Concerning the porch of Icoanei's Church.pdf

European Scientific e-Journal, 2017

The idea of the speech, goes round the importance of byzantine art inside Transylvanian orthodox culture, in the 17th century. The Göreme monastic Complex of Caesarea of Cappadocia has a considerable list of churches with relevant importance in Byzantine iconography. The popular character of this type of art developed on the walls of these architectural jewels manifests itself in the left-handed, but expressive and with such great spontaneity drawing: also with predilection for narration that lends many elements from the illustration of the Apocryphes, which were born from people’s inclination to very detailed stories. This byzantine style we have had for centuries and which is tight to our Christian roots, was cultivated in Wallachia and Moldova and Transylvania in the 14th and 15th centuries and the post-byzantine style in Wallachia in the 15th and 16th centuries. There are similarities between churches raised in the 17th century in Transylvania and the ones from Caesarea of Cappa...

2017

Contemporary Hungary's oldest functioning Orthodox monastery is the Monastery of the Holy Archangels in Grábóc, Hungary, (Serbian name: Грабовац), founded by monks from Dragović in Dalmatia, in 1585. 1 The church of the monastery was built in 1741 in the arrangement seen today; the interior decoration and furnishings acquired their final and current form in the mid-1780s. The wall-painting ensemble extending over the entire internal wall surfaces of the church, nearly preserved in full, was made by two artists. As suggested by relevant findings in art history research, the figural compositions may be identified as the main work of Andrej Šaltist (?-1797/1798), a painter from Novi Sad, whereas the so-called quadratura painting, in imitation of architectural and plastic ornamentation, is to be attributed to Franz Florian Hofman (?-?), whose name is as yet known in the history of art only from this single place. 2 The significance of the Grábóc wall-paintings in art history is first and foremost justified by the fact that it was here that Baroque Illusionism adopted from western art first emerged in the Orthodox wall paining of the historic Archbishopric of Sremski Karlovci. 3 1 The author wishes to thank the Serbian Institute of Budapest for supporting her research in Grábóc, as well as for the assistance with preparing her publications on this subject and the translation thereof. All photos included in this study were made by Iván Jaksity. 2 The bottom of the depiction of the Last Supper displays the inscription Андри бразлъ. 1785. ('Painted by Andrej'); the scene of the Sacrifice of Abraham features the signature Franz Florian Hofman.Pinxit.178. These indications were discovered during the conservation work in the 1980s. On the attribution of the pictures, see Л.

2017

IKON, 2017

This study is focused on a prominent topic from both medieval and modern Christian iconography, found in the Catholic, as well as in the Orthodox world. From the works of Giotto (1304-1306), Duccio di Buoninsegna (1308-1311), Fra Angelico (1451-1452) to those of Martin Schongauer (1488-1491) and Albrecht Dürer (1495-1496), until Caravaggio (1597) and Murillo (1650), the subject made its way towards entering the paradigm of the greatest universal sacred artworks. For the current analysis, based on the field research conducted during several years in Romanian Orthodox churches, I chose to concentrate on the painted edifices of the 18 th-19 th centuries that were at the time part of Wallachia. In Eastern Europe, the predefined recommendations from post-Byzantine painting manuals sometimes created confusion about the type of composition. Thus many Romanian painters were unclear if the scene should be placed in the narthex or in the porch, as part of the Akathist of the Blessed Virgin or of another iconographic sequence. The current article aims to examine the artists' motivations and to identify patterns generated by painting handbooks. This analysis also searches for connections between canonical and apocryphal Gospels in the above-mentioned geographical area and time span. The perspective will be a comparative one, bringing face to face the important representations of the subject from modern Romanian culture, in parallel with medieval Romanian patterns and examples from Greek, Macedonian, and Serbian art. The solutions imagined by these artists in solving iconographical and stylistic challenges will also be inquired into. Finally, I will explore the significance behind the theophoric image of Mary, the bearer of Christ, as is highlighted in the providential journey to Egypt, the types of relations with other characters from the visual composition (Jesus, St Joseph, the angel, St James the Less), as well as the connections of the Flight into Egypt topic with other scenes, part of the Marian Cycle from Wallachian Orthodox art.

