The Flight into Egypt - Virgin Mary as Christ-Bearer Iconographic Models in Romanian Mural Paintings of 18th and 19th Centuries

Abstract

This study is focused on a prominent topic from both medieval and modern Christian iconography, found in the Catholic, as well as in the Orthodox world. From the works of Giotto (1304-1306), Duccio di Buoninsegna (1308-1311), Fra Angelico (1451-1452) to those of Martin Schongauer (1488-1491) and Albrecht Durer (1495-1496), until Caravaggio (1597) and Murillo (1650), the subject made its way towards entering the paradigm of the greatest universal sacred artworks. For the current analysis, based on the field research conducted during several years in Romanian Orthodox churches, I chose to concentrate on the painted edifices of the 18th-19th centuries that were at the time part of Wallachia. In Eastern Europe, the predefined recommendations from post-Byzantine painting manuals sometimes created confusion about the type of composition. Thus many Romanian painters were unclear if the scene should be placed in the narthex or in the porch, as part of the Akathist of the Blessed Virgin or of another iconographic ...