Icoane transilvănene din colecţia Muzeului Naţional al Ţăranului Român
Transylvanian Icons from the Collection of National Museum of the Romanian Peasant

Summary/Abstract: The study brings forward unknown creations of some Transylvanian masters, discovered in the collection of Romanian Peasant Museum. We refer to 8 icons, out of which 6 are attributed to Iacov from Rășinari, Ion from Beriu and Simion Silaghi-Sălăgeanu and 2 signed by Simon Oprovici and Marcu Vlaşcovici, dated to the latter part of 18th century and probable origin from Alba County, except for the icon signed by Marcu Vlașcovici, that comes from Mureș County. Each piece is presented by reporting to biography of the master, to whom it is attributed, searching also for the most appropriate analogies for dating. To Iacov, renowned representative of post-Brancovan art, native of Rășinari (Sibiu County) and settled in Feisa (Alba County), comes an icon Deesis. Three icons – two depictions of Jesus Christ enthroned and one of Mother of God with Child – belong to brush of Ion from Beriu, native painter of Hunedoara County, nearby Orăștie, identified until now with works only in Alba County. Simon, signer of the icon Mother of God with Child in 1775, from the collection of the museum from Bucharest, is the same with „Painter Simon from Belgrad” and „Painter Simon Oprovici from Craiova”, maybe also with „Sima, painter and scholar, son of the schoolmaster Oprea from Craiova”. The artist, attested only in Transylvania, beginning with 1771, settled down in Alba Iulia, in 1780, at the latest, his activity – documented until 1800 – carrying out mainly in the neighbouring localities. Other two icons – Mother of God with Child and Jesus Christ the High Priest and Teacher – were painted by Simion Silaghi-Sălăgeanu in 1799. The last debated icon is Mother of God with Child signed by Marcu Vlaşcovici from Sântandrei (Mureş County). This icon draws attention not only by iconographic representation – being a copy of the wonder-working icon preserved in the academic church from Cluj –, but also by the long inscription from the back, out of which we find that it was painted in 1750 for the church from Tofalău, disappeared after the Romanian population was forced to abandon the locality, in the latter half of the 19th century. Apparently dispersed, these pieces complete successfully the gaps from biography of painters whom they were attributed, even if they still cannot offer information also about churches they embellished.

• Details
• Contents