A Cantacusine foundation between the act of secularization and contemporary restoration - The Doamnei Church in Bucharest

Abstract

Neglected through the 18th-19th centuries by the priors of the Cotroceni Monastery, dispossessed of its riches and income, the Doamnei Church slowly entered a downward spiral of degradation and devastating events. In 1868, in an era when the Church suffered the effects of secularization and Occidental renewal, the foundation of Lady Mary suffered radical reparation. The essential gesture, that produced the change and the damaging simplification of the iconographical discourse was the partial hammer[1]ing of the 17th century painting, and its covering with a new layer of painting, after the taste and mentality that has defined the second half of the 19th century. The information acquired from the analisys of archive photographies, corroborated with in situ observations, allowed for the reconstruction of the dramatic journey that the old painting of the Doamnei Church was to suffer, from the destructive act of hiding it under a new pictorial décor to the moment of its rediscovery and bringing to light.The recent reconstitution, of an archaeological type, of the iconographical ensemble from 1683 lead to a new lecture of the manner in which the works of painters Constantinos and John developed. The interruption of the iconographical programme of the Doamnei Church and their leaving the site generates questions and hypotheses regarding the evolution of the reign of Șerban Cantacuzino.