An Unpublished Iconographic Unit: the Work of Ioan Grigorievici and of Painters Belonging to the Grecu Family, in Cornatel Church

The present study aims to draw attention upon a
forgotten monument, the Orthodox church in Cornatel and to highlight
the importance of its ranking among the art works that form the
Transylvanian cultural and religious heritage. There are many reasons
in favor of such ranking of the monument, as well as for the preoccupation
to preserve it for posterity. Among the first arguments one could
mention its value as historic document, relevant for the Romanian Orthodox
population in Transylvania from the second half of the
eighteenth century and the first part of the nineteenth century, when
the edifice was raised and decorated with manual paintings. Through its
very presence, of more than two hundred years in the life of the people
that form the community in Cornatel, the church preserves the memory
of some important events, marking the fight for religious emancipation
of the Orthodox living here.
Equally important is the testimony-quality of the church, from the
perspective of liturgical art history. The close scrutiny of all the iconographic
scenes, preserved in their original form, draws attention upon a
first segment of inedited decor, completed in the last decades of the
eighteenth century by Ioan Grigorievici, the son of the famous Grigorie
Ranite from Craiova. A second stage in the decoration of the interior of
the church, completed in 1820, distinguishes itself through style features
and the iconographic particularities that make it attributable to some
representatives of the Grecu family of painters.