Dan Pura

..My artgallery ~ www.romania-traditional.ro ~ ___________________________________________________________ The art and handicraft of icons painted on wood was initialised and then continued in convents, in monks workshops; its role wasnt that of ornament or representation of god, but that of contemplation and prayer, allowing the believer to go beyond the real space and time near Gods lack of time and space sphere, connected to the unseen holy reality.The icon is a window to the sky Saint John Damaschin used to say. The oldest icons painted on wood are considered to be those representing Virgin Mary, by tradition being ascribed to Saint Luca the Evangelist, who painted them as a result of his revelation; they are considered to be the Byzantine icons archetype, which themselves represent the identical copy of the model pointed out by god himself. The Byzantine icons painting shows things as if they were produced by light, not as if they were lightened by an exterior source. The Saints image is represented by a willing transcendental character shown in the repress of carnal nature (the body is immaterial, weightless or shapeless, covered by the folded cloth) and the accent put on the face and eyes staring at the looker, in an austere impassibility watching the divinity. It is said that what the bible teaches in words, the icon sends its message in images and in this way its role and meaning in a Christians life goes beyond the sensitive limits means, through witch it expresses and becomes the bearer of holy Light and Presence. ___________________________________________________________ DOAMNE IISUSE HRISTOASE FIUL LUI DUMNEZEU, MILUIESTE-MA PE MINE PACATOSUL ~ * ~ LORD JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD, HAVE MERCY ON ME A SINNER ___________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ The Romanian traditional masks are ancient remains of the collective memory. Masks wereused in the fertility rituals, rain calling rituals, hunting rituals or in ritual dances.They represent characters from folk mythology.The mask games are played in specific momentsof the year (Christmas, New Year, etc.) or on the events definitive for humans’ life(wedding, death). Masks hang from lamp posts and people (overwhelmingly local) pack thestreets. More masks—part demon, part animal, part indescribable—hide the faces of young menwho run through the streets as oversized cowbells hanging from their waists clang loudly.Far from idle Halloween fun, masks, here, are an old tradition, symbolizing fertility, thepassing and renewal of time and the good and bad aspects of human nature. In VranceaCounty, at the dead watch, men wearing masks on their face dance in the courtyard, at thefire. Accompanied by drums, they offer a last party to the one who passes the thresholdbetween the two worlds. Masks are remains of a strange, symbolical world which is getting lost in theindustrialized world of today.