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Preliminaries to a history of Bucharest iconostases of 18 th -19 th centuries | 137
6 See for this: Kondakov 2009.
7 See http://www.varvar.ru/arhiv/gallery/ikona/tihon-filatyev/index.html
(accessed in 19.10.2017).
8 In an icon of the Life-Giving Spring (beginning of 18 th century) attributed
to Tihon Filatjev Ivanov one may find once again the same
Neoclassical style décor, the same rigorously built architecture as
in the scene with the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple.
Icon at: http://iconaimmaginedio.blogspot.ro/2013/06/tichonivanov-filatjev-iconografo-russo.html
(accessed on 19.10.2017).
9 An icon of The Three Holy Hierarchs (1687) has the same style and
the same decorative language in treating faces and vestments, just as
in the line of hierarchs from the lower register of the icon of the Entrance
of the Mother of God into the Temple. See the icon at: http://
www.galerijamaticesrpske.rs/nasledje-postvizantijske-tra-dicije.
html (accessed on 19.10.2017).
10 See Saint John the Baptist (1689), and a cartouche identical to the
one in the chapel in The Appearance of the Virgin to the Apostle
Andrew (1702) at: http://www.varvar.ru/arhiv/gallery/ikona/tihonfilatyev/index.html
(accessed in 19.10.2017).
11 Iorga 1909, p. 354; Năsturel and Vătămanu 1968, p. 187.
12 Before arriving in Wallachia, Ioanichie took a detour via Peter
the Great’s Russia, to collect the money necessary to establish the
monastery in the Wallachian capital. We know this from an
inscription on one icon, now lost, which he brought with him to
Bucharest: “In the year 1718, month of March. This holy and venerated
icon is mine, the small and humble servant of God, Ioanichie
the hieromonk from Pogoniana, from the village of Ostanița, which
I bought, being in the Seat of Moscow, with the mercifulness of good
God and of His Holy Mother, for my piety and of all pious Christians;
to intercede with her One true-born Son, for my sins, for which
this was also written to be commemorated. Ioanichie hieromonk.”
(Drăghiceanu 1913, p. 30, no. 228; Elian 1965, p. 413, no. 447).
13 Saint Charalambos was the patron of the chapel within the premises
of Stavropoleos Monastery. See National Archives, Stavropoleos
Monastery, xxvii/195 and xxvii/196. The chapel, built in a row
with the abbot’s house, was demolished at the end of the 19 th
century, and subsequently its patron saint was adopted by the large
church of the monastery.
14 The church of the former Monastery St. Spyridon the Old was
erected in 1747 by the Patriarch Silvestru of Antioch, with the support
of the ruler Constantin Mavrocordat, as a place of worship
for the Arabian hierarchs and monks.
15 Drakopoulou 2008, p. 32.
16 In the churches of Mount Athos, numerous such specimens from
the era of modern Baroque sculpture are kept, such as the iconostases
of the monastery churches of Vatopedi, Helandariou, Osiou Grigoriou,
Docheiariou, and Dionysiou, but there are also churches
from Aegean islands, Crete and Chios, which have these types
of iconostasis. Nikonanos 1997, p. 291-294; and 1998, p. 536-
542; Goulaki-Voutyra and Karadedos 2011, passim.
16 In the churches of Mount Athos, numerous specimens from the
time of modern Baroque sculpture are kept, such as the iconostases
of the monastery churches of Vatopedi, Helandariou, Osiou
Grigoriou, Docheiariou, and Dionysiou, but there are also churches
from the Aegean islands, Crete and Chios, which have these
types of iconostasis. Nikonanos 1997, p. 291-294; and 1998,
p. 536-542; Goulaki-Voutyra and Karadedos 2011, passim.
17 Previous studies on this subject proposed that it would have been
brought over from a neighbouring church, the priory of Râmnic Bishopric,
demolished at approximately the same time that the White
Church began restoration, in around the 1870s. (Vătămanu 1967,
p. 526-531; Stoicescu 1971, p. 370-380). The archive documents,
however, do not confirm the hypothesis. The correspondence between
the Bishopric priory and the curators of the White Church are
kept in two funds from the National Archives (Ministry for Agriculture
and Regions Fund, File 100/1868, f. 64 and Ministry for Cults
and Public Instructions, File 1082/1866, f.11), in which is mentioned
the list of objects from the Bishopric Priory required for the
White Church. The ‘temple with its icons’ also appears in this list.
In fact this iconostasis is the second of Râmnic Bishopric priory,
a Neo-gothic specimen that ended up, as the documents from the
above-mentioned files show, in a church from the Buzău Bishopric.
18 According to the inscription: “In the days of Archimandrite
Kalinic abbot. 1831, 10 th November. Nicolae Biv Polcovnic Painter”.
19 Velescu 1968, p. 89-96; Georgescu, Stanciu 1973, p. 1290-1294.
20 Velescu 1968, p. 91.
21 Contract with the painter Tattarescu for decorating the church,
14 th November 1873. National Archives, Fund Bucharest Municipality
City Hall - Administrative, File 14/1831.
22 Restoration work took place between 2014-2016, being executed
by S.C. iorux trade S.R.L, coordinator: restorer dr. Sultana-Ruxandra
Polizu.
23 Costescu 1983, p. 15.
24 For the Buzău school, see Cocora 1964, pp. 336-371. For the
Cernica and Căldărușani schools, see Ștefănescu 1969, p. 364-392,
and Georgescu and Stanciu 1973, p. 1290-1294.
25 Metropolitan Archives, Metropolitan Repairs Fund, File
2652/1836.
26 For Gheorghe Tattarescu, see Popescu and Cristea 2008, and
Voinescu 1940.
27 Șerbănescu 1958, Miclescu 1967, Vasilescu 2008.
28 According to the contract completed on 8 th October 1836. See
Șerbănescu 1958, p. 834, and Nedelcu 1968, p. 224. Register for the
expenses of the Metropolitan House for one year from 1 st January
year 1836 until 1 st January 1837. Bucharest National Archives.
Community Control Fund, File 5961/1836, p. 11, no. 6).
29 Dimitrie Belizarie’s four icons are mounted facing the altar, behind
the existing icons. They were published in Vasilescu 2008, p. 168.
30 Otilia Oteteleșanu specialised in this technique during her
years of study at the Berlin Academy of Decorative Arts.
31 See, in this respect, besides the enamel icons from the Cathedral,
the mosaic icons for the iconostasis in Cașin (1952-1958) and Antim
(1965), the marble and alabaster iconostasis from Cașin (1952-
1958) and the mural painting from the Synod Palace (1961).
32 In 1924, when Costin Petrescu was designated to evaluate the
painting from the Cathedral to assess the possibility of recovering
it, he mentioned in his report: “It doesn’t have the characteristic
appearance of the Byzantine style. The Saints don’t have
hieratic attitudes, nor that folding drapery depicted with rigid lines
underneath which are traced the body shape and movement. The
halos or the rays that fall from the sky are treated in a modern
manner, in muted tones, not like the old ones that have the
aspect of very clearly defined discs, or rays in the shape of long
sharp strips. The drapery has a banal aspect, and a type of roses
painted between circles of saints can be seen in the ornaments”.
The National Heritage Institute Archive, Historic Monuments
Commission Fund, Bucharest Metropolitan File, vol. I, f. 16.
33 Drakopoulou 2012, p. 141.
34 Uspenski 2005, p. 235.