Kovács Petronella (szerk.): Isis - Erdélyi magyar restaurátor füzetek 20. (Székelyudvarhely, 2020)

Focht Anna: Gorka Géza padlóváza restaurálása

out in the church, but the systematic and detailed exploration of the murals had never been conducted until 2004.

Fresco technique was used for the outer and inner paintings of the church, together with secco bonding in some places.

Inside the church, murals are located in three registers under each other: The Last Judgement on the southern wall, the first scene of the Passion beneath it, as well as the supposed imagery of Mary with Child. All of them were painted at the same time and in the same workshop just like the Legend of St. Ladislaus king of Hungary, which begins on the upper register of the western side and continues through the northern wall, and the scenes of Passion underneath.

The painting process of these murals were the following: after applying the plaster, the surface was smoothened with a palette knife in a horizontal and slightly curved line as the movement of the arm allowed it. The string with which the painting grid was marked, was probably not impregnated with paint, as no traces of paint are visible. Since the puncture point could be found in case of each nimbus, most likely a drawing compass was used for scratching the contours of the nimbuses. The Last Judgment scene in the middle of the mandorla contains the enthroned figure of Christ; the cross was probably drawn with a ruler. According to the orientation of the tracks, it was engraved from the top to the bottom and from left to right. The double contour of the mandorla and the semi-arches in the area of Jesus’s abdomen and below his feet were also engraved into the wet plaster.

First, each composition was sketched with a brush and ochre colour, then colouring on the background the grey sky and the ochre ground, and finally the architectural elements and the decorative frame followed. The third step was painting the figures; the order began with the nimbus and face, and then the head and limbs were painted. Ultimately, the clothing and the smaller decorative details were prepared.

The main characteristics of the faces are the light base with shadows and circular facial flushing. Instead of highlights, the light-hued primary colour of the face was let to prevail. The lines of the mouth, eyes and face are marked with assertive dark contours. There are no signs for various painters; the majority of the figures are similar, painted without any personal characteristics and with the same painting technique. One small difference might be the flushing of the faces, which is at times circular, at others follows the lines of the cheekbones.

A few rudimentary attempts can be observed to create the sense of space, but one cannot speak about perspective representation, most of the scenes have a simple plain background. The architectural elements are mostly flat and decorative, only a slight attempt is discernible at the representation of Kingdom of Heaven.

The microscopic examinations reveal the colouring of each figurai representation were depicted at the same time

on the southern, western and northern walls, as well as the lambrequin below them.

There are scenes both on the southern and northern wall with questionable origins. On the southern wall between the starting scene of the Passion and the Last Supper, there is a representation of Mary with Child. From a stylistic point of view, this mural is incomparable with the others due to the heavily worn paint. It is problematic to determine the date of implementing; data and descriptions found in the literature attribute it to a later period, and therefore probably destroyed the earlier scene of the Triumphal Entry. Photographs taken in grazing light refuted this assertion. The plaster boundaries of the Passion cycle overlap the painted surfaces of the Mary representation indicating that it was created earlier than the murals on its sides. According to the microscopic investigation, the plasters of both scenes contain volcanic sand, the samples’ cross-sections show strong similarity, and therefore their close correlation could be assumed.

One of the most important characteristics of the wall paintings is the technique how the plaster had been smoothened. There are no visible peculiar traces referring to a smoothing tool on the scene of Mary and Child. Since the plaster of the scenes of the Passion is much more grooved by a palette knife, the same date for preparing the two murals seems improbable. On the southern wall, the lack of murals with heavily worn paint, also exclude simultaneity.

Based on the painting style the figures of the two healing saints on the northern side, and the standing saint with nimbus under the Kingdom of Heaven scene on the southern wall could be separable from the other figures on the inner walls of the church. Since their plasters are not grooved by smoothing tools and ended under the plasters of the upper registers, they might had been made earlier than those.

For the three saints the double contour of the nimbuses were created into the wet plaster by using a drawing compass. The contours of the heads and the edges of the nimbuses were engraved later. The composition and monochrome colouration link them to the other murals of the interior, but their painting technique differs. The dark shadows applied in a broom-like manner on the light pink surface of the faces vary from the other figures. The highlights had been painted in the same linear manner.

Due to the worn and fragmented paint it, is hard to compare the murals on the outer surface of the southern wall with the inner ones. The compounds of the outer plaster correspond with the plasters of the inner murals. The monochrome colour could also be noticeable here; the commonly used colours are ochre, red, white and their mixtures. The style of the grooved nimbus covered by the tower is similar to that of the two healing saints and the saint with basket facing them.

The results of the survey confirm the hypothesis written in literature, i.e. the murals show the characteristics of

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