Cronicile unui pictor uitat

Abstract

In an attempt to bring new elements, possibly unpublished, related to the Miracle-Maker Icon of Nicula, in order to highlight this anniversary year directly related to the history of this artistic and Latin treasure of Orthodoxy, especially Transylvanian, the ,,surprise” factor was overwhelming in the discovery that would certify at least one of the plastic interventions on its pictorial layer.

The fact that the discovery initially made by the restaurer Dorina Idiceanu and made known with the publication of the work „The Weeping Virgins of Transylvania” by the museographer Ana Dumitran, that is, „one or maybe even two attempts at „refreshment”1, was officially confirmed by the research carried out, is not the most sensational thing, even if it is an important scientific step in the history of the Holy Icon. What is really noteworthy and even remarkable is the discovery that reveals the month and year of the intervention, July 1934, and especially the name of the artist who had the honour of doing this work, called in the source researched... „repair”. And all the more so, since our discovery was made in a source initially considered of no great importance in the scientific approach of historical research, which aimed to uncover possible accounts related to the miraculous manifestation of the object of research.

This discovery of a transdisciplinary nature, in this case of theology, art and history, shows us that even the consultation of banal accounting registers can provide details hidden from the untrained eye, even from the eyes of researchers, who see in them only economic and statistical information, normal and ordinary for any institution, but which, in the eyes of an inquisitive researcher, can constitute sources and sources of the first order, completing and even rewriting parts of the history of the object of study and making them true sources of documentation for part of our study.

Following this sensational revelation, it was the natural step to ,,discover” the artist to whom this action of intervention was entrusted: the „Havas painter”. Another direction of research, which proved extremely difficult, in the absence of documentary material and especially of information about his identity and activity even in historical and artistic circles. This information was finally answered after researches that involved institutions such as the National Archives – Arad, Baia Mare and Cluj-Napoca branch, the National Széchényi Library in Budapest, the Art Museums in Arad, Baia Mare and Cluj-Napoca, the City Hall of Arad and Pâncota, the Jewish Community of Arad and Cluj Napoca, as well as historical and artistic personalities such as Zoltán Tibori-Szabó, Jenő Murádin, Tiberiu Alexa, Daniel Lowy, Elena Rodica Colta or Raoul Vizental.