19 martie 2024
3.6 C
București

Her Majesty, the ART, the Queen on “Calea Victoriei”

The Royal Palace bows down today in front of Her Majesty, the ART. The Queen on Calea Victoriei / Victory’s Avenue, subdues all those visiting The National Museum of Art of Romania. And it does so naturally, without much effort, relying on the immensity of the beauties it exhibits in front of the onlookers.

During the First Wednesday of the Month, the Entry into the NMAR is Free.

It’s the first Wednesday of the month, and at The National Museum of Art of Romania (NMAR) the entry is free. In the Courtyard of the Royal Palace there are many groups of visitors that, before starting out “into the race,” work out a itinerary, desiring to see as many exhibits as possible within the Museum premises.

We’re sneaking too among the tourists and enter the European Art Gallery, somewhere on the left, as we look from Calea Victoriei toward the Palace. There is waiting for us Curator Georgiana Iacob, who promised us a unique tour during which we will have the opportunity to discover ten of the most impressive exhibits hosted by this Museum.

The European Art Gallery

And, as we’ve made our entry through The European Art Gallery, we determined to start out our visit right from this place.

Curator Georgiana Iacob Has Been a Hostess to Us Throughout the Entire Route of our Visit.

Georgiana leads us through the Gallery halls, whilst mentioning that here the tourists have the opportunity to view the most important collection of this kind in our country. “It all started out from the Collection of King Carol I, to which were added artworks from other private collections, donations and acquisitions,” points out the Curator.

A real paradise of art, the Gallery includes paintings and sculptures presenting chronologically the manner in which the main European Schools developed overtime. The visitor has the chance to see “live” works of Italian, Spanish, German, French, Dutch and Flemish art.

Georgiana testifies to us that in such an immensity of beauty in which we find masterpieces of Rubens, Rembrandt, Claude Monet, Paul Signac or Auguste Rodin, it is difficult for you to pick only a couple of artworks to recommend to the visitor.

However, we stop in front of a masterpiece bearing the signature of Domenico Veneziano. “The Virgin with Child” highlights extraordinarily well the spectacular character of the Italian School. The religious painting has been performed in the 15th century and presents Mary seated on a throne, surrounded by roses. The symbolism of the roses is not an accident, making reference to “hortus conclusus” (editorial note: closed garden – in latin), a symbol of virginity.

The experts who analyzed the painting were of the opinion that the limited range of colors indicate that the artwork is one of the artworks performed by Dominico Veneziano in his early period. Most likely, the painting has been performed between the years 1430 and 1435, and therefore we have colors less bright than in other artworks of the artist,” explains Georgiana Iacob.

If you decide to visit the European Art Gallery, it is mandatory for you to stop over for a few moments in front of the masterpieces signed by El Greco (editorial note: the name under which the Spanish Painter of Greek origin Doménikos Theotokópoulos is known).

The artworks of this Artist: „The Virgin’s Engagement,” “The Shepherds’ Adoration” and “The Martyrdom of Saint Mauritius and of the Ten Thousand Thebans” are those who highlight best, within the Gallery, the Spanish School. It is interesting how each of these three paintings illustrate a certain period in the creation of El Greco.

In the Artwork “The Shepherds’ Adoration,” Attention Is Drawn by a Less Common Detail: The Child Jesus Is Oriented Toward the Virgin, and not Toward the Onlookers.

The Curator drew our attention to the artwork “The Shepherds’ Adoration” about which she recounted to us that it used to be part of an ensemble performed by El Greco in between 1596 and 1600, for the main altar of The Dona María de Aragón College in Madrid. „The ensemble, a monumental architectural structure, consisted of six paintings and six sculptures. The Artist thought everything out as a visual discourse on the theme of the Embodiment of the Son of God. The paintings have been dismembered at the beginning of the 19th century, “The Shepherds’ Adoration” is today with us, and the other five paintings are in the collection of Prado Museum in Madrid,” specifies our hostess. We’re passing into another hall to admire the artworks of the Impressionists of the French School. “Take a close look at ‘The Church in Moret During the Winter,’ performed by Alfred Sisley towards the end of his life. Rejoice, along with the Painter, of the light reflected by the façade of the renown Gothic Cathedral,” urges us the Curator.

