In the cultural history of the Romanian countries, the XVII^th century is considered the most original and complex. Through the intense political and cultural relations they promoted, they often put the two countries and people of that time in close and direct relationships with such different realities from Transylvania, Venice, Kiev, Constantinople or Mount Athos, a fact which intensified the influences leading to the emergence of some changes in vision and in art.

In this artistic space of southern Romania that had experienced the new directions in the evolution of the Byzantine art and that had been open to direct and indirect influences from different areas of culture, the interest for the art and for its financial support of the influential and erudite members of the Cantacuzino family and, later, of Constantin Brâncoveanu, lead the artists of the time (that built and painted the abundant foundations) to gather around them.

Two important personalities dominated the Wallachian artistic life and contributed to the formation and definition of the Cantacuzin-Brâncovenesc style: Pârvu Mutu - court painter of the Cantacuzino family, for the local movement, and Constantinos, the favourite painter of Constantin Brâncoveanu, leading the team of local painters to decorate the Hurezi Monastery. At that time, he represented the Greek movement.

ANA DOBJANSCHI