Sucevita: MRA-ROU-Suc001
Type Sample Item
Sample ID
- MRA-ROU-Suc001
Sample Material Type
- Mural painting
Sample Sub-type
- fragment
Dimensions (cm)
- Length
- 4.1
- Width
- 1.3
- Height
- 1.05
Weight
- weight value (g)
- 8.92
Geographic Location
- Country
- Romania
- Place
- Sucevita
Site/monument
- Romania (ROU)
Sucevita
Sucevita Monastery
Historical note about the site/monument
- Sucevita Monastery is a convent located in the northern-eastern Romania. The monastery was built in 1585 by Ieremia Movilă, Gheorghe Movilă and Simion Movilă, that were big boyars, scribes and even rulers of Moldova and Romanian Country in the 16th-17th centuries. The church of the monastery is a UNESCO heritage since 1993. The architecture uses elements of Byzantine and Gothic art, together with features typical of the wooden churches in Moldovia. Both interior and exterior walls are covered by early 17th-century mural paintings featuring biblical episodes from the Old and New Testament. Given the late dating, Sucevița monastery is one of the last to be decorated in the famous Moldavian style of exterior paintings. Generally speaking, the monastery has got the features of both a princely residence and a fortified monastery. Indeed, the interior court of the monastic ensemble is made of very solid walls, almost 3 m wide and 6 m high, and includes four defensive towers on each corner of the external setting. The building include the defensive structures, the magnificent burials of Ieremia and Simon Movilă, the church and the monastic house, that included one of the most important workshops for manuscript before, and printed books then.
Further reading:
Cmeciu, Camelia-Mihaela & Druga, Luminita (2011). Romanian Monasteries: Signs of Tourist Attraction and Self-Discovery. In: The European Legacy: 16(6), pp. 751-768, DOI: 10.1080/10848770.2011.608008.
Chronological period (sample)
- 16th century
Sample taken by
- V. Bilciurescu and Dinu Moraru
Date of sampling
- Year/Decade/Century
- 3 November 1961
Other related archival documents
- Official letter dated 1961 from the Direction des Monuments Historiques (Romania) to the Director of the Istituto Centrale del Restauro (ICR), Rome, concerning the dispatch of samples for analysis and a request for technical assistance [Photo: 20180803_145150]. The accompanying documentation includes a list of samples with descriptions and sampling locations [Photos: 20180803_115020, 20180803_145211, 20180803_145230], photographs of the sampling locations [Photo: 20180803_115330], and environmental condition data [Photo: 20180803_145250]. ICCROM Archives: EB-86 [Folder 12_Romania 1961].
Related samples
- MRA-ROU-Suc002 to MRA-ROU-Suc010
Other information about the sample
- Sampling points S1 to S10 correspond to samples MRA-ROU-Suc001 to MRA-ROU-Suc010. The samples were collected by architect V. Bilciurescu and engineer Dinu Moraru on 3 November 1961, under sunny conditions and at a temperature of 9°C. Photographs of the sampling locations form part of the accompanying documentation, which also includes a letter and a brief report containing meteorological data.
Support
- Colour (from bottom to top)
- White
State of Conservation of the Support
- Moderate (has some deterioration features such as lack of cohesion/adhesion) and ideally should not be removed from its holder