PICTURING THE DIFFERENCE. IMAGE OF THE JEW IN SEVERAL ORTHODOX CHURCHES OF SOUTHERN TRANSYLVANIA (PART ONE ELEMENTS OF JEWISH COSTUME)

Transcription

1 PICTURING THE DIFFERENCE. IMAGE OF THE JEW IN SEVERAL ORTHODOX CHURCHES OF SOUTHERN TRANSYLVANIA (PART ONE ELEMENTS OF JEWISH COSTUME) Silvia Marin-Barutcieff Abstract The article focuses on the visual representations of the Jew in several Romanian Orthodox wall paintings of Southern Transylvania. The case study covers a series of frescos created by a family of artists, Grecu, which came from łara Oltului and settled down in Săsăuş. By analyzing sequences from the Passion Cycle and from the Pentecostarion, the author highlights the manner in which religious and ethnic otherness was constructed at the beginning of the 19 th century. The paper also investigates the way in which various elements of Jewish clothing traveled throughout Central and Eastern Europe during the 18 th and 19 th century, and how pieces of these costumes were used to emphasize the difference between Jewish otherness and Romanian Christian identity. Keywords: Iconography, South Transylvania, wall paintings, religious, ethnic, otherness, Christian Orthodox confession, Jew, costume, cultural history In the service of ethnic identity: the Grecu painters of Săsăuş During the last decades, the Orthodox iconography of Southern Transylvania has turned out to be a constant resource for the investigations of art history researches. In their studies, experts in the field underlined the artistic value of the Romanian houses of worship in the area, resulting from the fertile intersection of the thematic and stylistic universe of the painters coming from, or trained, south of the Carpathians, with cultural borrowings from the West. Beyond the aesthetic significance, the monuments in question host an entire heritage of images, worthy of all the attention of cultural history researchers. Starting from the visual narratives, especially those composed in the first half of the 19 th century, one can more accurately reconstitute the construction period of the Romanian identity 431

2 discourse. In this sense, the ecclesiastical architecture of łara Făgăraşului provides researchers with a series of mural compositions from which mechanisms of confessional and ethnic segregation can be extracted. They are the result of the Grecu family s work, whose first generation of painters came from łara Oltului and settled down at the beginning of the century in Podişul Hârtibaciului, at Săsăuş. 1 It is on the iconographic projects elaborated by the painters of Săsăuş, and particularly on Nicolae Grecu s contribution, that this study intends to focus. The churches adorned by the Grecu family are located in łara Făgăraşului and Valea Hârtibaciului, in the North-Eastern part of nowadays Sibiu County. 2 The series of frescoes was initiated in 1804, in the church of Mohu, by brothers Alexandru and Nicolae Grecu. Then came the frescoes at Beclean (1808), Streza CârŃişoara (1809), Sărata, Viştea de Jos 3 and Arpaşu de Jos (approx. 1810). 4 The second stage of this decoration work spanned from 1810 to 1824, with Nicolae Grecu the son continuing to adorn the houses of worship in the area: Colun (1812), Fofeldea (1814), Arpaşu de Sus (1815), łichindeal (1818), Oprea CârŃişoara (1824). The church at Voivodenii Mici, on Valea Brezei, was painted in 1821 by Nicolae the son and Gheorghe Grecu. At the end of his career, Nicolae signed, with Vasile, probably his direct descendent, the decoration of the edifice at Săsăuş. 5 The artistic quality of the Grecu family s work reached its peak with the wall paintings made by Nicolae the son at Colun, Fofeldea and łichindeal, which also hold a historical and cultural importance. Thus, the scenes from the Passion Cycle and some themes from the Pentecostarion, like the Healing of the paralytic, 1 For the artistic contribution of the Grecu family, see Ştefan Meteş, Zugravii bisericilor române ( Painters of the Romanian Churches ), in Anuarul Comisiunii Monumentelor Istorice pentru Transilvania (Annuals of the Committee for Historical Monuments in Transylvania), , Cluj, 1929 (heretofore ACMIT), pp ; Valeriu Literat, Două biserici din łara Oltului ( Two Churches in łara Oltului ), in ibidem, pp ; Valeriu Literat, Biserici din łara Oltului şi «de pe Ardeal» zugrăvite de o familie de pictori ( Churches of łara Oltului and Transylvania painted by a family of painters ), in ACMIT, , pp. 3 54; I. Fulea, Biserici monumente istorice pictate de familia Grecu ( Historical Monument Churches Painted by the Grecu Family ), in Arhiepiscopia Sibiului pagini de istorie (The Archiepiscopate of Sibiu History Pages), Sibiu, 1981, pp ; Maria Zintz, Pictura murală din sudul Transilvaniei în secolele XVIII XIX. O familie de zugravi din sudul Transilvaniei: familia de zugravi Grecu ( Mural Painting in Southern Transylvania in the 18 th 19 th Century. A Family of Church Painters in Southern Transylvania, the Grecu Family ), in Crisia, 16, 1986, pp ; Valeriu Literat, Biserici vechi româneşti din łara Oltului (Old Romanian Churches in łara Oltului), Nicolae Sabău (ed.), Cluj-Napoca, Only one of them is part of the heritage of Braşov County: the church at Voivodenii Mici. 3 The Church painted in 1810 by Alexandru Grecu fell during the earthquake of January 15, Cf. Marius Porumb, DicŃionar de pictură românească din Transilvania. Sec. XIII XVIII [Dictionary of Romanian Transylvanian Painting. 13 th 18 th Century], Ed. Academiei, Bucureşti, 1998, p Valeriu Literat, Biserici vechi româneşti... (Old Romanian Churches), pp ; Maria Zintz, op. cit., pp Maria Zintz, op. cit., p

