Abstract
The period between the second half of the 15th century and the first half of the next was a stage in which Byzantine culture flourished exponentially in the Romanian Principalities, as a consequence of its “migration” to the North of the Danube after the shock caused in 1453 by the Ottomans. One domain in which Byzantine influence was very strong, leaving a visible mark until today, was the art of painting churches. The canon of Byzantine painting involved a complex series of images, inspired in large proportion from the biblical text, as well as from hagiographic texts or even from everyday life. One of the most popular themes of Byzantine art, called by specialists The “Passion Cycle”, brings together sequences related to the capture, judgment and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The “Mocking of Christ” is one of the paintings of the cycle which, besides the color translation of the events that took place in this context, includes important contemporary aspects at the moment of painting, such as music and dance, but also the ceremonial in which they were included, providing us with a very important source of information about what that period “looked like” from the point of view of sound and choreography. The “Mocking of Christ” has the same constituent elements both at the South of the Danube – where the scene appears throughout the area of Byzantine culture and influence – and later to the North of the Danube, but different in essence, depending on the time and area in which it appears, showing the musical and choreographic specificity of each country or region and thus facilitating for the present-day researcher a better understanding of this area of culture. The fourteen scenes of the “Mockery” in the frescoes of Moldavian churches made during the reigns of Stephen the Great and Peter Rareș, which we discuss here, are clear proof of the existence of a solid artistic culture in Moldavia, comparable to that of the neighboring countries and in accordance with the model “dictated” by the West, especially in terms of musical instruments used in Court music, around the sovereign, as it happened in our case.
Keywords
“Mocking of Christ”, dance, frescoes, Moldavia, music, Peter Rareș, Stephen the Great