The Images of the Church, 2003

This is a study of the relationship between form and content in medieval visual art, with a particular focus on symmetrical images. Paintings of this type must be distinguished from the narrative rendering of events from the Bible, which adhere to different compository rules. The aim of the present study is to distinguish between these two genres as well as to single out the aesthetic rules that guide the composition and disposition of scenes in the cycle in general. In the church cycle of the basilica, the centre is represented by the images which are situated on an imaginary axis drawn from the main entrance in the west towards the apse in the east; the apsidal conch occupies the focal point in the decorative programme. While each panel situated on the side walls has a corresponding panel on the opposite side, the apsidal image is unique. In this study, in which much attention is dedicated symbolical representations, I will propose that the symmetrical form has a special place as the one preferred when the task is to visualize the complex truth of Christian doctrine. Throughout the Middle Ages symmetry was associated with the symbolical or anagogical truth inherent in all insight obtained by divine inspiration. Symmetry was, so to speak, the symbolical form of Medieval culture just like perspective was of Renaissance perception.

Through the discussion of two practical "case studies'; the authors deal with a classical theme of iconographicaI studies, thatis the complex relationship between text and image. The two examples explain in particular how the"intention"of the artist or patron, and so the deeper meaning of the pictures, are not revealed by the exact correspondences between text and image, but emerge mainly from the recognition of the differences. Often this gap between text and image can be originated from the liturgy or can be explained by the links with ritual practices, in which the pictures are involved. Catholic prelates from Kotor were able to commission such artists who could paint the fresco programmes of town churches mostly based on models found in Byzantine art because such solutions offered them possibilities of forming their own programme based on the liturgy of the Catholic Church. In the case of the Olivuccio di Ceccarello's Dormitio, from Sirolo, the semi-liturgical rituality of the assault on the properties of the Jews, accepted by the Church, justifies the scars on the image of Jews and clarifies the reason of the selection of episodes made by the painter on the basis of the Legenda aurea, with the intention to highlight the negative role of the Jews, as opposed to the positive one played by the incredulous Apostle Thomas.

Łódzkie Studia Etnograficzne, 2019

This paper aims to examine the context in which an iconographic topic, namely, the visual representations of Saint Christopher, was disseminated from the south to the north of the Carpathian Mountains, in the second half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. In order to identify the circulation routes of the theme, I will investigate the artistic and spiritual relationship between the Romanian communities from southern Transylvania and those from Wallachia. The present analysis will also include the confessional solidarity between the Orthodox groups from both sides of the Carpathians and its role in the creation and transmission of a homogenous religious iconographic program.

Satul si Spiritualitatea Rurală - între tradiție și modernitate. Editura Reîntregirea, 2019

In the first part of this article, the basis of the Christian revelation is presented reference being made to the Gospel of John, chapter I (The Word Became Flesh). Several concepts have also been documented regarding the image depiction of the Savior in the Christian age. The article then describes how the human face can be understood as an image created in the likeness of God, and in order to sustain this statement a face was constructed using the golden ratio and the logarithmic spiral, using notions of theology and symbolics in order to make the research more concrete. In addition to the above-mentioned aspects, a case study was accomplished about the icon of the Virgin of Nicula, a model of Transylvanian iconography, as well as a symbol of the transcendence manifested through image. The defining attributes of the icon were extracted as a synthesis of the stylistic expression and a study was carried out in order to exemplify the particularity of the Romanian spirituality in relation to the Romanian culture, as well as the universal one.

SCAV Journal, 177-222, 2020

This essay deals with the use of signs and their significance in the carving on the portals of the wooden churches in Transylvania. The essay brings a challenging perspective into this subject by proposing a new understanding of old signs. To understand the images on the portals of the wooden churches in Transylvania, they have to be studied within the geographical, architectural, and ideological space in which the images were accustomed, namely, the churches and the post-Byzantine spirituality of the Carpathians. The rope, with the meaning of firmament, provides the key to read the composition of the portals of most of the wooden churches in Transylvania, and, for this reason, it gets special attention. Through the effort to recover and highlight the hidden meaning of the carvings on the portals, we are recovering a part of the subtle valencies of the architectural whole, which are affirmed right from the entrance. On another level, in the carving of the portals, we find a conscious act of making doctrine intelligible and of educating believers in the sacral function of the place of worship, beyond the modesty of its appearance.