SAVA HENŢIA ŞI LEGENDA GENOVEVEI DIN BRABANT
Sava Henția and the Legend of Genevieve of Brabant

Summary/Abstract: With respect to the early works of painter Sava Henţia (1848-1904), the year 1870 proved to be highly important: he completed his studies, obtained a scholarship in Paris, received different awards and his first works were exhibited. A lesser known work is also dated to this year, part of the array of historical and mythological subjects, at this time preferred by the painter: “Genevieve of Brabant”. The oil on canvas work illustrates, besides the artistic component, the reflection of a folk novel that was also known to the Romanian population of the 19th century either through translated editions or even, since the 17th century, through manuscripts that circulated alongside the old books. Henţia’s view on the theme is characteristic of the regional environment in which he worked, since the subject is contaminated by characters that draw away from the theme that had emerged in the Germanic medieval west. One such example would be the confusion of Siegfried with the Knight of the Swan, the latter depicted with a winged head, similar to Genevieve’s son from the painting under scrutiny in the present paper. Half a century later, Mihai Sadoveanu and illustrator Ary Murnu readdressed the subject and the theme, including the same motifs that were first encountered in Romanian art through the works of Sava Henţia.

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