.