Around the Year 1893, Monet and Sisley Decided to Study the Way in Which the Light Reflected by the Stone of the Gothic Cathedrals in Rouen and Moret-sur-Loing Modifies According to the Hour During the Day, and the Season.

The Specialist also tells us that the painting we have in front of us is one of the approximately 20 artworks that Sisley performed in order to capture changes that are sometimes hardly perceivable.

The Old Romanian Art Gallery

For the ones fond of the Romanian art, NMAR proposes The National Gallery where can be found one of the most complex monographic presentations of the art in The Romanian Principalities beginning with the 14th century until the first half of the 19th century.

In The Old Romanian Art Gallery, the visitor has the opportunity to see around 900 icons, fresco fragments, embroideries, manuscripts, printouts, silvery, ornaments, sculptures in wood and stone, as well as ceramic objects. Many of our exhibits are unique. The artworks originate from all the provinces and illustrate the manner in which a number of original artistic forms were given birth, being built on a background of Byzantine tradition over which Western or Eastern influences overlapped,” nuances Georgiana.

When you get into the areas housing the artworks of this Collection, a profound sentiment that you have reached into an art cathedral overwhelms you.

Used as a Procession Veil, the Epitaph is Kept in the Churches of Orthodox Rite in the Altar, from Where It’s Taken Out During the Rituals before the Easter.

During our visit, the Curator stopped us over in front of a splendid artwork – “The Epitaph of Sylvan,” in which the silk, the golden and the silver thread have embroidered an impressive image presenting to us Jesus, lying down on the Red Stone in Ephesus, watched over by the Lord’s Mother, seated at His head, and by Mary the Magdalene. The latter gives you the impression that she is pulling her hair out, overwhelmed by pain.

The monks in the workshops of the Neamţ Monastery have embroidered this Epitaph representing the Lamentation of Christ. The central scene of the picture is framed by five angels, whereas at the corners the four Evangelists: John (the eagle), Luke (the ox), Mark (the Lion), and Matthew (the angel) are marked symbolically.

In a hall nearby, we have the opportunity to admire a number of mural paintings. Of all of them, “Doamna Roxanda / Lady Roxanda” stands out, having gotten into the heritage of NMAR after the restoration of the Church of the Curtea de Argeş Monastery, performed at the end of the 19th century, required the pickling of the most valuable fragments in the original ensemble. “This painting shows to us the daughter of Neagoe Basarab, the Prince of Wallachia (1512-1521). Lady Roxanda appeared in the painting of the Church of the Curtea de Argeş Monastery next to her husband, Radu de la Afumaţi (1521-1529). It is interesting to notice her dress, posture and body language, all of them being illustrative of the aspirations, preoccupations, taste and life-style of the Princes of the Romanian Principalities that had assumed at the time an important role in the Balkans. The crown with decorations on the temples, of a Byzantine influence, worn by Roxanda, inspired the one worn by Queen Mary at the Coronation at Alba-Iulia,” recounts the Curator.

The spectacular character of the exhibited artworks reaches a peak the minute we enter the hall housing “The Rood Screen at the Church of Cotroceni Monastery.” When in front of you such a beauty unveils itself, you almost forget to breathe, being overwhelmed by the luxuriousness of this exhibit.

The Rood Screen in the Church Built by Prince Şerban Cantacuzino (1678-1688) During His First Years of Reign.

Georgiana underscores that both the structure and the themes of the icons included in this rood screen is in compliance with a codified tradition in the 16th century, through which the whole decorative system articulates synthetically the history of Christianity. “It must be mentioned that the sculpture in flat embossing, performed by a local workshop, features the Tree of Jesse in the form of the grapevine emerging of the rib of the character lying on his side. Thus, reference is being made to Jesus’ lineage in King David’s house. Also, we notice that the icons are arranged into three overlapping registries. They have been painted by Constantinos, a craftsman formed in the ambiance of the post-Byzantine Greek painting. The red, the blue and the green dominate the painting, the three colors being highlighted by the golden background,” details the Curator.

The Old Romanian Art Gallery Is Possessed of an Impressive Heritage.

