Between April 17 and July 29, 2019, Putna Monastery is part of an exhibition held at the Louvre Museum in Paris and entitled „Broderies de tradition byzantine en Roumanie. Autour de l’étendard d’Étienne le Grand” (“Byzantine-Tradition Embroidery from Romania. Around the Flag of Stephen the Great”).
The other participating institutions are the National History Museum of Romania, the National Museum of Art of Romania, Sucevița Monastery, the “Holy Three Hierarchs” Monastery from Iași, and Romania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs – through the Department of Diplomatic Archives.
Twelve medieval embroideries from the Putna Monastery patrimony will be exhibited. They are worked in silver, silver-gilt and silk thread and were mostly donated by Saint Stephen the Great to Putna Monastery through the skilled hands of the monks of this princely-founded settlement. Among the embroideries are Maria Asanina Palaiologina’s (Mary of Mangup’s) tomb cover, the Ascension dvera and the Epitaphios donated by treasurer Gabriel Trotușan.
The event is part of the Romania-France Cultural Season. One of the embroideries is the famous flag representing Holy Great Martyr George donated by Saint Stephen the Great to the Zographou Monastery of Mount Athos. This flag was recovered by France during World War I and handed to Romania in 1917. All these remarkable works illustrate the extraordinary development of Byzantine-tradition embroidery in the Romanian Principalities between the mid-14th century and mid-17th century. Inherited from Byzantine culture, the embroidered ornaments of the “sacerdotal array” of bishops, priests and deacons and those of the “liturgical array” destined for use in worship are complemented by a collection of tomb covers unique in the world, where the hieratic character of Byzantine imagery gives way to the temptation of portraiture.
An exhibition catalogue will be launched, available for order on the Louvre Museum website.
The embroideries from the patrimony of Putna can also be seen in the “Treasury of Putna Monastery. Embroideries and Fabrics” album, available for order both in Romanian and in English.
The exhibition at the Louvre Museum can be visited daily from 9:00 to 18:00, except on Tuesdays. On Wednesdays and Fridays, the visiting hours are longer, ending at 21:45.