3 reflect not only the Orthodox Church s outlook on the founding events of Christianity, but also the perspective on the other in the rural environment of the Făgărăş area, from which the Grecu artists emerged. In the period following the sending of the Romanian petitions to the Imperial Court of Vienna, the desire to highlight ethnic identity, correlated with the Romantic aspirations widespread throughout Europe at the time, generated certain mutations in religious iconography. Since identity is dialogic, 6 self-affirmation will always include alterity, called to participate in the coherence of the in-group. The century of nationalisms excessively articulated the difference in favor of the centre, in order to institute the autonomy of certain communities. The way in which the denominational, and particularly the ethnic, identity-alterity dichotomy works can be extracted from the Grecu family s paintings. The mural depictions render not only fragments from the history of Christianity, but also the Orthodox Romanians lay representations of the other. Although in the frescoes in question alterity, in its nocturnal side, can be found in several hypostases Jews, Hungarians, Austrians we will only deal with the representation of the former, extracted from the Christological Cycle. We will therefore analyze the manner in which Alexandru, Nicolae and particularly Nicolae the son built the image of the Jew from the vestimentary viewpoint, in relation to the in-group. 7 One of the mutations regards the manner in which the artists present alterity, which loses some of the Byzantine tradition s schematic character, in favor of realism. The Grecu painters were often said to have preserved in the region the post-brâncoveanu style, which Alexandru and Nicolae got familiar with during their apprenticeship with Pantelimon, the Walachian painter. 8 But besides the stylistic heritage from south of the Carpathians, the paintings from łara Făgăraşului show, as we shall see, a particular artistic sense, a hybrid visual culture, born from the combination of images, engravings, pattern notebooks, from both Christian areas. Such cultural interferences are visible in the clothing of the Jews, who are most often represented in the Passion Cycle. The elongated hat The New Testament includes in all of the four Gospels the episode of the healing conducted by Jesus on the Sabbath day. 9 At the Bethesda pool, a paralytic is healed in front of a crowd overwhelmed by astonishment and enthusiasm. 6 Robert Frank, Qu est-ce qu un stéréotype?, in Jean-Noël Jeanneney, Une idée fausse est un fait vrai. Les stéréotypes nationaux en Europe, Éd. Odile Jacob, Paris, 2000, p The analysis of physiognomies, gestures and posture in the same iconographic project of the Grecu family of Săsăuş will make the object of a future study. 8 Marius Porumb, op. cit., p See Mathew 9: 2 8, Mark 2: 3 12, Luke 5: 17 26, John

