O Evanghelie din epoca lui Matei Basarab, păstrată în Biblioteca Patriarhiei Ierusalimului – repertoriul inedit al ilustrațiilor sale: O Evanghelie din epoca lui Matei Basarab, păstrată în Biblioteca Patriarhiei Ierusalimului – repertoriul inedit al ilustrațiilor sale

The voivode Matei Basarab is known for his many religious foundations and donations that have decisively enriched the cultural and religious life of Wallachia and the entire Orthodoxy. His donations have mercifully been oriented towards the entire Orthodox East, so up to this day more and more works of art are discovered, as a testimony of the peace climate in his days, when numerous artists lived and created. The Gospel Anastasis no. 1 from the Jerusalem Patriarchy library, crafted in the year 1646 or 1647, belongs to the quill of Isaia, a distant apprentice copyist from the famous school of miniature initiated by the bishop Luca of Buzău. This manuscript was until now only known for a few whole page paintings, while other more than 150 miniatures, lettrines and frontispieces from its contents remained unknown; the manuscript is also important for the fact that it offers biographical information about the formerly mentioned copyist. In this presentation, we have divided the manuscript decoration into a few groups: full-page miniatures, frontispieces, encased miniatures, initial letters, end-text ornaments. The most beautiful miniatures are, assuredly, the full-page ones: the portraits of the evangelists John, Matthew and Mark (Luke’s is missing from the manuscript) and also the representation of Our Saviour Jesus Christ in the middle of the zodiac, that symbolizes the Universe created by the Word of God. The richest miniature inventory of the Anastasis no. 1 manuscript consists of the 71 iconographical scenes, realized with the nib of the pen, in black and coloured water-based ink, (offering the illusion of watercolours). They are inspired by frescoes, icons or some old Byzantine manuscripts. For the realization of the episodes that illustrate the evangelical pericopes, the artist proves his skill to offer just proportion and balance, especially when he depicts several characters or a crowd. The latter is suggested by the shape of the heads, while the main characters are to be found up in the foreground, with bigger proportions. Analysing the miniature repertoire of the Anastasis no. 1 Gospel, Isaiah offers us the image of a talented artist, creative, refined, who enriches both his repertoire (which until now did not contain this manuscript), as well as the one of the miniature school from Wallachia, to which he belongs.