Fine Arts

Until late 18th century the fine arts in the Romanian lands followed two distinct traditions: the Byzantine tradition (the two Romanian states and the Orthodox zone represented by the Romanian Transyvanians) and the Western tradition (the Transylvanian zones inhabited by Transylvanian Saxons, Magyars, Szecklers and the Banat areas populated with Swabians). This division, even more striking in arts than in architecture, where sylistic interferences were quite frequent, was caused by the rigorous iconographic programmes imposed by religion, although, in some Orthodox churches in Transylvanian, one can see valuable works clearly influenced by western-type trends (the Gotic-style paintings at the Strei village church, in the present county of Hunedoara, dating back to the 14th century).

The existence of an old Byzantine tradition was proved by the blossoming mural painting in Wallachia in the 14th century. The wall paintings of the princely church of Curtea de Arges, made in 1362-1366, constitue one of the most imposing 14th century Byzantine-type mural compounds and a model for the wall painters in the Romanian lands and Transylvania, integrated into real local schools of painting. Besides the features (archetypal models and the contemplative immobility canon) commonly shared with the entire Orthodox Eastern world, Romanian painting - wall-paintings, miniatures, lithurhic embroidery cartoon, illuminations (a Four Gospels illuminated by Gavriil Uric in 1429, the first known Romanian painter, is now in the Bodleian Library in Oxford) - has its own specific traits. The 16th century Wallachia frescoes, but mainly the exceptional outwall paintings adorning the monasteries in Bucovina, Northern Moldavia (Voronet - 1547; Moldovita - 1532-1537; Sucevita - 1582-1598), by their harmonious composition, the well-balanced relation between the whole and the details, the brilliant colours represent the last flourishing epoch in the history of Byzantine painting after fall of Byzantium.

Sculpture holds a modest place in the Middle Arges in the principalities outside the Carpathian arc, the Byzantinee-type monuments being in general devoid of carved decorations. One of the few exceptions is the 16th century Episcopal Church of Curtea de Arges, with a lavish decoration of Caucasian and Arab origin. Nevertheless, in Transylvania, it is strongly subordinated to the style of Catholic religious abordes. Detachment from Byzantine canons, characteristic of the 17th and 18th century, would reach an acme in the 19th century once the lay character asserted itself in the arts and the latter adapted themselves to modern life both in subject-matter (portrait and historical scene) and in techniques (easel painting) or artistic trends (Academism and Romanticism). They were introduced by foreign artists, who had come from Austria, Germany, Poland, Italy, at the call of the great boyards who commisioned them family portraits.

In the early '40s of the 19th century, there appeared the first Romanian artists educated in the West, mainly in Germany, and after 1850, the French vogue made its way in painting. Theodor Aman (1831-1891) and Gheorghe Tattarescu (1820-1894), representatives of Academicism, are the first beneficiaries of Parisian education. Nicolae Grigorescu (1838-1907), who brought plein-air painting into Romanian arts and Ioan Andreescu (1850-1882) complete their education along the Barbizon painters while Stefan Luchian (1868-1916) assimilates in Paris the Impressionist experience. With them, Romanian painting makes its brilliant entrance into the zone of modernity. The three great artistic personalities represent at the same time three types of reception and sensitivity. Grigorescu's painted portraits of peasent girls full of effusive and proud youth, are remarkable, Andreescu's vocation for landscape painting breathes an air of soberness and meditative attitude, while Luchian adds a tragic intensity to the delicacy and grace of his flowers, which brought his great renown. In the same interval of time, we witness a renewal of the sculptural idiom by its immersion in folkore achieved by Dimitrie Paciurea (1873-1932) and Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957). Paciurea, the first Romanian sculptor endowed with a monumental vision, exploits the mythological and fantastic vein of old folk creation (chimeras, sphinexes). Settled in Paris in 1904, Brancusi would restructure, by geometric simplification, the whole 20th century art. A few of his works are in the Romanian museums: Prayer, The Kiss, Miss Pogany, Wisdom of the Earth, etc. Noteworthy are also the monuments at Târgu Jiu, consisting of the Endless Column, The Table of Silence and of the Gate of Kiss (1936-1938), dedicated to the soldiers fallen in World War I.

The interwar period diversifies and enriches the Romanian painting, which absorbs the Impressionist experience and other modern trends. Nicolae Tonitza (1886-1940), Francisc Sirato (1877-1953), Camil Ressu (1880-1962) and Lucian Grigorescu (1894-1965) are among the bestknown names. Worth mentioning are also the names of Gheorghe Petrascu (1872-1949), whose work is characterized by material nature of expression, elimination of narrative in painting, energy and nobility of attitude, and of Theodor Pallady (1971-1956), a friend of Matisse, characterized by rigour in composition and a discreet colour palette.

The communist period tried to confine the arts, like all the other domains, into the fetters of ideological dogmatism, but as elsewhere, the submining of ideological canons took over most diversified forms: cultivation of oneirism and symbolism by Ion Tuculescu (1910-1962), of chromatic synthesis by Alexandru Ciucurencu (1903-1977), of essentialized and dramatic realism by Corneliu Baba (1906-1998), etc. In sculpture outstanding artists were Ion Jalea (1887-1983), Cornel Medrea (1889-1964) and Vida Géza (1913-1980) in monumental sculpturing, Oscar Han (1891-1978) and Gheorghe Anghel (1904-1966), whose statues of great Romanian personalities are remarkable by spiritual profoundness.

Other References

Michail Razvan Marcel Chirnoaga Ion Popescu Negreni Eugen Ciuca

Fine Arts Overview. Romanian Art Of Today ARTNET Romanian Association of Art On-line Gallery

Last update: 2005, December 5
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