Wooden and glass icons
The icons painted on glass represented a continuous love of the people towards God. The oldest icon is from the XVIII century and was discovered in Transylvania. The first centre where peasants made these icons was Nicula, a small village in the district Cluj. This place had a monastery with a church made from wood where natives came to pray to an icon of the Virgin Mary which was said to perform miracles (painted in 1694). The peasants who started to paint on glass had as inspiration this icon. Actually Nicula is unique in Romania and possibly the world because all the people from this place became artists. Later this trade spread to other cities and regions like Brasov, Fagaras and so on.
The art of the icons on glass followed, consequently, three major directions: interpretations of the monasteries' frescoes and old engravings, replicas to the traditional icons and images from the local habits and the occupations. The beauty of the Romanian icons on glass lies especially in chromatics, which offers a harmony of colors of emaising subtleness.
Centres where this form of traditional and religious art is manifested, are in Transylvania in Laz (Alba County) where in a folkloric art school it is teached, studied and practiced the painting on glass and in Moldavia near Necula Monastery - Gherla. A centre where the icons on glass have a special beauty it is Botus village, remarkable for its chromatics.
Concerning the content, the icons' painting has common sources for all the three historical regions, being directly bounded to the art of Bysantine and Oriental tradition. The icon never misses from the traditional Romanian house. It is a worship object but it also has a decorative purpose. The icons' painting on wood made in the Bysantine style, demands time to be completed and uses formulas transmited over the generations.
