Icoana Sfântului Ioan Botezătorul cu scene din viață de la Budești‑Josani

Abstract

In the history of old Romanian painting, the icon of Saint John the Baptist with scenes from his life from Budești-Josani occupies a very important place due to its exceptional artistic quality, as well as the Slavonic inscription with the master’s signature and date. The inscription, in a very poor state of preservation, has already been partially deciphered by acad. Marius Porumb and is now reconstructed with the help of macro photography. The recovered additional information completes the name of the painter, already known as the “full sinner Gheorghe”, with the name of his place of residence, Meleni (in Ukraine) and with the date in 7070 (=1561–1562). Also, the philological analysis allowed the identification of some elements of Romanian and Ruthenian orthography, which support the hypothesis that the painter knew both languages. Elements of the iconographic and decorative structure prove a good knowledge of the artistic environment in Moldavia. It was concluded that the author of the icon from Budești-Josani, i.e. the “full sinner Gheorghe”, was either a talented Ruthenian painter trained in Moldavia, or a Moldavian painter settled among the Ruthenians, his activity also including the north of medieval Hungary. His archaizing style, previously used as an argument for dating the icon in the 15th century, can be a testimony of his training in the workshops active at the time of Voivode Petru Rareș or in the company of iconographers of the next generation.