Journal Article

The Stag House. Early Modern Murals in Sighișoara / Shӓbburg / Segesvár

Jenei, Dana

2024

Overview

The current essay has as starting point the author’s art historical study elaborated within the multidisciplinary research undertaken for the restoration of the house in 1992, published in an abridged form in 2013 and 2018 with the information updated, which is completed and corrected here. The Stag House is one of the most significant examples of the urban patrician residence in Renaissance Transylvania. Its most important phase of construction is dated by the inscription incised in the main beam of the wooden ceiling of the Hochparter corner room 3 IVN. / HR / 1602. The murals, preserved mainly in the upper vaulted Saal facing the square, have a compositional structure dictated by the architectural elements, while the colour-range, dominated by grey tones, with accents of vermillion, green and ochre, gives a general impression of a grisaille painting. The icono- graphical programme comprises portraits of uomini illustri in round medallions, including members of the House of Habsburg, emblems, themes from the Classical literature and the Old Testament, all inspired by early modern engravings from the last part of the sixteenth century. After the fire of 1676, which destroyed three quarters of the buildings in Sighișoara, the Stag House was rehabilitated in 1693 by the mayor Michael Deli, its “owner, sustainer and founder”, as the inscription on the façade towards the square shows. In the following centuries, the residence arrived through matrimonial alliances in the possession of the members of two important families in the town: Kelp von Sternburg and Schech von Sternheim.

• Publisher: G. Oprescu Institute of Art History
• Subject: Inscriptions