The New Romanian Masters: Innovative

Iconography in the Matrix of Tradition

Orthodox Arts Journal

Editor’s note (Orthodox Arts Journal). For some time now we’ve wanted to find a way to present
the burgeoning iconography which is currently happening in Romania. And so after a bit of
searching, this article introducing the new school of iconography was written especially for OAJ
by Mother Atanasia (Văetişi) of the Stavropoleos Monastery in Bucharest and was translated by
my own parish priest Fr. Dragos-Andrei Giulea, here at St.Benoit de Nursie parish, Montreal.

Toma
Chituc and Mihai Coman, two iconographers of the Romanian icon renewal.

I. Iconography, a recovered artistic language

It would have been impossible to imagine a public conversation on icons and their veneration a
quarter of a century ago in communist Romania. It would have been impossible as well to
imagine iconography taught in a public school and the technique of painting icons at the
department of Fine Arts. In those days, the interest in icons was a mere private occupation, or of
niche. Institutionally, the Romanian Patriarchate had a commission specialised on religious art
mostly dealing with the preservation of the national heritage. However, in the last 25 years that
have elapsed since the anti-communist revolutions in Eastern Europe, changes have been
impressive. Today it is a common gesture to order an icon for your house or to offer an icon as a
present. Four of the twelve Orthodox faculties of theology in the country have created
departments of sacred art, preparing iconographers and specialists in the preservation of
medieval iconography; and many of their graduates have become proficient in painting icons and
frescos. In the aftermath of the atheist regime, religious life has revived in all its dimensions: art,
liturgy, parish life and monastic communities. There are new parish churches, new monasteries,
new canonized saints as well as new Christian martyrs of the communist persecution receiving a
large popular veneration and waiting to be canonized. In this context, the icon has become a
common presence in homes and offices.

Ioan Popa working on his icon of the

Brancovan martyrs (shown below)

The most remarkable aspect of this revival is that the abundant iconographic demand and the
high number of skilled iconographers gave rise to a competitive ambiance that led to an obvious
advance in the quality of iconography and, subsequently, to a new iconographic movement. As
with any profession, the new iconographers and church painters demonstrate an uneven value; it
is not enough to learn the technique and follow the Byzantine herminia (the painter’s manual) to
become a skilled and appreciated iconographer. On the one hand, there are painters who
reproduce classical compositional and chromatic styles from Manuel Panselinos – the most
frequented and most imitated – to Macedonian iconography, to the masterpieces of Mont Athos,
to the local Romanian styles (either of the Moldavian monasteries or of the Brancovan
(Brâncoveanu) art developed in Walachia in the eighteenth century). On the other hand, there are
those artists who strive to define their own style and language in what regards either the manner
of drawing, or of choosing the chromatic palette, or of re-imagining the internal composition of
icons and iconographic programs. Some of them have found their own style and thus have
become able to push further iconography as an artistic domain, at least in this Orthodox country.

Elena
Murariu working on an icon of the burning bush.

Our interest focuses on these latter artists who have reached an advanced aptitude of mastering
the painting of icons and frescos. Socially, they are also the most visible category, knowing how
to promote their creation, how to set up events and integrate their art in the larger cultural and
artistic phenomenon. Their personalities are complex: in addition to working in the studio or on
the scaffold, they organize symposia, open exhibitions and workshops, invite colleagues from the
country and abroad, some of them teach religious art and, generally, they bring iconography to
the public attention. One may observe that, over the past five to ten years, the phenomenon has
become more alive and has configured a group of iconographers and church painters who are not
only talented artists but also curators, theorists and project managers. Furthermore, one of the
most significant aspects is that a few artistic values have been gradually assumed by the most
valuable iconographers:

