Embroided Portraits in the Romanian Medieval Art

Abstract

If the artistic value of the Romanian medieval embroidery is obvious, it is no less real its documentary value. Most embroided portraits are made on liturgical pieces and they are a proof of the relationship of the rulers with the Orthodox Church. The position of the characters is a mute way of communicating the status that the voievod had. The vertical rigid representations, kneeling, the gestures of the palms and elbows, the beneficence objects, the way characters are grouped, the proportion or their placement in the work can be symbolically interpreted depending on the type of the Liturgical item on which the embroidery was done.

Keywords

• medieval embroidery
• voievodal portraits
• symbolic gestures