Eve’s Creation in the Mural Paintings Decorating the Church of the Apafi Family at Mălâncrav (Malmkrog, Almakerék) in Transylvania
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/subbhistart.2024.02Keywords:
Eve’s creation, proprietary church, medieval wall paintings, Franciscans, TransylvaniaAbstract
Eve’s Creation in the Mural Paintings Decorating the Church of the Apafi Family at Mălâncrav (Malmkrog, Almakerék) in Transylvania. Eve’s creation image is one of the Genesis scenes in the iconographic program decorating the north wall of the nave in the fourteenth-century proprietary church belonging to the noble family Apafi in the village of Mălâncrav (Transylvania). Presenting a composition in which only Eve’s head was shown, completely formed from Adam’s rib, which was separated from his body and held by the Creator in his hand, this iconographic variant is seldom encountered in the medieval corpus of Genesis representations. Based on Baschet’s serial method, the present article attempts to understand the origins of this representational choice and its possible interpretations suggested by exegetical texts and exempla literature, which are related in some cases to the Franciscans. It also aims to discuss the image’s probable significance for a devout, arguably predominantly female, public.
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