1. A thorough education in classical art. Well educated in classical painting, iconographers

belonging to the old generation (now in their 50s and 60s) as well as a few of the new generation
(in their 30s and 40s) have a substantial experience in restoring ancient religious monuments
(icons and frescos). In so doing they acquired a fine knowledge of composition and a particular
chromatic sensibility as they later demonstrated by creating extensive iconographic programs.
The new generation of painters (in their 30s and 40s) has not been formed by direct
apprenticeship with a master. Most of them studied classical art at the Faculty of Fine Arts in
order to gain a solid formation in such essential techniques as drawing, composition, anatomy as
well as their visual culture. Additionally, they studied Byzantine art albums and collections,
travelled throughout the Orthodox world to study mural assemblies and, equally important for
their progress, were guided by their artistic talent, intuition and spiritual life. Now they are
accomplished masters of traditional iconographic techniques, they choose and prepare materials
very diligently and refrain from using certain popular ingredients today, like acrylic and
chemical paints, which induce a cheap sparkling effect to the image. Chromatic splendour does
not have to be confounded with fleshy TV colours. We have to mention that, because of them,
the difficult technique of the traditional fresco has survived in modern Romania, most likely one
of the fewest places in the world; and, moreover, has become great art.

2. A personal spiritual life. All of them assume, with the Orthodox tradition, that a spiritual
dimension is a necessary ingredient to painting an icon. Painting an icon is not a mere artistic
activity but a facet of the larger spiritual growth, both personal and part of the community in
which the iconographer lives. Painting an icon, therefore, becomes a way of expressing their
creativity, a spiritual search in a direct continuity with their ancestral Orthodox legacy and a way
of life to which they dedicate themselves entirely. Thus, they strive to understand the icon in a
theological manner, as a sacred image, and to address it from a spiritual angle. There are a few
cases in which the artists even chose the monastic life; and icon painting became their main
obedience in the monastery.

3. They do not imitate but innovate within the canons of tradition. Probably the most interesting
value gradually assumed by the iconographers of the new generation is that they cherish artistic
originality and freedom of expression. They do not accept to create in a mannerist way and to
reproduce the masters of the past while making a concession to a common, popular taste. Paying
attention to the smallest technical and theological detail, they strive to avoid not only religious
kitsch but also religious clichés. After assimilating the skills, the Byzantine canon, a rich
documentation and a general knowledge of the medieval art, some of them have been able to
define their own style. And this fact has allowed them to rethink classical iconography and
innovate in terms of style, colours and composition as well as to find new themes and become
“hagiographers”. All these elements have led them to reach an unprecedented quality of the
iconographic act in which they commit themselves to artistic originality within the confines of
the Orthodox iconographic tradition. From this perspective, any iconographic scene may be re-
imagined in the light of the biblical text and the traditional iconography. As Ioan Popa expounds,
“I reread the text of Scripture and then rethink the classical iconography of a feast.” To them, the
splendour of colours and shapes has to make transparent the hieratic atmosphere of the spiritual
kingdom and guide the eye, mind and soul of the one who contemplates into the mysteries of the
invisible world. In order to get this effect, they sometimes reshape human anatomy to filiform
silhouettes and undulate human bodies according to the Greek Palaeologan manner or elongate
them like the classical Russian masters.
II. Some iconographers and their work

Gregore Popescu. He is the oldest among the Romanian church painters and has the largest
artistic oeuvre. Although the younger painters were not his direct apprentices, all of them have
been inspired by his free attitude in exploring a certain theme and by his knowledge of
composing with originality an icon, a scene or an entire wall. Popescu is innovative in terms of
colour, form and composition, being inspired by classical Romanian iconography which he
stylizes through thinning, undulating or elongating the anatomic shapes of the human body
sometimes in his own way. He also innovates in terms of chromatic style by effecting a warm
and picturesque palette inspired by the old popular Romanian art which he knows in depth.

Grigore
Popescu, The Eastern Wall of the Altar
 Grigore Popescu, Christ in Glory, Porch

Popescu is also the creator of a new iconographic cycle: in the porch of the new church of
Lainici Monastery (south-western Romania) he composed a painted “chronicle of Romanian
Hesychasm” in which a central place is dedicated to the history of the Philokalia. This painted
narrative includes the Cappadocian Fathers with their Philokalia, St. Nicodemus of Athos with
his collection printed in Venice, St. Paisius Velichkovsky and the medieval monastic scriptoria
and concludes with the Romanian translation of the famous book in the twelve-volume collection
carried out by Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae.

