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by Ovidiu Danes
“A window is more of a cross than a crucifix proper which, logically speaking should be a cross per se… and that is a weird thing, at least at first glance.”
Horia Bernea The Crucifixes of Mărginime – the outskirts of Sibiu – are public architecture elements that consecrate crossroads, boundaries, road twists, springs and homesteads in a way that qualifies them as a narrative of the folk imagination. Time and form are both located somewhere between a craftwork related poetic simplicity – so typical of the monuments erected in the 18th century – on the one hand, and the more recent ready-made culture of double-glazed windows on the other. The 35 crucifixes that have been spotted up to the present – all erected between 1784 and 1879 – are located between Turnu (Porceşti), the south-eastern tip of the region and the north-western one – Jina. By their compact volume, their squarish footprint, and their frugal outer adornments the crucifixes leave a significant mark on their surroundings, being part and parcel of the overall image of the Mărginime villages as they participate in the rhythmical proportions of both private estates and houses of worship as well. The role they played was initially a sacred related one par excellence and due to their ritualistic involvement, apotropaic purpose, and funereal character they consisted merely of a stone or wooden cross placed in spots with a significant symbolical charge. Their being consecrated – which also brought consecration to the site of their location – allowed them to protect that place against the mischievous presences that would haunt the folk imaginary. Therefore a subtle realm laid between what was at hand, familiar, and proximitous on the one hand and sheer otherness on the other. Sites that were consecrated during specific religious services on Ascension (Ispas), Epiphany, Pentecost, temporarily became public places that could occasionally be perceived and used as typical places for folk socials – customs that have survived to this day in Sibiel and Cacova (Fântânele). The 1764 watershed when “the city council of Sibiu decreed us bondsmen, […] although we had always been yeomen,” is shortly followed by the erection of the first masoned crucifixes as the disputes between the locals of Mărginime and the bulkingmaestro (in Romanian bulgărmeşterul, a humorous alteration of the German Burgermeister, Town Mayor) over tax and land ownership related issues went on until the 40s of the next century. Erected during that period of time mostly on the boundaries of the villages off the city of Sibiu, the crucifixes marked those borders as according to the unwritten law. The people of Răşinari for a good instance erected no less than three such monuments within a tight area on the eastern boundary of the village. There was a time when the locals involved crucifixes in their various political machinations, but even then they did not do away with their original symbolic dimension. In certain cases a specific message was made explicit by resorting to a remarkably elaborate iconographic program that was quite often borrowed from the liturgical field and thus made into a sure way of asserting identity. The salient penchant for scenes taken from the Passion cycle, for depictions of the proto-martyrs or of the military saints, sometimes duplicated as both interior and exterior paintings could be seen as an implement of pointing at certain social realities. The crucifix of Sibiel (house no.166, the year 1803) displays an iconography quite relevant in the aforementioned perspective. On the outside, but still within the precincts of the homestead, there are scenes from the Passion cycle representing a sequel to the two interior iconographic registers: the Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Last Supper, the Judas Kiss, Jesus before Caiaphas, Pilate’s Judgment, all of them arrayed in quite an unusual order; the Resurrection of Lazarus, and once again Jesus before Caiaphas and Pilate’s Judgment; the Bearing of the Cross, the Humiliation and Scourging. The Roman soldiers are clad in the uniforms of the Orlat frontier guard regiment whose troops were Romanians converted to the Church United with Rome (Greek-Catholic), in charge with collecting taxes, among many other duties. The depiction of certain military saints – St. George, St. Demetrius, and St. Theodore Tyron – on the interior posts is itself integral part of a common rhetoric of representing social realities in monuments whose status was growing more and more public. On the other hand, the collective memory of those times was still emotionally bonded to figures like the priests Moise Măcinic of Sibiel, Ioan of Galeş, Ioan of Sadu or shepherd Oprea Miclăuş of Sălişte, a fact which will have to be taken into account by the future iconographic analyses. And similarly, the conflicts between the municipality of Sibiu and the villagers of Mărginime bursting out right after 1750 could likewise turn out to be the right key to the question regarding the numerous masoned crucifixes phenomenon in the outskirts of the Sibiu of that historical period.
