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Byzantine Forms and Catholic Patrons in Late Medieval Transylvania
During the late medieval period, several ethnic and confessional groups coexisted in the southern area of the Voivodate of Transylvania, each of them bringing into play their own cultural and religious traditions. Under Latin rule, Orthodox Romanians lived together with Catholic Hungarians, Szeklers, and Saxons, their long-lasting conviventia generating frequent encounters with the culture of the Other, which left deep traces in the religious art of both confessional groups. Fully connected to the main cultural trends of Latin Europe, the dominant Catholics commissioned and produced religious art throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth century that was deeply rooted in the spirituality of the West. This essay deals with the question of medieval painters trained in Byzantium, who decorated murals in Latin-rite churches and who received commissions from Catholic patrons. It focuses on two case studies: the mural decoration of the nave of the Calvinist (formerly Catholic) church in Sântămăria-Orlea (1311) and the paintings of the sanctuary of the Lutheran (formerly Catholic) church in Dârlos (late fourteenth to early fifteenth century). Both churches were located in the Voivodate of Transylvania, a region where Orthodox Romanians lived alongside Catholics but under the Latin rule of the latter. This context contributed to the emergence of frequent phenomena of eclecticism in the sphere of religious art, which defy the usual categories of medieval art and challenge traditional art-historical classifications.