Nistor Dascălul: contribuţii la biografia unui zugrav din prima jumătate a veacului al XVIII-lea
Nistor Dascălul: contributions to the biography of a painter from the first half of the 18th century

Summary/Abstract: Nistor, a painter from the first half of the 18th century, was only known from his signature, shared with the painter Popa Ivan from Răşinari, with whom he had worked and painted, in 1720 the icons from Certege (Alba county) and in 1724 and 1758, the fresco of the church from Geoagiu de Sus and Răşinari. The present thesis tries to shed some light on the stylistic individuality of the painter, focusing on two signed icons (Pleaşa, 1730 and Şpring, 1733, both in Alba county). These two helped us to attribute to Nistor some other icons: one from Şpring, a group of three icons of iconostasis from Sânpetru de Campie (Mureş county), two imperial icons of unknown origin, kept in the collection of the Metropolitan Church from Sibiu, two icons from Mogoş-Micleşti (Alba county), two icons from Ohaba Streiului (Hunedoara county; these are considered the works of Popa Ivan from Rasinari) and two icons from Cuştelnic (earlier attributed to Toader the Painter). As far as his biography is concerned, the icon from Pleaşa and its inscription helped us establish that Nistor was the son of a certain Nicola, possibly identified with the painter Nicola from Brâncoveni. The latter, together with Preda and Efrem, were the creators of the fresco found in the infirmary from Hurez monastery, built in 1699. Probably, at one point, together with another painter, possibly Iosif Ieromonahul, whose works resemble those of Nistor, the latter reached Transylvania, settling at Răşinari and building a small team with Popa Ivan. In 1758 he recommends himself as Nistor Dascălul the Elder. This means that he had taken the arts of teaching others the mysteries of painting and that he was aged. Among his apprentices, whom he taught together with Popa Ivan, we have to mention Iacov and Stan, sons of the priest Radu from Răşinari, both predestined to exceptional artistic careers.

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