Early Modern Icons from Maramureș

Icoane maramureșene din perioada modernă timpurie

612 pages · open access

Ana Dumitran

This book is devoted to the icons of Maramureș produced before the mid-18th century. It adopts a broad, interdisciplinary perspective, examining the historical, confessional, architectural, and artistic contexts in which these sacred images were conceived and painted. The analysis arrives at a central conclusion: between the 15th and 18th centuries, painting in Maramureș was in profound symbiosis with the art of the Ruthenian–Ukrainian iconographic schools in neighboring regions, even when the painters were local masters or artists hailing from other Romanian provinces. Following the dissolution of the Orthodox Balkan states and, above all, after the fall of Byzantium in 1453, the Ruthenian world was transformed into a crucible in which Eastern and Western iconographic traditions fused into a remarkable synthesis.