Sacred Symbols in Dimitrie Gavrilean’s Paintings
Sacred Symbols in Dimitrie Gavrilean’s Paintings

Summary/Abstract: This year, on the 12th of July, there are four years since thepassing away of the painter Dimitrie Gavrilean who, ,”through the uniqueimpresion of his originality, early became an emblem of the school ofpainting of Iasi.”1 Born in Voroneţ, in 1942, Dimitrie Gavrilean attended”Nicolae Grigorescu” Academy of Arts of Bucharest, being an eminentdisciple of the master Corneliu Baba. The work in the creation workshopwas combined with the vocation of teacher at the Faculty of Visual Artsand Design within ”G. Enescu” University of Arts of Iaşi, being a rectorof this institution in the period 2000-2004. In the contemporary plasticlandscape, the artistic work of the painter Dimitrie Gavrilean (1942-2012)from Iaşi occupies a special place. It mirrors the utmost of theautochthonous rural imaginary, the Romanian fundamental myths, theancestral myths as well as the recently Christianized ones. His vision isspecific to the Romanian Christianity and the Byzantine iconography. Thelanguage of Gavrilean’s paintings is one of symbols, by excellence. AsEmil Staco rightfully observed, the entire work of art of master Gavrileanis ”a work of art of the symbols, of the metaphors rooted in the spiritualityof the Romanian village of Bukovina, in the frescoes of Voroneţ andHumor Monasteries.”2 On the one hand, the painter did not contenthimself with illustrating only the ancestral mythical world by means ofsymbols with universal valences, but he got actively involved in theChristian valorization of mythical symbols. On the other hand, byintegrating sacred symbols (the dove, the cock, winged characters, thewise old man, the architecture-church, the sun, Voroneţ blue) of theChristian iconography of Byzantine tradition in paintings not necessarilyreligious, Dimitrie Gavrilean pushed his work of art to the border betweensacred and profane, proving an extraordinary capacity of spiritualizingmatter as well as of materializing the spirit through art.

• Details
• Contents