Biserica Sf. Nicolae din Coşula, Botoşani. Restaurarea picturii murale

Abstract

The Church of St. Nicholas in Coșula, Botoșani. The Restoration of Mural Painting documents a complex conservation and restoration projects of medieval mural painting in Moldavia.

Founded in 1535 by the treasurer Mateiaș during the reign of Petru Rareș, the monastery church of Coșula preserves an architectural and decorative program characteristic of the mature phase of Moldavian art, closely related to major ensembles such as Pătrăuți and Saint Elijah in Suceava. The interior mural painting, executed in 1538, belongs to the post-Byzantine tradition and stands among the great medieval ensembles of northern Moldavia in terms of style, iconography, and technique.

Over time, the monument was affected by successive interventions — 19th-century overpainting, architectural modifications, water infiltration, and incompatible repairs — which altered the reading of the original ensemble and partially obscured the value of the medieval painting. Recent restoration works aimed to recover the original layer, rediscover the iconographic program, and rebalance the relationship between the 16th-century painting and the historical 19th-century overpaintings.

The volume carefully documents the stages of research, stratigraphic testing, and conservation interventions: controlled removal of overpainting, cleaning of surface deposits, consolidation of the paint layer, treatment of moisture and salt-related degradation, and stabilization of fragile pictorial areas. At the same time, it presents the aesthetic decisions regarding the selective preservation of 19th-century interventions as historical witnesses, as well as the integration of lacunae into the visual coherence of the ensemble.

The result is the recovery of an exceptional mural ensemble, hidden for nearly a century and a half, and the restitution of its artistic and iconographic coherence through a balanced dialogue between the medieval layer and later interventions.