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Maniera Graeca in Europe’s Catholic East. Representation, Imagination and Tradition: A Case Study of the Parish Church of Trakai in Lithuania

2013; Brepols; Volume: 6; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1484/j.ikon.5.102945

2507-041X

Giedrė Mickūnaitė,

Visual Culture and Art Theory

The study into the importation, reception and remakes of Byzantine imagery within the Catholic milieu of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania derives from wall paintings in the Parish Church of Trakai in Lithuania. The discovered fragments of mural decoration testify to a complex iconographic programme carried out by several masters, whose style shows affinity with the Morava school of late medieval Serbia. Focusing on the representation of Patriarch Jacob holding the souls of the righteous, the research into iconography asks when, how and why patriarchs Jacob and Isaac were provided with the bosoms for the souls of the just and explores visions of the afterlife in Orthodox and Catholic traditions. The study proceeds with the examination of Early Modern appearances and disappearances of “Greek” paintings in the Trakai church. The research concludes with a broader interpretation of the making of pictorial tradition as conditioned by the interaction of images, imagination, power and circumstance.