4 Mention is made of the presence, among the audience, of Jewish priests, who disapprove of the healing on the day of rest. Most of the details are provided by the Gospel of Luke: And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them (Luke 5:17). 10 The Painter s Manual by Dionysius of Fourna, a book that enjoyed great circulation in the 18 th 19 th centuries in the Orthodox area, recommends the illustration of this passage from the New Testament as follows: a house, and Jesus Christ with the apostles; and Pharisees sitting, and a big crowd, and above Jesus Christ, on the roof of the house, two people with a mat placed in front of Him and on the mat a man a bit upright. And farther, in the middle of the crowd, the same man, holding his mat on the shoulders and walking. 11 At Fofeldea, Nicolae the son painted, in 1814, the Sunday of the Paralytic on one of the pendentives of the narthex (fig. 1). On the whole, the painter seemed to be following the indications in Dionysius Manual. At the centre of the scene, the paralytic rests on a mat, flanked by a lame man and a blind man. At the left, Jesus, accompanied by the apostles, invokes grace, while at the right the group of Pharisees manifests its disagreement. Neither Dionysius Manual nor the Gospels text makes any mention about the way in which the Jews clothing should be depicted. Nicolae Grecu dresses them, according to the Byzantine tradition, in the usual vestment of the Orthodox priests. What is non-canonic here is the hat of one of the four members of the Sanhedrin, a dark brown, high, almost conical hat. Where does this hat, which is so discordant with the other three Jews headdress, come from? At a closer look, we notice its resemblance with the Judenhut, the pointed bonnet that the Jews in the German area were forced to wear, as a distinctive mark, starting with 1267, the year of the Vienna and Breslau Councils. 12 The Pentecostarion, a liturgical book designed for use during the eight 10 Reproduced from the King James Version of the Bible, Collins Bible. 11 Dionisie din Furna, Erminia picturii bizantine, Ed. Sofia, Bucureşti, 2000, p The 1267 Council of Vienna reactivated a 1215 ruling of Pope Innocent III. According to that ruling, religious segregation was necessary for the project of dissemination of Christianity and conversion of the two major monotheistic religious groups, the Jews and the Muslims. Cf. Guido Kisch, The Yellow Badge in history, in Historia Judaica, vol. XIX, October 1957, part 2, pp The distinguishing marks varied throughout the Middle Ages and afterwards, from region to region, from badges and robes to caps and hats. For details referring to Pope Innocent III s rulings, see Allan Cutler, Innocent III and the distinctive clothing of Jews and Muslims, in John R. Sommerfeldt (ed.), Studies in Medieval Culture, III, The Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, 1970, pp The pointed hat had been known before the Council held at the Saint John Church in Lateran as one of the Judaic officials preferred head coverings. After 1215, what had once been an option became a discriminatory constraint. See Ulysse Robert, Les signes d infamie au Moyen Âge. Juifs, sarrasins, hérétiques, cagots et filles publiques, Paris, 1889, p. 55 and Françoise Piponnier, Perrine Mane, Se vêtir au Moyen Âge, Adam Biro, Paris, 1995, p

5 weeks between Easter and All Saints Sunday, dedicates one of the Sundays the fourth to the above mentioned episode. This liturgical book, originating from Walachian printing houses, was widespread in South Transylvania. One of the copies printed in 1743 by a printing house of Bucharest is preserved today at the Church of Mohu which was painted by the Grecu brothers in The engraving from the Pentecostarion corresponding to the episode of the paralytic s healing presents almost the same iconographic pattern as the one in the homologous scenes on the frescoes in łara Făgăraşului. The pointed hat seems to originate in this liturgical book. The engraving of 1743 was elaborated at Râmnicu Vâlcea, 13 using the matrix created by Ivan Bakov, one of the most gifted engravers of end 17 th century Walachia. His own Healing of the Paralytic appears for the first time in the 1701 Pentecostarion of Buzău, 14 from where it was later borrowed by the Bucharest edition of From there it probably traveled to Blaj, on the other side of the mountains, in 1768, to the printing house where Petru Papavici worked (fig. 2). Papavici was an expert in Romanian prints also acquainted with the Western works. 15 Afterwards, in 1782, the pattern was once again replicated, by printer Stanciu, in a new Bucharest edition. 16 It is not precisely known whether Ivan Bakov, who became a monk under the name of Ioanichie, was of Ukrainian, Russian or Romanian descent. We are inclined to believe that the first variant is more plausible, 17 not only because of his name, but also because the Romanian-Ukrainian relations were extremely close in the 17 th century. The presence of the elongated head coverings in the painting at Fofeldea stands proof of the Romanian art s access to Western imagery, which was often mediated by Ukrainian art. 18 Because starting with 1596, after the 13 Reproduced by Ana Andreescu, in Cartea românească în veacul al XVIII-lea [The Romanian Book in 18 th Century], Ed. Vremea XXI, Bucureşti, 2004, p The engraving from the 1701 edition, published at Buzău, under the protection of Bishop Mitrofan, is reproduced in Doru Bădară s work, Tiparul românesc la sfârşitul secolului al XVII-lea şi începutul secolului al XVIII-lea [Romanian print at the end of the 17 th century and the beginning of the 18 th century], Ed. Istros, Brăila, 1998, fig As regards Petru Papavici s activity, see Corneliu Tatai-Baltă, Contribution de Blaj au développement des arts plastiques, in Annales Universitatis Apulensis, Historica series, no. 1, 1997, p The healing of the paralytic engraving in Papavici s edition is reproduced and commented in Ana Dumitran s paper in Ioana Rustoiu, Elena Băjenaru, Ana Dumitran, Szöcs Fülıp Károly, Prin mine, Ioan Pop zugravul [ Through Me, Ioan Pop, the Painter], Ed. Altip, Alba Iulia, 2008, p. 36. I am grateful to Ana Dumitran and the National Union Museum of Alba Iulia for giving me the permission to reproduce the engraving in the current study. 16 See the wood engraving in Ana Andreescu, op. cit., p For hypotheses regarding the origin of engraver Bakov see Doru Bădară, op. cit., p In the 17 th 18 th century, one of the ways in which Western art circulated in the Romanian Principalities consisted in engravings. Cf. Vasile DrăguŃ, Arta românească. Preistorie, Antichitate, Ev Mediu, Renaştere, Baroc [Romanian Art. Pre-history, Antiquity, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque], 2 nd ed., Ed. Vremea, Bucureşti, 2000, p

