Abstract
This article analyses the few tokens of religious art from 17th century preserved in Romanian churches from Transylvania, considering the aggressive attitude of Protestantism towards image, the destructions caused by political and military events, and renovation works carried out to churches in the following centuries. Although restrictive regulations typical to Protestant spirit were not absent, these did not ban icons and mural paintings from churches. They addressed the attitude towards them, prohibiting only their worshipping and their investment with sacred character. The enactment of such restrictive laws itself is evidence of existence of religious images. Their number and the capacity of communities of believers to replace those destroyed or to endow churches with new ones depended primarily on economic, not ideological, causes. The acquisition of liturgical books was influenced by a more diverse and accessible offer. In spite of numerous social, economic and political crises in the 17th century, the presence of some peregrine painters, especially Ukrainian, but also of some who painted princely churches from Wallachia, imprinted a rather dynamic rhythm to the endeavour of embellishing churches. Artistic emulation from the following centuries and general development of Romanian society diminished dramatically the number of monuments that survived to invasions from 1658, 1661 and 1717 and accidental disasters. The small churches, especially the wooden ones, could not accommodate a growing population or were deemed too modest and replaced with new building. The old objects inherited from churches built in the previous centuries were kept temporarily and usually in poor conditions. One cannot blame the Protestant iconoclast attitude for the destruction of these paintings, even though the Romanian Church in seventeenth century Transylvania had to cope with it. The real culprits for the destruction of most of the paintings was the lack of care and piety for these paintings on occasion of each subsequent rehabilitation intervention, renovation, and embellishment of churches

Keywords
iconoclasm, Ukrainian painter, icon, iconostasis, Hunedoara, Lupșa, Susenii Bârgăului, Cinciș, Dobra, Săliște, Maramureș, Luca from Iclod.

List of illustrations
Fig. 1. Ukrainian pilgrim painter, Mother of God with Child, 1646. Bistriţa Orthodox Deanery Collection. Photography by Ana Dumitran. Fig. 2. Ukrainian pilgrim painter, Deesis, 1646. Bistriţa Orthodox Deanery Collection. Photography by Ana Dumitran. Fig. 3. Ukrainian pilgrim painter, Ascension, 1646. Bistriţa Orthodox Deanery Collection. Photography by Ana Dumitran. Fig. 4. Ukrainian pilgrim painter, Deesis, detail, 1646. Dumbrava (Livezile Commune, Bistriţa-Năsăud County). Photography by Siluan Timbuş. Fig. 5. Ukrainian pilgrim painter, Apostles’ Frieze, detail, 1646. Dumbrava (Livezile Commune, Bistriţa-Năsăud County). Photography by Siluan Timbuş. Fig. 6-7. Ukrainian pilgrim painter, Praying Icons, 1646. Dumbrava (Livezile Commune, Bistriţa-Năsăud County). Photography by Siluan Timbuş. Fig. 8. Ukrainian pilgrim painter, Deesis, 17th century. Oroiu (Mureş County). Photography by Ana Dumitran. Fig. 9. Ukrainian pilgrim painter, Deesis, 17th century. Mura Mică (Mureş County). Repainting from the 18th century. Fig. 10. Ukrainian pilgrim painter, Mother of God with Child, 17th century. Oroiu (Mureş County). Photograph by Ana Dumitran. Fig. 11. Ukrainian pilgrim painter, Mother of God with Child, 17th century. Mura Mică (Mureş County). Repainting from the 18th century. Fig. 12. Ukrainian pilgrim painter, Saint John the Baptist, angel of the desert, 17th century. Oroiu (Mureş County). The icon is preserved fragmentarily, being cut the size of a missing plank from the partition wall between altar and nave. The next icon, as well, which had to offer storing place to a glass. Photography by Ana Dumitran. Fig. 13. Transylvanian painter (?), Deesis, 1700. Nicula Monastery Collection. Photography by Siluan Timbuş. Fig. 14. Painter from Maramureş, Mother of God with Child, attended by Prophets, 17th century. Boiereni (Maramureş County). Photography by Ana Dumitran. Fig. 15. Gheorghie Zugravul, Saint George, 1611-1612. Brâncoveneşti (Mureş County). Photography by Ana Dumitran. Fig. 16. Moldavian pilgrim painter (?), Imperial door, early 17th century. Boiereni (Maramureş County). Photography by Ana Dumitran. Fig. 17. Moldavian pilgrim painter (?), Imperial door, early 17th century. Boiereni (Maramureş County). Photography by Ana Dumitran. Fig. 18. Altar table from the ‘Saint Archangels’ wooden church in Sânbenedic (Alba County), ‘reconditioned’ with the help of two icons; for the one in the background, see fig. 19. Photography by Ana Dumitran. Fig. 19. Ukrainian pilgrim painter, Ascension, 17th century. Sânbenedic (Alba County), Aiud Orthodox Deanery Collection. The frame rods and the lower part have been the victims of the icon’s ‘adjustment,’ in order to serve as headboard for the altar’s table. Photography by Ana Dumitran. Fig. 20. Transylvanian painter (?), Saint Nicholas, 17th century. Feneş (Alba County), National Museum of the Great Union, Alba Iulia. Photography by Ana Dumitran. Fig. 21. Transylvanian painter (?), Mother of God with Child, 17th century. Restored icon, Subpiatră Monastery (Alba County). Photography by Rareş Tileagă.