Havas Béla Antal, un mare anonim al Clujului, „cel mai bun portretist al Transilvaniei”

Abstract

When we are talking about an icon, especially when it is already a legend like the miracle‑worker of Nicula, researching some accounting records does not seem to promise anything spectacular, especially when you do not expect them to tell an unknown part of its history. However, such an untimely and unprecedented discovery can turn them into important and decisive sources for confirming working hypotheses. The discovery we are talking about is an irrevocable confirmation of the last pictorial intervention on this Holy Icon, before the famous „restoration” of the 90s, which brought great doubt about its authenticity and caused tons of ink to flow, heating up the spirits. What’s more, the discovery also bears the name of the person who made it: Havas Béla Antal. A painter, of whom almost all art history specialists have heard, but about whom many can say... nothing, and who as „the best portrait painter of Transylvania” is not mentioned in any lexicon or art album, perhaps because the peculiarity of his work is... perfect anonymity!