“De piloso fonte sum”: On Dishonorable Backgrounds, Lawsuits, Guilds, and Artisans in Early Renaissance Cluj

Ciprian  FIREA

doi:10.24193/subbhistart.2023.02

Authors

Ciprian FIREA Institute of Archaeology and Art History of the Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Email: cfirea@yahoo.com. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2968-8884

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24193/subbhistart.2023.02

Keywords:

painter; painters’ guild; biography of artists; Renaissance; Cluj; Transylvania.

Abstract

“De piloso fonte sum”: On Dishonorable Backgrounds, Lawsuits, Guilds, and Artisans in Early Renaissance Cluj. This study, based on an exceptional source (a judicial record of 1549, published here for the first time) aims at the restitution of the biography and the distinctive character and personality of Gregorius Pictor, an early Renaissance painter from Transylvania, while making recurrent references to the artistic milieu of the sixteenth century Cluj – the town where he was mainly active. The study reveals, undoubtedly, one of the most comprehensive painters’ biographies of Transylvania in early modern times.

References

Balogh Jolán. Az erdélyi renaissance (1460–1541). Kolozsvár: Erdélyi Tudományos Intézet, 1943.

Balogh Jolán. Kolozsvári kőfaragó műhelyek. XVI. század. Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1985.

Firea, Ciprian, and Adinel Dincă. “Breslele artistice din Transilvania medievală și regula¬mentele lor. Un statut nou descoperit de la Bistrița.” Ars Transsilvaniae 25–26 (2015–2016): 173–184.

Firea, Ciprian, and Saveta Pop. Pictorii Transilvaniei medievale (cca 1300–1600). Un Dicționar. Cluj-Napoca: Mega, 2021.

Firea, Ciprian. “O breaslă a pictorilor la Cluj în secolul al XVI-lea? Mărturii documentare inedite,” in Cluj - Kolozsvár - Klausenburg - 700. Studii de istorie urbană, edited by Mária Lupescu Makó et al., 345–350 (Cluj-Napoca: Erdélyi Múzeum Egyesület, 2018).

Firea, Ciprian. Polipticele medievale din Transilvania: artă, liturghie, patronaj. Cluj-Napoca: Editura Mega, 2016.

Flóra Ágnes. The Matter of Honour. The Leading Urban Elite in Sixteenth Century Transylvania. Tournhout: Brepols, 2019.

Goldenberg, Samuil. Clujul în sec. XVI. Producţia şi schimbul de mărfuri. Bucureşti: Editura Academiei, 1958.

Kovács András, “Arhitectura şi sculptura Renaşterii.” In Arta din România. Din preistorie în contemporaneitate, edited by Răzvan Theodorescu, and Marius Porumb, 511–592. București, Cluj-Napoca: Editura Academiei Române, Editura Mega, 2018.

Mihály Melinda. “Monumente renascentiste, baroce şi neoclasice din patrimoniul Muzeului Naţional de Istorie a Transilvaniei.” PhD diss., “Babeș-Bolyai University”, Cluj-Napoca, 2013.

Porumb, Marius. “Muzeul Mitropoliei Clujului.” Ars Transsilvaniae 22 (2012): 5–24.

Sarkadi Nagy Emese. Local Workshops – Foreign Connections. Late Medieval Altarpieces from Transylvania. Ostfildern: Jan Thorbecke, 2012.

Sebestyén, Gheorghe, and Victor Sebestyén. Arhitectura Renaşterii în Transilvania. Bucureşti: Editura Academiei, 1963.

Van Bueren, Truus. “Care for the Here and the Hereafter: A Multitude of Possibilities,” in Care for the Here and the Hereafter. Memoria, Art and Ritual in the Middle Ages, edited by Truus van Bueren, 13–28. Turnhout: Brepols, 2005,

Vătăşianu, Virgil. Istoria artei feudale în ţările romîne. Bucureşti: Editura Academiei, 1959.