Mănăstirea Secu. Buletin istoric şi cultural, I, Galaţi, 2025, pp. 55-64
TABLOURILE VOTIVE DIN SPAŢIUL ROMÂNESC ÎN SECOLELE XV-XVI. OBSERVAŢII PRIVIND MOŞTENIREA BIZANTINĂ ŞI INFLUENŢELE SÂRBEŞTI
AUTOR: Maria DRAGNEV
Cuvinte Cheie: portrete votive, iconografie, Moldova, artă post bizantină, artă medievală, influenţă sârbească, artă românească
Keywords: votive portrait, iconography, Moldova, post-Byzantine art, Medieval art, Serbian influence; Romanian art
VOTIVE PAINTINGS IN THE ROMANIAN LANDS IN THE 15TH–16TH CENTURIES: OBSERVATIONS ON THE BYZANTINE LEGACY AND SERBIAN INFLUENCES
(Abstract)
This article reassesses XVth–XVIth century votive portraits in the Romanian lands within a post-Byzantine, Balkan framework. In Byzantine practice the frontal donor portrait, often including the ruler’s family members, primarily stages social status and divine legitimation rather than the ex voto act itself. That visual grammar was adopted by Serbian and Bulgarian courts, where the frontal type remains normative and the processional formula surfaces only sporadically. By contrast, Moldavia consolidates the processional scheme with an intercessor as its defining option, approaching exclusivity. Building on M. Cazacu’s analysis of Moldavian–Serbian relations, the study argues that Moldavian patrons selectively drew on a rarer Serbian repertory to articulate status and political theology. At the same time, it considers how Byzantine heritage, filtered through the Serbian milieu, and possible Transylvanian/Western channels intersect, contributing to the crystallisation of a recognisably Moldavian iconographic programme and stylistic idiom.