6 Union of Brest, the Ruthenian Church entered the sphere of influence of the Holy See, Western influence on the Ukrainian culture increased in the 17 th and 18 th century. 19 This must have been the connection through which the shape of the headgear drawn by Nicolae Grecu in the churches of Fofeldea and Voivodenii Mici entered Romanian iconography. Undoubtedly, Nicolae borrowed it from the composition of his own father at Sărata, where the hat is worn by the Jew that opens the cortege of characters on the road to Calvary (fig. 3). Here the hat is yellow, reminding of the medieval provisions in certain European regions which stipulated that the Jews head covering had to have this color. 20 The devaluation of the yellow color passed from local rulings into the Christian art of the late Middle Ages, the best such example being Judas dress (figs. 4 and 5). 21 The wide-brimmed hat Of all the architectonic compositions painted by Nicolae Grecu, it is the one in łichindeal that possess the most diverse heritage of ethnic clothing. On the Western wall of the narthex, the painter placed, in 1818, two episodes of the Calvary. The one on the left focuses on the effort made by Jesus on the way to Golgotha. In the next scene, the epic frame changes, and the protagonist is Simon of Cyrene, who, according to the synoptic Gospels (Matthew 27: 32, Mark 15: 21, Luke 23: 26), carried the cross to the place of Crucifixion. What strikes the viewer is not the weight that seems to overwhelm Simon, but his Transylvanian peasant costume grey tight peasant trousers (cioareci), white blouse, down to the knees and black lamb fur bonnet, inspired from the clothing of the inhabitants of łara Oltului. Behind Simon walks Jesus, flanked by four Roman soldiers, followed by a Jewish priest. The military helmets observe the Byzantine iconographic canon, 19 Cf. Ihor Ševčenko, Ukraine between East and West. Essays on Cultural History in the Early Eighteenth Century, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Press Edmonton, Toronto, 1996, p For several centuries starting with 1215 yellow was the color the most frequently used to distinguish Jews from Christians in terms of dressing. See Guido Kisch, op. cit., p. 119; Anna Foa, The Jews of Europe after the Black Death, trans. by Andrea Grover, University of California Press, Berkley, Los Angeles, London, 2000, p. 32. In the 16 th century, in some parts of Poland, yellow continued to be used for this purpose, as the Diet of Piotrków decided in In Italy, it could still be met at the beginning of the 18 th century. Alfred Rubens and Miriam Nick, Dress, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2 nd ed., Detroit, 2007, vol. 6, pp The multiplication of the negative images of the Jews occurs at the same time with the intensification, in the 13 th 14 th century, of the activity of the mendicant orders, which used to preach on religious iconography. See Annette Weber, The Hanged Judas of Freiburg Cathedral: Sources and Interpretations, in Eva Frojmovic (ed.), Imagining the Self, imagining the Other. Visual representation and Jewish-Christian Dynamics in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, Brill, Leiden, Boston, Köln, 2002, p

