THE 17TH CENTURY EPIGRAPHIC ICONS OF THE BISHOPRIC OF MUKACHEVO

Abstract

In the middle of the 17th century several guest workers arrived from Galicia
to the byzantine-rite Eparchy of Mukachevo in order to satisfy the claim to set
up and paint new iconostases. Among them there were masters coming from
the popular painters’ workshop of Sudova Vychnia town, for example the –
among these masters – highest qualified Ilia Brodlakovitch, who settled down
in Mukachevo and from that time on signed his icons as a Mukachevo painter.
The icons he painted then can raise our interest from several points of view. On
the one hand, they catch the attention because of their Renaissance features.
On the other hand, the donation epigraphs and the master ciphers on them are
important sources for us to get to know the ordering practice of the era.
Keywords: iconography, Mukachevo diocese, iconostasis, order, donation,
Renaissance.