In the different social context of the early 1800s the private use crucifixes started to appear in the locals’ homesteads, displaying spectacular iconographic discourses, some of them mere abbreviations of the mural iconographic programs in the churches near by, but at the same time genuine proofs of masterliness on the part of the painters and of well-to-do-ness on the one of the beneficiary. The crucifix of Răşinari (house no.195, the year 1808) breaks away from the common established patterns both in terms of size and iconography. It is twice as large as the average ones and one can still make out the outlines of a monumental depiction of St. Archangel Michael as part of the exterior painting, just under the prophet medallions. Inside, the vault is decorated with Passion scenes: the Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Judas Kiss, Jesus before Caiaphas, the Last Supper, and the Carrying of the Cross, all of them surrounded by the four Evangelists, against a seraphim background. The cycles of the miracles, the Virgin’s life, and the pageant of Christian feasts complete the arches, while the stone cross painted on both sides advances a prolepsis kind of dialogue – the anamnesis triggered by the depiction of the Crucifixion and the Epiphany. The narrative zest of the painter lives on ardently to reach the socle of the cross where it brings forth two scenes that correspond in due order to the main images: Abraham’s Sacrifice and the Fall from Eden, whereas on the sides there are seraphim surrounded by prophets and by pious saints.
Image 1. The crucifix from Răşinari, 1795; Images 2, 3. The crucifix from Sibiel, 1803, Exterior view and detail of mural painting; Image 4. The crucifix from Apodul de Jos, 1812; Image 5. The crucifix from Arpaş, 1813; Images 6. The crucifix from Răşinari, 1808, Detail of mural painting; Images 7. The crucifix from Răşinari, 1808, Exterior; Image 8. The crucifix from Răşinari, 1795; Image 9. The crucifix from Turnu, 1787; Image 10. The crucifix from Sibiel, 1814.
In Săliştea Sibiului just in front of house no. 37 (according to the present day numbering) there is a crossroad crucifix (undated yet) with a relevant iconographic program with regards to the relationship between such monuments and the pace of life in the local communities. As transfigured by the modern taste and sensibility, the monument still preserves its exterior paintings, right under the cornice, along with the prophet medallions, while on the inside it still presents besides its refined decorations, the four scenes in the unique register of the tympana: the Annunciation, the Entry of the Holy Theotokos into the Temple, the Baptism of Christ, and Saints Constantine and Helen. The latter Emperor Saints are quite a puzzling appearance in the context of the whole cycle but it makes sense in a wider perspective as they were the patron and patroness of the school (founded 1779) in the proximity of this crucifix. May 21st was in those times celebrated with special pomp and ceremony as “the girls and the younger housewives would wear the embroidered bandannas they wore only on the greatest feasts.” The day was chosen as the last school day as well as the landmark for the beginning of the pastoral year. The iconographic framework of the crucifix in the hearth of the village of Rodu (1871) is a purely liturgical one, with Jesus Emanuel in the keystone and a quite unusual version of the Liturgy of the Angels in the vault, as the Old of Days replaces one of the images of Christ, while on the pillars there are representations of the Archangels, St. Nicholas and St. Archdeacon Stephen. No doubt the crucifixes in Mărginime – the outskirts of Sibiu – represent a cultural phenomenon whose implications and ramifications are yet to be looked into. Unfortunately the paintings they display are currently undergoing dramatic alterations as they are abandoned, stored in museums, or repainted while the crucifixes are intoning their last tale in the same voice with the villages of Mărginime.
Image 11. The crucifix from Sibiel, 1812; Image 12. The crucifix from Sălişte, 1817; Image 13. The crucifix from Saliste, 1842; Image 14. The crucifix from Sibiel 1814; Images 15. The crucifix from Sălişte, 1827.
Text by Ovidiu Daneş Photography by Şerban Bonciocat and Ovidiu Daneş English translation by Chris Tănăsescu
About the author
Ovidiu Daneş
contact: ovidiudanes@yahoo.com Ovidiu Danes is a graduate of the Art University of Bucharest, the Faculty of History and Theory of Arts and holds a Master degree at the Centre of Excellence in Image Study - University of Bucharest. He worked at the Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu, UNESCO Romania and his main research activities are on old Romanian art. Since 2006 he is the president of DALA Cultural Foundation.
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