Eustație Altini

He was born in Greece, when it was still part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1780, following the Orlov Revolt and continued Russian involvement in Greece, supporters of Greek independence were persecuted, so his family fled to Iași which, at that time, was a border city in a semi-autonomous province, under control of the Phanariots. There, he first studied art with a local painter named Nicolae.

His talent attracted attention so, in 1789, with the support of Alexander Ypsilantis, Voivode of Wallachia, he was able to go to Vienna to enroll at the Academy of Fine Arts. There, he studied with Heinrich Friedrich Füger, Johann Baptist Lampi and Hubert Maurer. This was his first major exposure to Western art. Later, he would successfully incorporate perspective and chiaroscuro into traditional icon painting. As Iași was under Russian occupation during that period, Prince Grigory Potemkin has also been credited as being his patron. This, however, has not been verified.

In 1802, he created his first known iconstasis at Banu Church in Iași. It was commissioned by Iacob Stamati (1748-1803), the Metropolitan of Moldavia, who was an admirer of the Russian Enlightenment. Some of his best known iconostases were those created for Saint Spyridon Church in 1813, one of which depicted an episode in the life of Metropolitan Veniamin Costache, who had commissioned the work.

He also created decorations for the Roman Episcopal Cathedral, at the request of Gherasim Clipa-Barbovschi, the Bishop of Huși, and produced a few portraits of a non-religious nature; mostly of women.

During his last years, he led a painting class at the Princely Academy of Iași.

• Corinne Julien, Histoire de l'humanité, Vol.6, UNESCO, 2000 ISBN 978-92-320-2815-0 pg.888 (Online)
• Remus Niculescu, "Altini, Eustatie", Oxford Art Online, Oxford University Press, 2003 ISBN 978-1-88444-605-4 (Online)

Media related to Eustație Altini at Wikimedia Commons

• "Primitivii picturii românești moderne – partea a doua" @ Arta din România