#Pârvu Mutu

This article provides an overview of the main academic sources devoted to Polovragi Monastery, analysing the contributions of Alexandru Ștefulescu, Archimandrite Veniamin Micle and the album Polovragi, the Monastery Close to Heaven. History. Spirituality. Art. The reader gains a comprehensive overview of the history, architecture and iconographic programme of this Brâncoveanu foundation, with an emphasis on the stylistic links between Polovragi and Hurezi Monastery.

The narthex of the great church at Hurezi houses a gallery of nearly thirty portraits — the Cantacuzinos, the Brâncoveni, and the Bessarabian princes from Laiotă and Neagoe right up to Șerban Cantacuzino — through which Constantin Brâncoveanu visually legitimised his dual dynastic lineage: his paternal Bessarabian and his maternal Cantacuzino-Byzantine lineages. The same Baroque-inspired historicism can be found in the votive paintings from Târgoviște, in the portraits from Mogoșoaia and in the prints of the period, marking the beginnings of the historicist mindset of modern Romanian civilisation.