#The Transfiguration of the Lord

The iconography of the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God at Polovragi Monastery, a masterpiece of the Brâncoveanu School completed in 1703 by the icon painters Andrei, Simeon, Istrate and Hranit, is analysed in detail in relation to the Byzantine iconographic tradition and the three thematic cycles — dogmatic, liturgical and festive — illustrating features such as the cycle of the life of Patriarch Joseph, the Sundays of the Pentecostarion and the scene of the Massacre of the Innocents, which are characteristic of the school of the painter Constantinos.

Archimandrite Chrysant Penetis, a Greek by birth from Andros and abbot of Hurezi Monastery, drew up on 1 January 1850 two wills adorned with miniature icons — the Transfiguration for the Greek church in Sibiu and the Holy Trinity for the Ciorogârla-Samurcășești hermitage —, bequeathing to them revenues from Mount Cocora and from a storehouse in the port of Brăila. The study publishes transcriptions and facsimiles of the two documents, analysing the clergyman’s personality, the content of the bequests, the iconography of the miniatures and the place of these documents within the typology of Romanian charters decorated with images of saints.