Grigore
Popescu, Scenes from St. Paisius Velichkovsky’s Life, Philokalia Cycle
Elena Murariu represents the middle generation. She worked as a fresco specialist who restored
different mural assemblies of the fourteenth to eighteenth centuries and subsequently
commenced painting her own icons. Murariu painted the iconographic models of the newly
canonized Romanian princes by composing a historical narrative with scenes from their lives
inspired from the Russian chronicle-type iconography of the sixteenth century. Very prolific, she
is able to elaborate a certain topic, for example the martyrdom of the Brancovan Saints, in
various media and techniques, from icons following the strict composition of the Byzantine
canon to other artistic modalities such as graphics or tempera on wood panel. These remarkable
skills allow her to insert within the classical iconographic language some of the techniques and
ways of expression proper to other artistic media such as hatching, vibrant strokes and an
emphasized dynamism.

Elena
Murariu, St. Stephen the Great
 Elena
Murariu, Holy Brancovan (Brâncoveanu) Martyrs

Gabriel Toma Chituc. Also primarily educated as a classical painter, Chituc is an original and
gifted iconographer with a special artistic expressivity. In the last decade, he has become a
prolific iconographer striving to find the mystery of the authentic icon inspired by the Holy
Spirit. Influenced by the art of the Russian masters of Novgorod and Moscow, from whom he
took over the transparency, grace and delicacy of portraits, he filters all into a personal style of
delicate physiognomies, elegant gestures and movements, warm and desaturated colours and
refined folds. He is original and very personal either when he rethinks a classical theme like icon
of the Nativity or the Annunciation, or when he creates the portrait of a saint or martyr.
 Gabriel
Toma Chituc, Nativity
 Gabriel
Toma Chituc, Annunciation
Gabriel Toma Chituc, St. M. George
 Gabriel Toma Chituc, St. Venerable
George of Cernica

Ioan Popa. Although he is only 38, Popa has already painted in the fresco technique two
churches in Bucharest and Alba Iulia, the church of a monastery in the Apuseni Mountains as
well as baptisteries and small chapels in Southern Italy, Cyprus and Mount Athos. Popa is
endowed with a very good knowledge of Byzantine art, its roots and legacy spread throughout
the Balkans and Southern Italy. Well documented in art history and gifted also with a
researcher’s vocation, he inclines artistically towards a “local style connected to the Byzantine
tradition of the One Church”. He is able to compose his mural assemblies adapted either to
traditional or experimental architecture and thus to generate unique iconographic programs.
 Ioan Popa, G. Alexandrescu Hospital
Chapel (Bucharest)
 Ioan Popa,
SS Redentore Church (Manfredonia, Italy)

Author of many icons, too, Popa sometimes creates new narrative cycles in the scenes painted in
the margin of the icon.
Ioan Popa, St. M. George, icon
 Ioan Popa, St. Seraphim of Sarov, icon

He accomplished a fresco of great originality in the church dedicated to St. John the Baptist in
Alba Iulia. The scenes are reduced to essentials, painted on large areas delimitated by
inscriptions, fragments of Scripture and liturgical texts. He masters a firm drawing technique
which conveys to his mural assemblies a certain monumentality and hieratic atmosphere specific
to the primitive art.
 Ioan Popa,
Southern Wall, The Church of Alba Iulia

Ioan Popa,
The Church of Alba Iulia, detail

Mihai Coman. He teaches church painting techniques at the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest
and studied restoration in Romania. However, in what regards his skills of painting icons and
frescos, Coman affirms that he “learned the technique on Mount Athos and understood the icon
with the professor and painter Georgios Kordis,” whose doctoral student he is in Greece. Coman
is indeed indebted to the Athonite and Cretan traditions of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
preferring elongated figures, delicate and mannerist gestures and clothes of largely draped
surfaces. Besides his many icons fashioned with a minimalist refinement, he painted the frescos
of the chapel of the Polytechnic University in Bucharest and collaborated with Gabriel Toma
Chituc for the church of St. Theodosius Hermitage in Brazi.

