Baia Mare Church
painted in egg tempera 1981 -1983

Churches built by Orthodox Christians in Romania are usually painted with frescoes illustrating the Divine Christian Kingdom:
According to a centuries old tradition inherited from Byzantium, the churches built by Orthodox Christians in Romania are usually painted with frescoes illustrating the Divine Christian Kingdom, the lives of the saints and the martyrs, decorating every inch of the domed or vaulted ceilings, of every interior wall, even on the staircases.
The world is still discovering the amazing architectural heritage of Romania : the string of painted monasteries churches in Bucovina, in the Noth of Moldavia, dating since almost 500 years. Here, in less than a quarter of century, a group of churches have been created, covered with frescoes, designed to illustrate at that time with the power of images the divine world , the Christendom to a large audience who’s illiteracy could be in this way overcome
A miraculous survival in the Romanian spiritual space:
The survival of these churches and their exterior frescoes in a region of continual rain in the spring and autumn, being confronted every winter with snow blizzards and violent winds from the steppes, despite of passage of wars, invasions, vandalism, rival religions and even an atheist communist regime, that lasted more than 50 years, is little short of miraculous....
The presence in the Romanian spiritual space of such amazing sacred monuments, frescoed inside and outside, with such a liberality and magnificence never paralleled anywhere in this world, constitutes an important precedence. Their undisputed fame and incredible freshness contribute a great deal towards the maintaining the tradition of painting churches in fresco until today.
When Petru came to examine the layers of plaster applied on the walls of the Baia Mare church, it was already too late, as it was for the church in Ieud.
Living in a time of modern materials of construction, the contemporary builders were more inclined to use definitive materials for the resistence of their construction. Since concrete is unfortunately incompatible with the fresco because the lime contained in the fresh plaster is not adhering to the cement in the concrete, in spite of the natural fibers reinforcement which is used, many churches built in the 20th century in Romania, disqualified themselves, and could not be painted in the technique of “fresco”, which is known to be the most enduring technique..
A new church was secretly built behind the barricades:
The church in Baia Mare was not a renovation, as the administration pretended. As in many other situations, a false justification had to be given the communist authorities. Behind the high barricades, in reality, a new church was built in the historical center of the city .Designed for a small congregation, the church respected a historical traditional plan, representing symbolically a cross.
Too preoccupied to progress with the construction site, little attention was given to the quality of the materials used to prepare and apply the finishing layers of plaster. This would become evident only about 20 years later, when everybody realized that the brand of industrialized lime used in the mixture for creating the plaster, compromised in time the support for the mural painting, starting to ruin the wonderful paintings.
At the church in Baia Mare, Petru painted in egg tempera. At that time the acrylic paints developed in the West did not find yet their way in that country sequestrated by communism, beyond the Iron Curtain.
The artist applied the typical iconographycal program:
The traditional shape of the church allowed the artist to apply the conventional iconographycal program, very much the way it was transmitted from a generation to another of frescoes masters, following actually the Byzantine legacy, which designated the subjects for each wall, for every architectural component of the building, arranging the scenes not only in their biblical, historical succession, but also according to a sophisticated hierarchical significance ...
The scale and the placement of figures starting with the image of Christ at the top of the central dome correspond to their ranking and relative importance, closer to the altar or higher on the domes or ceilings, indicating usually more important.
The painting of the church in Baia Mare is one of the most unitary Petru ever created. Though close to about 1500 sq, yards in surface, the entire mural surface looks as if the artist used a single pallet. The ornaments create a subtle background atmosphere in neutral nuances of light colored grays, allowing thus the preeminence of the most important components of the painting to play leading visual roles by stronger, brilliant colors and vibrant contrasts.
Respecting the iconic conventions, even colors have been long time ago preselected: Little is known to those unacquainted with the religious painting in the Orthodox churches, that even the colors of the costumes had been long ago preselected, having a uttermost importance in designating hierarchies, like it used to be at the Imperial Court Of Byzantium , from where this painting originates.
To express the Glory of Heaven (corresponding to what used to be the power and the wealth of the Empire) Petru, like other artists, used not only splendid designs but also the exquisite effect of gold which he included in the ornamental work but also in backgrounds and other plastic elements.
Most remarkable at Baia Mare are the mural scenes painted on the walls surrounding the balcony, compositions that reveal his artistic maturity and mastership over the components as well as the precision in the calculation of the elements participating in magnificent scene of Christ’s Miracles and Healings on Earth.
One can accomplish a repertoire of human figures and diversity of expressions only by recording the multitude of human faces Petru created for the personages in this scenes.
A general symphonic sentiment:
The admirable skillful orchestration of the compositions in the balcony stages
a general symphonic sentiment, which is emphasized by the richness of the ceilings designs, of a surprising originality.
During the winter of that year, Petru painted for the church in Baia Mare the 56 icons of the iconostasys (the wall separating the altar- the sanctuary- from the nave and the rest of the church, which is usually adorned with icons, repeating basically the entire iconography represented on the walls of the churches).
The secret transcendental power of the artist:
The four so called Emperor Icons, (corresponding to the four main largest and most important icons placed just in front of the iconostasys) are some of the best icons ever painted by Petru Botezatu..
It is not only the power and expressiveness of the figures portrayed, the richness of the reliefs, carved and modeled, the lavish use of gold and the magnificence of precious stones that make these icons so exceptional.
It is probably mostly the superb craftsmanship concentrated in the creation, it is the secret transcendental power of the artist capable to empower with his artistry an earthly, simple object to become representative of the glorious essence of God ....