Portret în portret: identificarea cardinalului Bessarion în figura sfântului Pavel pe broderia unei casule a bisericii evanghelice Sibiu
Portrait within portrait: Identifying Cardinal Bessarion through the features of St Paul embroidered on a chasuble of the Lutheran Church A. C. in Sibiu

Summary/Abstract: Ardent supporter of the union of the Eastern and Western Christian Churches, as well as of organizing a crusade − under the leadership of the Pope − for the reconquest of Constantinople (the “Second Rome”), the renowned Greek scholar and founder of the Marciana Library in Venice, Cardinal Basilios (“Johannes”) Bessarion (Trebizond, 1403 − Ravenna, 1472) became a symbol of the Roman Catholic Church; among his contemporaries, his name was better known as that of the Pope’s. Iconographic features, that used to be traditionally represented, started being rendered by great artists of the Italian Renaissance (Piero della Francesca, Justus van Gent, Vittore Carpaccio, Carlo Crivelli and others) through the particular physiognomy of Cardinal Basilios Bessarion. These were the representations of saints such as John the Baptist, Jerome and Augustine). The unmistakable portrait of Cardinal Bessarion can be recognized in the representation of Saint Paul, on the dorsal cross of a Venetian chasuble of the late 15 century belonging to the Saint Virgin Mary parish church in Sibiu (currently the Lutheran church in Sibiu). This paper attempts to unravel the meaning of the iconographic composition of the precious embroideries of the chasuble,and how this liturgical vestment and the two dalmatics from the same ensemble could have entered into the possession of the church.

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