Music and Dance in the Scene the Mocking of Christ in the Mural Paintings of the Churches in Moldavia, Romania, During the First Half of the 16th Century

2024

Anastasis: Research in Medieval Culture and Art, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 55-82 (2024)

The period of time encompassed between the second half of the 15th century and the first half of the following one represented a stage in which the Byzantine culture flourished exponentially in the Romanian Principalities, as a consequence of its migration to the North of the Danube, after the shock caused by the Ottomans in the year 1453. One of the directions in which the Byzantine influence was very powerful, leaving a visible imprint until nowadays, was the art of church painting. The canon of Byzantine painting referred to a complex series of images largely inspired from the Biblical text, as well as from the hagiographic texts and even from daily life. One of the favourite succession of images in the Byzantine art, entitled by specialists The Passion Cycle, reunites sequences referring to the arrest, the trial and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The Mocking of Christ represents one of the paintings which includes important contemporary aspects of the moment in which the scene was painted, in addition to the transposing in colours of the facts which took place in that context. Such aspects were music and dance, but also the ceremony in which these were included, thus offering a very important source of information about the way that period of time “looked like” in terms of sound and choreography. Not only South of the Danube, where the scene appears in the entire area of Byzantine culture and influence, but also later, North of the river, the Mocking of Christ reunites the same constituent elements, but still different in their essence, according to the time and the region where they appeared. These elements show the musical and choreographic specificity of each and every country or region, facilitating for us today a better understanding of this cultural branch. The ten scenes of the Mocking in the church frescoes in Moldavia, achieved in the first half of the 16th century, to which we shall be referring here, represent a certain proof of the existence of a solid artistic culture in Moldavia, comparable to the ones of the neighbouring countries, and in accordance with the model “dictated” by the West, especially in what regards the musical instruments used at the Court, around the sovereign, as it happened in our case. The period of time encompassed between the second half of the 15th century and the first half of the following one represented a stage in which the Byzantine culture flourished exponentially in the Romanian Principalities, as a consequence of its migration to the North of the Danube, after the shock caused by the Ottomans in the year 1453. One of the directions in which the Byzantine influence was very powerful, leaving a visible imprint until nowadays, was the art of church painting. The canon of Byzantine painting referred to a complex series of images largely inspired from the Biblical text, as well as from the hagiographic texts and even from daily life. One of the favourite succession of images in the Byzantine art, entitled by specialists The Passion Cycle, reunites sequences referring to the arrest, the trial and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The Mocking of Christ represents one of the paintings which includes important contemporary aspects of the moment in which the scene was painted, in addition to the transposing in colours of the facts which took place in that context. Such aspects were music and dance, but also the ceremony in which these were included, thus offering a very important source of information about the way that period of time “looked like” in terms of sound and choreography. Not only South of the Danube, where the scene appears in the entire area of Byzantine culture and influence, but also later, North of the river, the Mocking of Christ reunites the same constituent elements, but still different in their essence, according to the time and the region where they appeared. These elements show the musical and choreographic specificity of each and every country or region, facilitating for us today a better understanding of this cultural branch. The ten scenes of the Mocking in the church frescoes in Moldavia, achieved in the first half of the 16th century, to which we shall be referring here, represent a certain proof of the existence of a solid artistic culture in Moldavia, comparable to the ones of the neighbouring countries, and in accordance with the model “dictated” by the West, especially in what regards the musical instruments used at the Court, around the sovereign, as it happened in our case. The period of time encompassed between the second half of the 15th century and the first half of the following one represented a stage in which the Byzantine culture flourished exponentially in the Romanian Principalities, as a consequence of its migration to the North of the Danube, after the shock caused by the Ottomans in the year 1453. One of the directions in which the Byzantine influence was very powerful, leaving a visible imprint until nowadays, was the art of church painting. The canon of Byzantine painting referred to a complex series of images largely inspired from the Biblical text, as well as from the hagiographic texts and even from daily life. One of the favourite succession of images in the Byzantine art, entitled by specialists The Passion Cycle, reunites sequences referring to the arrest, the trial and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The Mocking of Christ represents one of the paintings which includes important contemporary aspects of the moment in which the scene was painted, in addition to the transposing in colours of the facts which took place in that context. Such aspects were music and dance, but also the ceremony in which these were included, thus offering a very important source of information about the way that period of time “looked like” in terms of sound and choreography. Not only South of the Danube, where the scene appears in the entire area of Byzantine culture and influence, but also later, North of the river, the Mocking of Christ reunites the same constituent elements, but still different in their essence, according to the time and the region where they appeared. These elements show the musical and choreographic specificity of each and every country or region, facilitating for us today a better understanding of this cultural branch. The ten scenes of the Mocking in the church frescoes in Moldavia, achieved in the first half of the 16th century, to which we shall be referring here, represent a certain proof of the existence of a solid artistic culture in Moldavia, comparable to the ones of the neighbouring countries, and in accordance with the model “dictated” by the West, especially in what regards the musical instruments used at the Court, around the sovereign, as it happened in our case.

article

German
English
Spanish; Castilian
French
Italian

Artes, 2024.

the mocking of christ, music, dance, musical instruments, frescoes, moldavia, romania, Arts in general, NX1-820, Medieval history, D111-203