Az alcinai evangélikus templom falképeinek stílusa
Stylistic Analysis of the Wall Paintings of the Lutheran Church in Alțâna

Summary/Abstract: The wall paintings decorating the sanctuary of the Lutheran church in Alțâna (Alcina, Alzen) were discovered accidentally in 2007. The ensemble provides a rare example of a coherent and extensive sanctuary decoration in Transylvania. The most emphatic element of this program is the Mariological cycle, with fifteen scenes surviving at least partially, other representations including saints, the Tree of Jesse, and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The article examines the stylistic characteristics and analogies of the wall paintings, with the aim to explore possible connections and to establish their place in the artistic development, as well as to provide a dating for them. The closest analogies for the simple, linear facial features of the figures at Alţâna can be found in the Saint Catherine cycle at Ghelinţa (Gelence). The winding wine scroll motif decorating the window splays of the sanctuary is repeated at Buia (Bólya, Bell) in the chapel of the castle, now in ruins. Broadening the geographical framework, we can find further analogies on the wall paintings at Batizovce, Slovakia, dated to the second half of the fourteenth century, and in a Speculum humanae salvationis manuscript in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, dated to the 1330s (cod. s. n. 2612). The murals show the influence of the linear Gothic, a style widespread in the regions north of the Alps. While parallels for several motifs and stylistic features can be found in German and Austrian art from around 1330–1340, the provincial artistic quality of the wall paintings, the analogies from medieval Hungary, and the examination of the sculptural decoration point to a later dating, after 1350.

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