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Dana Jenei, Gothic in Transylvania. the Painting (C Book Reviews / Buchrezensionen Dana Jenei, Gothic in Transylvania. The Painting (c. 1300-1500), Oscar Print Publishing House, București, 2016, 240 p., 156 il., with a foreword by Răzvan Theodorescu Adrian Stoia* As the author has already accustomed us with her previous works, this new volume is printed in exquisite graphical conditions. The book presents two centuries of Western painting created in Tran- sylvania, an area situated at the border of Western European culture. More precisely, it refers to the flourishing period of the Gothic art, stimulated by the development of urban and rural communities invited here by the Hun- garian crown, until the political and religious changes caused by the fall of the Hungarian Kingdom under the Turks and the dawn of the Reformation, when numerous works of the Catholic art were destroyed. As the author states, the book presents the research “started in faculty and first materialized in the PhD thesis”, defended in 2005 at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, with the scientific information updated to 2016, and “presented in the spirit of the «new manner of writing history» of the French School of Les Annales” (pp. 10-11). The volume opens with a brief analysis of the state of research in the field (pp. 11-13), continued by the chapterTransylvania in late Middle Ages (pp. 14-26), divided into four parts: Historical sketch, The crisis of „the security symbols”, New religious sensitivity and Care for life after death. Here are men- tioned the anxieties of the Transylvanian society – the war, the famine and the plague”– the permanent Ottoman menace, the economic, medical and climate problems that Medieval Europe has faced. The next chapter, entitled Gothic Transylvanian Painting in European Context (pp. 27-92), chronologically presents the wall paintings preserved in Transylvanian churches, stylistically grouped in “the linear-narrative style” at Homorod, Cricău, Apold, Sic–choir, Mugeni, Luna de Jos, Sângiorgiu de Pădure, Hărman–church apse, Ighişu Nou (a first representation of Vir dolorum), Ocna Sibiului (Saint Martin’s Liturgy), Ghelinţa (western wall of the church), Alțâna, Sebeş–nave, Braşov-Bartholomew, Mălâncrav–nave, Drăușeni and Daia–nave (both painted by “Magister S”), Florești and Şmig. The composite manner of St. Ladislas, Master of Ghelinţa (c. 1330), derives from “the Italo-Byzantine style” and is encountered outside the same church, at Crăciunel and Mărtiniş (the latter one being known only from copies), * Adrian Stoia, PhD, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania. Address: Str. Primăverii 12, Sibiu, e-mail: [email protected] RES 9 (3/2017), p. 461-463 DOI: 10.1515/ress-2017-0033 Book Reviews / Buchrezensionen but also at Cricău and Sic. At Strei, a western program is adapted to the exigencies of the Orthodox donor, in the works of Grozie Master and his collaborator, whose style shows the features of “the Trecento Italian paint- ing after Giotto”, that also appear at Homorod (Vir dolorum), Tătârlaua, Mugeni (The Last Judgement) and Sebeș (chapel). The Mettercia Master from Sântana de Mureş led a workshop with paintings also preserved at Vlaha, Viștea, Sic (two different masters in church and chapel), Bădeşti, places around Cluj, wherefrom Nicolaus Pic- tor, the father of the famous sculptors Martin and George originated. In the last decades of the fourteenth century the ensembles from Remetea and Chilieni were achieved in a rustic approach. The painting from around 1400 was dominated by the “international Gothic”, illustrated by the Master of Mălâncrav sanctuary, who also worked with his team at Ighişu Nou and Dârjiu (fragments from the choir of the church can be seen in Budapest at the Museum of Fine Arts). In the first decades of the fifteenth century, elements of northern Ital- ian painting of Trecento mixed with the Bohemian “court art” features, were adopted, most likely, via Styria, at Sânpetru, Mediaş (church), in parallel with the painting of the Master of St. Ladislas’ vita from Dârjiu (1419), which represents another facet of the “international style”, also reflected at Homorod, Mihăileni, Feliceni, Roadeş, Armăşeni, Tomeşti, Bisericani. In 