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774 COMPTES RENDTJS 12*

Like other Romanie peoples, the Romanians showed particular appreclation of Varlaam and loasaf (Fellx Karlinger, Irmgard Lackner, Romanische Volk$bilchtr_t\ Darmstadt, 1978), from whlch was abstracted the parable of the unlcora and lts numerous verslons ln literaturę andpalnting. A well-lnformed book, recently published: C. Pillat, Piciura murald Bucu-reęti, 1980, adds two morę palntings to those already knowni that of Amota and the one of Topolni^a.

We wrote some tlme ago a few llnes about the “man yearnlng for apples” verslon ("Synthesls”, VI, 1979, p. 139), unfortunately not knowlng at that tlme J. W. Elnhom'5 essential book. From lt we leamt that some mlniatures and freseoes in France and Danemark (ln England as well as ln Spain there are also literary texts) deplct two verslons of the time-honoured scene: a standing. man clinging to the tree (usually an apple tree) or a man astride a bough turning his face toward us. In the fresco of Cozia monastery — Bolnltza, we meet the pursued man standing on the crown of an apple tree (we de not known how much lt ls. 16 th century palnting and how much lt ls late restoration work). But on the other hand,. ln the 1839 painting of Fórtiit.e§ti-Doze$ti we flnd the man seated on the boughs, facing us;: his right hand Ufts the apple to his mouth while his left hand holds a difflcult to describe object — often appearing ln western plctures; ls lt a glass? or a mirror bound to stave off the evil? or may be his left hand ls slmply pointing out? At the root of the tree are two animals ("Day” and “Nlght”). probably something else than mice.

Therefore the "man yearnlng for apples” verslon appears ln the literary texts of the Iberlan and Brltish areas as well as ln plastic Danish and French representatlons. If the same patterns appear also ln the Romanlan palntings lt ls obvious that one must iook for a coin-mon source. Thls must have been a Byzantine or Latin text not yet ldentified, echoed perhaps* ln the lines of Quintus Curtlus Rufus translated lnto Romanlan by Miron Costln ln the* second half of the 17th century: “Stupld ls he who looks for the apple wlthout consldering how tali the three ls. Look out 1 When you have cllmbed to the of the top tree lts boughs may break and you may fali down”. (Miron Costln Opere, ed. P. P. Panaitescu, Bucharest, 1958„ p. 315). It would be lntcrestlng to flnd out whether the literary or plastic forms of the Unicom parable we have been lnvestlgatlng are to be found also ln the Slav pcoples areas of Southeast Europę or in the Greek freseoes of rural areas.

We must also mention severai other palntings carrled out in some prosperous boroughs, and vlllages of Oltenia in the early years of the 19th century. The palnters must not neces-sarily have drawn their lnsplratlon from forelgn models, they may have come on such plctures in some old country churches that no longer exist.

Thehunting cpisode—locallzed and adapted — as lt ls depicted at 01fi$ne$ti. (St. John* the Baptist Church), at Uręani (1805), on tho porch of the Bistrlta monastery Bolnitza (about 1800) (see Andrel Pftnolu, Pictura ooliod din nordul Olleniei, Bucharest, 1968), remlnds of the-well known unlcom chaslng scen es palnted ln the western countries. That Fiziolog version, which included ihe fragment about the "Malden and the Unicom" or some of lts further developments, had not yet reached our area. ln that symbolic chasing eplsode these two cha-racters would have meant nothing to the Romanians; they were replaccd by another refe-rence to the Fiziolog, to the fragment of the "deceitful owi”. (See "Synthesls”, III, 1976 and "Synthesis”, VI, 1979). Such slde developments of a theme spread throughout western Europę, are to be found — as J. W. Elnhom* book informs us (see particularly p. 212) — also in the country churches of the Scandinavian Peninsula where— iuckier than us — 14th. century paintlngs are stlll preserved. These two wlde apart areas somentimes show strange. slmilar aspects (one must take into account also the long tlme lnterval).

Let us further consider the fragments of the Glurcu porch vault (1823) where one cair see a roaring Ilon whlch faces a unlcom (the beast ls Indeed a unicorn although because of an overlapplng floral motif one might be induced not to discem the horn). Above theni, in a reversed syminetry, a stag with powerfui antlers and aggreslvely open mouth rushes at a white beast, a bellicose deer-llkc being wlthout antlers, that could be ldentified with one of the strange and rare plctures of the unicorn (J. W. Elnhom, op. cił., p. 166). (We have not yet found a corresponding scene ln the literaturę translated lnto Romanlan, but lts existence must not be exciuded). Whereas the Ilon appears to be the reversed symmetrlcal counterpart of the antlers-carrylng stag (separated by stylized tress ln blossom), the unicori^ (depicted as a powerfui, bellicose horse with lts hom emerging between the ears) shares tlić same place with the strange white beast (separated by a starlit sky where the crescent can also be seen).

Of course the north Oltenia palntings are only late works. But as so many traces have been wom away ln the course of time and so many links have been handed down to us only ln fragments which do not seem to be connected, we thinklt ls worth studylng all these? partlculars, attemptlng to reconstruct the old artistlc ways.