Mihai Coman, Last Supper

 Mihai Coman, The Protection of the
Mother of God
Deacon Nicolae Bălan. After his studies in iconography at the Faculty of Theology in the
Department of monumental art, he attended the Faculty of Fine Arts in order to improve his
drawing and composition techniques. Bălan is a gifted draftsman and he painted the metropolitan
chapel from Limours (France) and St. Trinity Church in Alba Iulia. He demonstrates a particular
talent in organizing complicated wall surfaces, in a skilful elaboration of mural scenes and in
emphasising the main theme around which the entire composition gravitates.

Nicolae
Bălan, Memorial Church from Alba Iulia
 Nicolae Bălan, Altar crucifix

Nicolae
Bălan, Memorial Church from Alba Iulia, Detail from the vault
To these iconographers should be added many others, all of special talent and abundant
production. We will mention here a few of them for a few particular reasons. First, some have
composed new iconographic themes, like Răzvan Gâscă with his St. Maximus the Confessor
with scenes from his life, painted to mark the presence of the relics of St. Maximus the
Confessor to Iaşi in 2010.

Răzvan Gâscă, St. Maximus the Confessor

with Scenes from His Life

Likewise, Marius Ghinescu for his St. Pachomius at St. Dimitry of Rostov, which represents a
moment in the life of Venerable Pachomius of Gledin (1674-1724), a Romanian hermit and
bishop who spent his last years at the Pecerska Lavra in Kiev.
 Marius
Ghinescu, St. Pachomius of Gledin Visiting St. Dimitry of Rostov

Others should be mentioned for the original manner in which they reconceived certain classical
themes, for example Daniela Toma Musat, St. M. George.
 Daniela
Toma, St. M. George

Finally, we should mention some who are talented artist monks able to innovate within the
canon, such as Mother Olga, St. Joachim and Anna, Monk Haralambie, The Venerable
Founders of Monastery Vatopedi, and Monk Iacob, Mandylion.
 Mother Olga, St. Joachim and Anna
(Bistrita Monastery)
 Monk Haralambie, The Venerable
Founders of Vatopedi (Vatopedi Monastery, Mount Athos)
 Monk
Iacob, Mandylion (St. Tikhon’s Hermitage, Mount Athos)

III. An iconographic theme – The Brancovan Martyrs

Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu was beheaded in 1714 by the Ottomans together with his four
sons and his counsellor Ianache Văcărescu because they did not renounce their Christian faith.
He then became one of the most beloved princes of Romanian history and presently is one of the
most venerated saints in the country. The anniversary of 300 years from the martyrdom
occasioned a rich and original iconographic production developed either by analogy with
established themes of the Byzantine tradition (Beheading of St. John the Baptist) or by
integrating classical iconographic themes (Mandylion, Jesus’ Vine, Deisis) and martyrdom
scenes as recorded in chronicles and historical writings.
 Bogdan
Verdes, Saint Martyrs Brâncoveanu
 Gabriel
Toma Chituc, Mandylion with Saint Martyrs Brâncoveanu
 Ioan Popa,
Jesus the Vine with Saint Martyrs Brâncoveanu
 Daniel
Codrescu, Deisis with Saint Martyrs Brâncoveanu
 Elena
Murariu, Saint Martyrs Brâncoveanu

The last example belongs to Sorin Dumitrescu, a talented metaphysical painter of the old
generation converted into an inspired and charismatic theoretician of the icon as well as an
original iconographer in spite of the smaller number of icons he has realised. While in his early
career as an iconographer he filtered Palaeologan tradition in a personal manner, he searches his
present sources of inspiration in the times which preceded iconoclastic controversy.
 Sorin Dumitrescu, The Iconic Model of
the Brancovan Martyrdom

With this we close our short excursion into contemporary Romanian iconography. The diversity
of artists, styles, techniques, media and sources of inspiration unveils a fascinating artistic and
spiritual phenomenon. It will be worth seeing in which direction Romanian iconography will
evolve in the future.

19 марта 2015 г.