DECSY MOLDOVAN KRISZTINA SARA

AN 2, LC -EN

ANASTASIS
RESEARCH IN MEDIEVAL CULTURE AND ART

VOL II NO.1 May 2015

In order to discuss the journal as a whole in the upcoming paragraphs, we first need to
mention that ANASTASIS is an open access journal, that mainly focuses on Medieval Art and
culture, aiming to raise people’s interest regarding the scientific research of the Middle ages.
Before mentioning the actual content, we must bring into discussion the first things that
effortlessly catches the reader’s eye, which are none other than the beautiful images of
paintings, drawings and Monasteries, scattered throughout the pages, that help the reader
understand and visualize the abstract elements and ideas discussed throughout the articles,
bringing the experience closer to the feeling of actually being at said location.

The journal consists of three main parts, each of them containing a series of articles
united by a common theme: The first one would be the Inaugural study (by Constantin
Ciobanu) ; the second one: Arts and Liturgy in which we find different articles upon
emblematic figures and Monasteries from different places, and the last part: Medieval art and
civilisation.

Some of the articles shall be discussed in more detail, the first one being The inaugural
study by Constantin Ciobanu, which aims to present, in great detail, the literary sources of the
paintings; drawings of the Sucevita Monastery. There are several paintings which depict the
Holy Monks (as Theodore the Sanctified, Theodotus, Gelasius and others) These paintings of
saints,of the Church, of the Ressurection; are full of sayings which exist only in Russian
translation of Paterikon, this being a proof that in the 16 century in Moldavia existed some
Slavonic-bulgarian translations from greek “Collections of sayings of the Holy Fathers”.

First, it is of great importance for the reader to know that The Sucevita Monastery is the
very last Moldavian Monastery, painted on the outside, thus being a “will” of the medieval
Moldavian art. It is a well known fact that the tradition and the innovation, in this case, go
hand in hand, creating an exquisite painted image, colorful and full of light, to which the
author of the article gives perfect justice. A defining characteristic of this Monastery is that
its paintings are presenting complete cycles of the Saint’s lives, as Saint Pahomie, the life of
Moses or Saint George.

The journal introduces a formidable number of new studies, each of them more
captivating than the previous. One of the most notable chapters , perhaps subjectively, is
entitled art and Liturgy, Thoughts and Reflections on Beuronense art in Sao Paulo, written by
Rosangela Aparecida da Conceicao, who takes upon herself to present different ideas
concerning art and Liturgy that is crucial for understanding new trends that emerged in the
mid 19th century in Europe, introducing the Beuron Art School to the reader and proceeding to
talk about some exceptional Monasteries from Sao Paulo. She also introduced ideas belonging
to well known figures and continues to present them individually, accompanied by
educational images by Peter Lenz, who makes a connection between geometric shapes and
divinity, justifying the intertwining of what is rational and what is faith, this being just one of
the examples that might really interest people.

The third artile that shall be mentioned belongs to Ecaterina Marghidan entitled:
Embroided portraits of the romanina Medieval Art, which constitutes one of the most
important contributions to the execution of portraits in South-East European art, its origins are
to be found in the Bysantine and South—Slavonic embroidery. It presents the main
characteristics of the byzantine embroidery depicting the founders of the Basilica of San
Vitale in Ravena, accompainied by illustrations belonging to different Monastries.

To conclude this brief journey through the pages of the journal, it must be said that one
should most certainly give this reading a try, as each of the articles present researches on
different fields of medieval art and culture from Europe and Romania. It would be safe to say
that this journal is a real eye-opener regarding Medieval art and, mostly religion and its
effects on society and history that remained unchanged still: ideas and beliefs materialized on
the wall of a few remarkable Monasteries that can be visited to this day.