7 being comparable to those in the Walachian churches Târgu Cărbuneşti- Cămărăşeasca or Schitul TurbaŃi but the Jewish priest stands out because of his hat, which undoubtedly comes from no painter s guide. It is a green widebrimmed hat, with a straight base and slightly pointed margins (fig. 6). From the chromatic range, blue and yellow were regarded, in the medieval times, as depreciative. But in some parts of Poland, besides these two colors, green too was mentioned as a color which the authorities imposed on the Jews caps or berets. 22 It is difficult to say whether the hat depicted in łichindeal originated in some engraving or drawing that the artists in Făgăraş obtained from a Ukrainian intermediary or from another source. Nevertheless, the primary model should be sought in the Western area, where the felt hat, usually in dark nuances, survived in visual arts. A Jewish miniature of 1738 depicts man s four ages as four people: a child, an adolescent, an adult, and an old man. 23 The adolescent s head is hidden under the brims of such a vestimentary item. The manuscript was conceived at Leipnik, in Moravia, a region in Central Europe where the Jewish population was very numerous. 24 At the beginning of the 18 th century, an etching signed by C. Weigel, depicting the dress of a Jewish couple from Frankfurt, also shows the use of this headgear in Central Europe, 25 just like the engraving of the Lithuanian Stock Exchange in a book published in mid 19 th century. 26 On the right side of the scene from the church in łichindeal, a similar item, but painted in black, is part of the vestment of another official of the Sanhedrin (fig. 7). This type of head covering, depicted here in the scene where Jesus is taken to Annas, was also illustrated by Nicolae in the Church of Fofeldea, where we can see, in the homonymous iconographic episode from the Passion Cycle, a dark green wide-brimmed hat (fig. 8). Although here the crown is slightly rounded, it can also be circumscribed to the prototype identified in 18 th century Israelite dress. The Kolpak In the wall decoration at łichindeal, in the same representation of the Carrying of the Cross, there is a third type of head covering which we will deal with in this paper. One of the doctors wears a velvet headgear, trimmed in grey 22 Ulysse Robert, op. cit., p Reproduced by Mira Friedman in The Four Sons of Haggadah and the Ages of Man, in Journal of Jewish Art, vol. 11, 1985, p Bruce F. Pauley, From prejudice to persecution. A History of Austrian Anti-Semitism, Chapel Hill & London, 1992, p See Encyclopaedia Judaica, Macmillan, New York, 1971, vol. 7, pl Leon Hollaenderski, Les Israélites de Pologne, Dagetau & C, Paris, 1846, engraving included between p. 210 and p

8 fur. We can also find this hat in the 1821 painting at Voivodenii Mici, in the episode from the Gospel of Luke (23: 1 7), and in Dionysius of Fourna s painting manual. At Voivodeni, the priest who accuses Jesus Christ in front of Pontius Pilate is remarkable due to a similar detail (fig. 9). In an article dedicated to clothing between 1600 and 1800, Irena Turnau calls the attention to the items borrowed by Jews from the Polish national dress of the time. The Kolpak the bonnet ornamented with fur is one of them. 27 The fact that this clothing was widespread in Central and Eastern Europe is demonstrated by the watercolor preserved at the National Library of Budapest presenting a Jew from early 19 th century Transylvania. 28 In his right hand, the man holds a yellow velvet kolpak, trimmed with fur and adorned with a golden feather. 29 The presence of such an accessory in the Great Principality of Transylvania, at the turn of the century, shows that the costume of Polish origin was quite widespread in the region and suggests a possible model for the Grecu painters, which they might have seen in their immediate reality. The early years of the generations of painters of Săsăuş coincide with the period of reforms set forth by Joseph II in the Habsburg Empire. The 1781 Edict of Tolerance did not cancel, however, the interdiction for the Jews to remain more than three days in the city of Sibiu. 30 But the very maintenance of the discriminatory rule at the end of the century certifies the presence of this group in Southern Transylvania, which would have allowed the artists of Săsăuş to observe the Jewish dress. As expected in a common Polish-Ruthenian geography, the kolpak found a place of its own in the Ukrainian sacred representations as well. In an icon from end 16 th century Haychyna, the dress of the Temple priests includes the kolpak. 31 More than a century later, an icon painter from Kiev would include it in his depiction of the martyrdom of Saint Barbara, as an attribute of the nocturnal 27 Irena Turnau, The Dress of the Polish Jews in the 17 th and 18 th centuries, in Proceedings of the Tenth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, August 16 24, 1989, Division D, volume II, Art, Folklore and Music, The World Union of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, 1990, pp See also the engraving of 1572 signed by Georg Braun, preserved today at the Museum of the Castle of Warsaw, which underlines the irradiation of the Polish dress in Jewish clothing in this part of the continent. Cf. Irena Turnau, History of dress in Central and Eastern Europe from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, trans. by Izabela Szymanska, Institute of the History of Material Culture, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, 1991, p. 73 (left). 28 See the image in Costume Bilder aus Siebenbürgen, reproduced in Bela Köpeczi (ed.), Histoire de la Transylvanie, Budapest, 1992, pl After 1800, the popular Polish cap became one of the identity marks of Ashkenazi rabbis. Cf. Alfred Rubens, Dress, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2007, vol. 6, p Paul Brusanowski, Pagini din istoria bisericească a Sibiului medieval [Pages of the Church History of Medieval Sibiu], Presa Universitară Clujeană, Cluj-Napoca, 2007, p The icon is reproduced in the bilingual album Masterpieces of Ukrainian icon-painting, 12 th 19 th cc., Kiev, 1999, p