1427, Thomas from Cluj signed the retable illustrating Jesus’ Passion and saints (now at the Christian Museum, Esztergom), one of the last European masterpieces of the “international style”, in the tradition of his school being situated the wall paintings from Curciu, recently discovered. During the fifteenth century, both mural and panel painting in Tran- sylvania were influenced by the artistic centers of Hans Pleydenwurf of Nuremberg and Hans Siebenbürger of Vienna, features originally adopted in valuable works preserved at Sibiu, Hunedoara Castle, Hărman–chapel, Brașov, Sighișoara, Mediaș and Biertan–murals and retables, Râșnov, Go- ganvarolea–ceiling of painted wood (now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Bu- dapest), Daia Secuiască–sanctuary and in many others places. The chapter, The Iconography of the religious Gothic painting in Tran- sylvania (pp. 93-144) includes the topics: Thematic sketch: the chapel, the church, the retable (pp. 93-103), Images of the world „from beyond” (pp. 104- 111), Devotional images, The cult of saints (pp. 112-144). The iconographical themes of the wall paintings are systematized, the conclusion being that the most common motives were Eucharistic and Eschatological, but also the Passion of Christ, the lives of the Holy Mother, of the Virgin-Martyrs Cath- erine, Margaret, Ursula, and last, but not least, King Ladislas of Hungary. 462 Book Reviews / Buchrezensionen The final chapter, Norm and creativity in Transylvanian medieval art (pp. 145-178), is also divided in three parts: Image, text and sources (pp. 145- 156), Artists. Artistic centers (157-167) and Donors (pp. 167-178). While “the copying of patterns had been essential to the perpetuation of tradition in Medieval art, the bishopric centers had a major role in the dissemination of the models” (pp. 146-148), an example being the Bishopric center in Oradea which “is supposed to have furnished the model for St. Ladislas’ his- toria”, but also Esztergom, wherefrom schemes, decorative elements and the modeling of the figures inspired the Mettercia Master of Sântana de Mureș and workshop. Certain graphic sources of the Transylvanian paintings, as Speculum humanae salvationis and Biblia Pauperum and then, Master ES’s, Martin Schongauer’s or Israhel von Meckenen’s engravings are identified, and new attributions of works of art are made, on the base of monograms newly discovered by the author, such as MSP – Magister Stephanus Pictor or HP – Henricus Pictor, both artists mentioned in the documents from Sibiu (pp. 66, 77, 163-164). The volume also comprises a toponymical index (pp. 191-196), the names of Transylvanian localities in Romanian, Hungarian and German and summaries in English (pp. 201-213), French (pp. 214-226), and German (pp. 227-240). The book is important as it updates the information on Transylvanian Medieval painting, consistently enriched by the discoveries of the last dec- ades. Certain works are published for the first time, being presented within the artistic context. The subject remains open, as the restorers continuously bring to light new mural ensembles, still hidden under the lime. As academician Răzvan Theodorescu states in his foreword “the pre- cise and evocative stylistic analyses, the natural interdisciplinarity – from the history of mentalities to subtleties of the Catholic dogma – make from this book signed by Dana Jenei a work that worthily continues Victor Roth, Vir- gil Vătăşianu, Vasile Drăguţ, this last one professor being remembered by the pupil, with pious reverence [...]. Excellently equipped in the iconographic and liturgical realms, the author knows to make us close the eschatological and devotional atmosphere, that of the pilgrimages with indulgences from the age preceding the Protestant triumph, in this rather conservative prov- ince, that prolonged the Occident, where the burning of Luther’s books was ordered–shortly before the Universitas Saxonum has converted to the new confession – but where the Catholic artifacts survived long after. Dana Jenei’s volume is a contribution of scholarly attitude and the tes- timony of an emotional dedication to a subject that she has deeply mastered. 463.
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