„In contrast to the impressive blossoming of the printing activities and the spectacular flowering of the fine arts in Western societies, the 16th-18th century literature and painting in Southeast Europe seem to be thrown into a deep sleep by the magic stick of an ill-wishing wizard. In this period, Western Europe is convulsed by the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, is dynamized by the gradual progress of the sciences investigating nature, goes through the transformations brought about by the expansion of the capitalist economy, while its map is changed with the grouping and re-grouping of centralized states which are careful to organize the life of their subjects but also to cut it on numerous battlefields. Now, is Southeast Europe slumbering under the colourful cover which marks on the maps the expansion and decay of empires? In relation to the Baroque, Classicism, Rococo and Neo-Classicism, do SouthEuropean artists perpetuate the painting developed only in the once-famous centres by merely a mechanical imitation? Are the same symbols accepted without any hesitation for centuries on end?”