9 alterity, embodied by the executioner preparing to behead the saint. 32 Photographs from Krakow around attest the use of the same kolpak, which had become, in the meantime, an integrant part of daily Jewish dress in Eastern Europe, as a national-religious feature. 34 Nicolae Grecu s paintings at Fofeldea and particularly at łichindeal include other headgears as well, among which we should mention the numerous brimmed plush hats, specific to the Ukrainian costume (fig. 10). Coats, sashes, collars Researchers of Central and Eastern European costumes have identified a cloak widely spread in the Ottoman Empire and beyond its borders as an integrant part of 16 th 18 th century Jewish dress. This was the kaftan, a dressing item of Persian origin, 35 cut at the front and elongated down to the ankles. Though it enjoyed a considerable circulation, as it could be found in the clothing of all the three monotheistic religions Muslim, Christian and Judaic the differences were often marked through the types of textiles used to make this coat. During the Enlightenment period, Polish Jews who borrowed significant elements from the dress of Christian locals were bound by a ruling to make their garments out of exclusively inexpensive cloths. 36 Starting with the 16 th century, in Germany, and in other areas of Central Europe (Poland included) men s dress consisted of a pleated collar, a colerata (Judenkragen in German), made of white lace. 37 We can see it around the neck of the Jew of Frankfurt depicted in the already mentioned 1703 etching by Weigel. 38 Later, in the 18 th and 19 th century, the kaftan, fastened with a belt or a sash, was accompanied by a fur-trimmed gown, 39 which would work its way up in both Western and Eastern Europe. In the construction of their Jewish portraits, the Grecu painters of Săsăuş completed the fashion collection with the two items mentioned above. Thus, at łichindeal, in the episode where Jesus is taken to Annas, the high priest, who sits on a sumptuous armchair, has a garment in tints of brown, with elbow length sleeves, lined with silver grey fur (fig. 7). The same vestment can be seen on other 32 Ibidem, p Photographs presented by Giza Frankel, Notes on the Jewish Women in Eastern Europe, in Journal of Jewish Art, VII, 1980, p. 53, fig. 10 and by Steven M. Lowenstein, The Jewish Cultural Tapestry, Oxford University Press, New York, 2000, p. 167, fig Giza Frankel, op. cit., p Miriam Nick, op. cit., p Irena Turnau, The Dress of the Polish Jews..., p Alfred Rubens, op. cit., p See supra. 39 Ibidem. 439

10 characters as well: in the same church of Valea Hârtibaciului it is worn by the priest with a green hat, who watches Jesus suffering, and by the scholar present in the episode of Carrying the Cross. We can also see it at Voivodeni, on the incriminator in Pontius Pilate s house. Several elements of Jewish dress of Polish inspiration are clearly outlined in the scene of the Crowning with Thorns (The Mocking of Christ) at łichindeal, where, near the persecutors in military hussar costume, there is a scholar wearing a lengthy garment, with clasps, a fringed sash round the waist, a kolpak and a red coat lined with fur (fig. 11). The same girdle embellishes the Jew s dress in the episode of Jesus humiliation, painted at Fofeldea (fig. 12). A similar textile belt can be seen in a photograph of several inhabitants of early 19 th century Western Ukraine, 40 only that here both ends of the sash are visible. The sash also appears in an engraving of a Lithuanian Jew, included in the 1846 volume of publicist Leon Hollaenderski. 41 Another item of Polish origin is the clasp coat called župan, which was first attested in mid 17 th century. At that time, the difference from the garments of the nobility was marked chromatically (Jews had to wear darker colors) and by the way in which the two sides of the coat were fastened, with clasps and not with buttons, as we can see in the wall composition of łichindeal. 42 As regards the pleated collars, reproduced in a 1755 engraving by Andreas Würfel, they can be recognized in the decoration of the monuments in łara Făgăraşului and on Valea Hârtibaciului, where they present a higher or lower degree of freedom in relation to a still unidentified source of inspiration. At Fofeldea, the character wearing a green hat in the depiction of Christ before Annas, also wears a white colereta, which contrasts with the brown garments. Caiaphas himself has a similar silver-grey accessory, falling over the rusty mantle covering his shoulders. The high priests accompanying Jesus to Pontius Pilate also wear Judenkragen, of varied colors (fig. 13), thus multiplying the number of dress combinations. Conclusions At the current stage of research, it is impossible to indicate with precision the sources used by Nicolae Grecu in the Transylvanian churches. For the time being it is our belief that besides the Byzantine hermeneia, he built his visual culture on thematic and stylistic borrowings from his father Nicolae and his uncle Alexandru, on the engravings he came across in the liturgical books discovered in the edifices where he worked, on the (Romanian, Ukrainian or of any other origin) loose-leaves, icons and engravings he came in contact with. We should also not 40 Steven M. Lowenstein, op. cit., p. 172, fig Leon Hollaenderski, op. cit., engraving ante p Irena Turnau, The Dress of the Polish Jews..., p

