This book is based on Alice Isabella Sullivan’s PhD dissertation, “The Painted Fortified Monastic Churches of Moldavia: Bastions of Orthodoxy in a Post-Byzantine World.” It is very well structured, easy to follow, theoretically informed, and rich in significant content. It brings a sympathetic approach to Eastern European studies and draws from the extensive previous works in Romanian, as well as in English, French, German, and Old Church Slavonic. The resulting book intersects history, religious studies, and the history of art and architecture, being the first comprehensive academic work about the visual culture of medieval Moldavia in English.The author’s research goes beyond traditional Western medieval and Byzantine art history to include the visual culture of Moldavia and Eastern Europe. Thus, it serves as a model for integrating Eastern European art into broader art historical discourse.The book comprises an introduction that analyzes the modern historiographical and scholarly debates, seven chapters detailing the evolution of Moldavian art and architecture in the historical and political context situated between the fifteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and a conclusion. It also has an extended bibliography and very useful indexes.Chapter 1, Changing Landscapes, analyzes the sociopolitical evolution of Moldavia after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, while Chapter 2, Ideologies and Temporalities, examines shifts in princely ideologies reflected in art and iconography. Chapter 3, Patterns of Patronage, discusses Moldavian patronage, both locally and at Mount Athos. Chapters 4, Sacred Spaces, and 5, Images and Rituals, explore developments in church architecture and mural decoration under Stephen the Great and Peter Rareș. Chapter 6, Burials and Memory, addresses sacred spaces with a focus on funerary and votive aspects, and Chapter 7, Traditions and Transformations, looks at the evolution of Moldavian arts from the late sixteenth to early seventeenth centuries.The author presents Moldavia as a bastion of Eastern Orthodoxy during the crises following the fall of Constantinople when, under one of its most important medieval princes, Stephen the Great, the principality experienced a two-phased development. Stephen initially focused on fortifications and military defenses, later on extensive ecclesiastical buildings, creating a new sacred landscape. His patronage extended beyond Moldavia to Mount Athos and Transylvania, asserting Moldavia’s role as a protector of Eastern Christianity.The author describes the evolution of Moldavia’s visual culture and architectural developments as eclecticism, which “reveals not just how Byzantium and the West were reimagined in a local context but how these elements were mediated and transformed locally” (p. 8).She shows that Moldavian churches and monasteries display a distinctive visual idiom integrating Byzantine triconch plans and Western Gothic elements (pointed arches and window tracery) with local innovations (elongated proportions and unique vaulting systems). This stylistic pluralism reflects selective adaptation rather than a simple synthesis or hybridity, emphasizing local agency in cultural translation.Moldavia’s monastic complexes serve both spiritual and defensive functions, contributing significantly to the region’s sacred landscape, called by some scholars “Second Mount Athos” (p. 176).The princely patronage under Stephen the Great, Peter Rareș, and the Movilă brothers evolved during this period, supporting local workshops and artisans while maintaining connections with post-Byzantine and Western artistic centers. These rulers invoked imperial models to legitimize their authority and role as Christian defenders against the Ottomans.Looking at the mural cycles of Moldavian churches, the author notices their comprehensive figural programs, which reinterpret Byzantine artistic traditions. Rarely surviving exterior frescoes cover entire church walls with themes such as the Siege of Constantinople and the Last Judgment, serving both didactic and ritual functions, including possible liturgical circumambulations.An innovation in Moldavian ecclesiastical architecture is the burial chamber incorporated between the pronaos and naos, serving as a princely mausoleum and a space mediating secular and sacred concerns. This reflected dynastic anxieties and the Orthodox apocalyptic fears about 1492.The last chapter deals with developments in Moldavian visual culture under later princes such as Alexandru Lăpușneanu, the Movilă brothers, and Vasile Lupu, showing increased influences from Kyiv and Moscow, as well as connections with Western Europe. Notably, the Church of the Three Hierarchs featured extensive carved exterior decorations inspired by Armenian, Georgian, Persian, and Turkish motifs, marking a departure from the painted exteriors typical of earlier churches. These later artistic transformations maintain the region’s eclectic character.The conclusions again stress that Moldavian art and architecture reflect a distinctive local style characterized by Byzantine, Western Gothic, Slavic, and Oriental elements. Through patronage, architectural innovation, and rich iconographic programs, Moldavia articulated a unique cultural synthesis that both preserved and transformed Byzantine legacies in a dynamic medieval milieu.This book stands out by situating Moldavian visual culture on the broader artistic map of the period. A lesser-known but sometimes stunning regional tradition, like the Moldavian one, helps adjust the traditional boundaries between artistic styles and the periodization of art history.
Ecaterina Lung (Fri,) studied this question.