The Flight into Egypt - Virgin Mary as Christ-Bearer Iconographic Models in Romanian Mural Paintings of 18 th and 19 th Centuries
2017; Brepols; Volume: 10; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1484/j.ikon.4.2017026
ISSN2507-041X
Autores Tópico(s)Sustainable Urban and Rural Development
ResumoThis 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 18th-19th 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.
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