11 exclude the possibility that certain clothing elements could be the result of his direct observation in the Transylvanian environment, which in mid 19 th century became more and more permeable for the Jewish population. The preoccupation with clothing and the attempt to exceed the Byzantine canon set the Grecu family in a Romanian painting modernization and laicization trend specific to the 19 th century. The dress mannerism of is followed by the need for individualization, reflected in the abundance of realist elements in the iconographic discourse of the artists of Făgăraş. Compared to the other painters of Săsăuş, Nicolae the son proves to have had not only more artistic aptitudes, but also more access to a local culture in which awareness of the existence of relatively autonomous ethnic communities was on the raise. In this process, groups perceived themselves by virtue of the differences that separated them, as the determining factor of the coagulation of national identity was language. Due to the dress variations, the edifices in łara Oltului and in the Ardeal 43 appear to be a primary source for the study of cultural history. But they also represent a source that should not be ignored either in Jewish studies or in studies of intercultural communication. REFERENCES Andreescu, Ana, Cartea românească în veacul al XVIII-lea [The Romanian Book in 18 th Century], Vremea XXI, Bucureşti, 2004 Bădară, Doru, Tiparul românesc la sfârşitul secolului al XVII-lea şi începutul secolului al XVIIIlea [Romanian print at the end of the 17 th century and the beginning of the 18 th century], Istros, Brăila, 1998 Brusanowski, Paul, Pagini din istoria bisericească a Sibiului medieval [Pages from the Church History of Medieval Sibiu], Presa Universitară Clujeană, Cluj-Napoca, 2007 Cutler, Allan, Innocent III and the distinctive clothing of Jews and Muslims, in John R. Sommerfeldt (ed.), Studies in Medieval Culture, III, The Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, 1970 DrăguŃ, Vasile, Arta românească. Preistorie, Antichitate, Ev Mediu, Renaştere, Baroc [Romanian Art. Pre-history, Antiquity, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque], 2 nd ed., Vremea, Bucureşti, 2000 Foa, Anna, The Jews of Europe after the Black Death, trans. by Andrea Grover, University of California Press, Berkley, Los Angeles, London, 2000 Frank, Robert, Qu est-ce qu un stéréotype?, in Jean-Noël Jeanneney, Une idée fausse est un fait vrai. Les stéréotypes nationaux en Europe, Odile Jacob, Paris, 2000 Frankel, Giza, Notes on the Jewish Women in Eastern Europe, in Journal of Jewish Art, VII, 1980 Friedman, Mira, The Four Sons of Haggadah and the Ages of Man, in Journal of Jewish Art, vol. 11, 1985 Fulea, I., Biserici monumente istorice pictate de familia Grecu [ Historical Monument Churches Painted by the Grecu Family ], in Arhiepiscopia Sibiului pagini de istorie [The Archiepiscopate of Sibiu History Pages], Sibiu, In Romanian de pe Ardeal. The phrase belongs to Valeriu Literat, see Biserici din łara Oltului şi «de pe Ardeal» zugrăvite de o familie de pictori [ Churches in łara Oltului and in the Ardeal painted by a family of painters ], in ACMIT, ed. cit., p

