Picturile murale medievale ale bisericii reformate din Cricău (jud. Alba)
Medieval mural paintings in the Calvinist Church of Cricău (Alba county)

Summary/Abstract: This work presents the results of a wall investigation carried out at the Calvinist Church in Cricău during the year 2011. The aim of the procedure was to identify the fragments of mural painting, to establish their stratigraphy and assess their state of preservation. The research established that the church has three layers of paintings. 1. That of the church consecration crosses. 2. That of a layer with figurative painting, from which some fragments of a Last Judgment (on the northern wall), St. Christophor Carrying the Child Christ, and the Legend of St. Ladislas (on the southern wall of the nave). To the same layer belongs decorative, vegetal, and geometrical painting (in the nave, on the triumph arch and in the sanctuary). 3. That of a layer of fresco, represented by fragments of Last Supper, and Jesus Before Pilate (from a Cycle of Passions) and by the figures of angels painted on the cloth of the sanctuary vault. The three layers can be dated in the thirteenth (1-2) and fourteenth (3) centuries. The second layer displayed the Legend of St. Ladislas, which can be dated in the second half of the thirteenth century. The chronology results from the context of the painting and renders the fragments of The Legend of St. Ladislas in the church from Cricău the earliest known in Transylvania to date. Our investigations have demonstrated also that that last layer of painting displays many similarities in style, shape, and technique, with the frescoes from the Reformated church at Unirea (Alba county) which might sustain the hypothesis of the presence of one master painter and a common painting workshop in the fourteenth century at both churches.

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