THE DECORATIVE DESIGN IN BRANCOVENIAN PAINTING
(THE PAINTING DURING THE REIGN OF CONSTANTIN BRANCOVEANU)
Grecu Dorin
Senior Lecturer, Phd, University of Piteşti, Romania
Abstract
The Brancovenian style characterizes the art, the architecture and the plastic arts from Wallachia, during the reign of Constantin Brancoveanu (1688-1714). The Brancovenian art is a type of art that has an eclectic spirit. In the Moldavian architecture, it adds Gothic influences over the Romanian and Byzantine structures, at which it has been added Oriental and Reinaissance elements, especially Baroque ones. Out of this complex combination, it emerges a Romanian and unitary style, known as the Romanian Baroque.
In Brancovenian art, the decorative design or the ornament has a crucial importance, first of all, due to its journey to the easiest visible architectonic land, and, second of all, due to its enrichment and diversity.
The ornament is now adapted to the architectural space through the settlement of the fitomorphus decorations in the exterior painting, and, in the interior painting through filling empty spaces with combined friezes from vegetal elements.
A new direction in the evolution of the ornament is its shift from merely decorating architectural buildings to decorating the background of the paintings. Afterwards, the ornament is highly encountered on background objects, especially on thrones where holly persons were put and in the decoration of the clothes belonging to saints or founders (henefactor). During this period, the ornament has a crucial importance in painting. The space of the elements that, until recently, was filled only by the shaping light or colour, is now receiving decorations.
Thus, the clothes of the characters inspired from the paintings originating in Crete, are enriched by ornaments with vegetal elements, and influenced by the Western Baroque. By studying the plastic and stylistic analysis, we can observe the fact that the ornament has the role of decorating the background surfaces, phenomenon encountered in the tradition of Byzantine painting, and it is introduced in the pictural field, establishing a certain relationship with the inner pattern of the respective elements. Thus, Brancovenian painting manages to create a synthesis between East and West, becoming unique and imposing itself as a personal style of the Romanian-Byzantine painting to universal art.
Keywords: art, Brancovenian painting, ornament, decorative element
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