12 Furna, Dionisie, Erminia picturii bizantine [The Painter's Manual], Sophia, Bucureşti, 2000 Hollaenderski, Leon, Les Israélites de Pologne, Dagetau & C, Paris, 1846 Kisch, Guido, The Yellow Badge in history, in Historia Judaica, vol. XIX, October 1957, part 2 Köpeczi, Bela (ed.), Histoire de la Transylvanie, Budapest, 1992 Literat, Valeriu, Două biserici din łara Oltului [ Two Churches in łara Oltului ], in Anuarul Comisiunii Monumentelor Istorice pentru Transilvania [Annuals of the Committee for Historical Monuments in Transylvania], , Cluj, 1929 Literat, Valeriu Biserici din łara Oltului şi «de pe Ardeal» zugrăvite de o familie de pictori [ Churches in łara Oltului and in the Ardeal painted by a family of painters ], in ACMIT, Literat, Valeriu, Biserici vechi româneşti din łara Oltului [Old Romanian Churches in łara Oltului], Sabău, Nicolae (ed.), Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 1996 Lowenstein, Steven M., The Jewish Cultural Tapestry, Oxford University Press, New York, 2000 *** Masterpieces of Ukrainian icon-painting, 12 th 19 th cc., Kiev, 1999 Meteş, Ştefan, Zugravii bisericilor române, in Anuarul Comisiunii Monumentelor Istorice pentru Transilvania [Annuals of the Committee for Historical Monuments in Transylvania], , Cluj, 1929 Pauley, Bruce F., From prejudice to persecution. A History of Austrian Anti-Semitism, Chapel Hill & London, 1992 Piponnier, Françoise, Mane, Perrine, Se vêtir au Moyen Âge, Adam Biro, Paris, 1995 Porumb, Marius, DicŃionar de pictură românească din Transilvania. Sec. XIII XVIII [Dictionary of Romanian Transylvanian Painting. 13 th 18 th Century], Ed. Academiei, Bucureşti, 1998 Robert, Ulysse, Les signes d infamie au Moyen Âge. Juifs, sarrasins, hérétiques, cagots et filles publiques, Paris, 1889 Rubens, Alfred, and Nick, Miriam, Dress, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2 nd ed., Detroit, 2007, vol. 6 Rustoiu, Ioana, Băjenaru, Elena, Dumitran, Ana, Károly, Szöcs Fülıp, Prin mine, Ioan Pop zugravul [ Through Me, Ioan Pop, the Painter], Altip, Alba Iulia, 2008 Ševčenko, Ihor, Ukraine between East and West. Essays on Cultural History in the Early Eighteenth Century, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Press Edmonton, Toronto, 1996 Tatai-Baltă, Corneliu, Contribution de Blaj au développement des arts plastiques, in Annales Universitatis Apulensis, Historica series, no. 1, Alba Iulia, 1997 Turnau, Irena, History of dress in Central and Eastern Europe from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, transl. by Izabela Szymanska, Institute of the History of Material Culture, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, 1991 Turnau, Irena, The Dress of the Polish Jews in the 17 th and 18 th centuries, in Proceedings of the Tenth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, August 16-24, 1989, Division D, volume II, Art, Folklore and Music, The World Union of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, 1990 Weber, Annette, The Hanged Judas of Freiburg Cathedral: Sources and Interpretations, in Eva Frojmovic (ed.), Imagining the Self, imagining the Other. Visual representation and Jewish-Christian Dynamics in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, Brill, Leiden, Boston, Köln, 2002 Zintz, Maria, Pictura murală din sudul Transilvaniei în secolele XVIII-XIX. O familie de zugravi din sudul Transilvaniei: familia de zugravi Grecu [ Mural Painting in Southern Transylvania in the 18 th 19 th Century. A Family of Church Painters in Southern Transylvania, the Grecu Family ], in Crisia, 16, 1986 Silvia Marin-Barutcieff, PhD in Philology from the University of Bucharest, is assistant professor at the Chair in Communication and Public Relations, Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest. 442

13 Fig. 1. Fofeldea, Sibiu, The Sunday of the Paralytic; Fig. 2. Petru Papavici, Blaj, 1768, The Healing of the Paralytic; Fig. 3. Sărata, Sibiu, The Road to Calvary (Passion Cycle); 443

14 Fig. 4. Augsburg, Germany, St. Anne s Church, Goldsmith s Chapel, mural painting from 1496, The Betrayal of Judas; Fig. 5. Urschalling, Germany, St. Jacob s Church, mural painting from the 13 th 14 th century, The Betrayal of Judas; Fig. 6. łichindeal, Sibiu, The Road to Calvary (detail); 444

15 Fig. 7. łichindeal, Sibiu, Christ before Annas; Fig. 8. Fofeldea, Sibiu, Christ before Annas; 445

16 Fig. 9. Voivodenii Mici, Braşov, Christ before Pontius Pilate; Fig. 10. Colun, Sibiu, The Trail of Christ; Fig. 11. łichindeal, Sibiu, Crowning with Thorns/Mocking of Christ; 446

17 Fig. 12. Fofeldea, Sibiu, Crowning with Thorns/Mocking of Christ; Fig. 13. Fofeldea, Sibiu, Christ before Pontius Pilate. 447