The Modern Romanian Art Gallery

Those wishing to find out the story of the Romanian art at the end of the 19th century until toward the end of the 70’s, can do so if they visit the Modern Romanian Art Gallery. Our hostess tells us that the monographic selections of a number of masters such as Theodor Aman, Nicolae Grigorescu, Ioan Andreescu, come to highlight the tight connections with the French painting in the era. Here, the art loves have the possibility to also discover Ștefan Luchian, Theodor Pallady, Gheorghe Petraşcu, Nicolae Tonitza or Ştefan Dimitrescu, but also M. H. Maxy, Marcel Iancu, and Victor Brauner.

And, since NMAR is possessed of a significant inventory of artworks signed by Nicolae Grigorescu, we stop in front of the paintings of the remarkable painter.

The National Museum of Art of Romania Is Possessed of a Significant Inventory of Artworks by Nicolae Grigorescu.

The artwork “French Country Woman in the Vineyard” has been performed during the period in which the painter traveled very much to France. In the period 1876-1887, the Artist often came back to Brittany, being fascinated by the rural and urban landscapes. By means of this picture we discover a Grigorescu familiar not only with the practice of the outdoor painting picked up at Barbizon, but also with the one of the Impressionists. “The Artist reconciles with naturalness the experience of French modernity with the joy of freshly approaching the nature and human nature,” underscores our hostess.

A Professor at the School of Beautiful Arts in Bucharest, Dimitrie Paciurea, is the Devotee of Technical Perfection.

In the same Gallery we discover Dimitrie Paciurea, who has a number of artworks exhibited in the Museum. As it is known, the Artist was haunted, between 1926 and 1928, by personal phantasms that influenced his artwork and gave birth to “Himerele / Chimeras”, a cycle of artworks whose titles make reference to ancient mythologies and primal symbols. “Himera pământului / The Chimera of the Earth, the monstrous creature that resulted from the combination of a number of elements in the Greek as well as Popular Romanian mythologies, has lion’s paws and a twisted reptile’s tail, as well as a woman’s head instead of the traditional head of a goat. The strong neck and the stocky body, stuck to the stone, suggests the impossibility of being detached from the ground. Notice the smooth and equally expressive modelling, contributing to the exaltation of the symbolic values of the theme,” explains Georgiana Iacob.

Victor Brauner Testified on Countless Occasions that His Painting Has an “Autobiographic” Nature.

In another room we meet Victor Brauner, another outstanding representative of our culture, who settled down in France and who enjoys international recognition. Georgiana Iacob reminds us that Victor Brauner is one of the followers of the Surrealist Movement. NMAR Gallery hosts, amongst other things, the artwork “The Dragon.” Actually, in Victor Brauner’s creation, the dragon is one of the iconic figures.

A visit to The Romanian Modern Art Gallery is not complete if we don’t admire the masterpieces signed by Nicolae Tonitza too.

As soon as you cross the threshold of the “Dignitaries’ Lounge,” located on the left side of the National Gallery, your attention is drawn by two symmetric artworks by Nicolae Tonitza, placed on the opposite side from the entrance door. “As you can see, they represent groups of young women against a landscape background reminding us of “The Silver Slope,” a name under which the area around Balcic was known at the time. Beyond the landscape that lent the generic title to the artworks, we recognize in Tonitza’s artworks the same way of treating the feminine countenance that consecrated him, even though the figures have a slightly Orientalized air. Among them emerges the red-capped little boy immortalized by Tonitza in countless drawings and sketches. Do you notice that the characters in the foreground lean their arms against a blue edge doubling the frame of the artworks at the bottom? It’s an old trick, taken over by Tonitza from the Renaissance artists in order to break the border between the pictorial space and that of the onlooker,” explains the Curator.

NMAR Enrolls Successfully in the Gallery of International Museums.

The route made by us had the purpose of opening up your appetite for visiting this Museum unique in the Romanian space. Without exaggerating, I must tell you that the National Museum of Art of Romania can compete with any Museum open in the great world Capitals. The wealth of the exhibits, the beauty and spectacular character thereof, but also the manner in which the Galleries were thought out, as well as the uniqueness of the halls hosting them, make this Museum an extraordinary place.

And you cannot leave NMAR without visiting the central building, where you will find the Royal Dining Room, the Princes’ Staircase and the Throne Hall, areas of historic resonance, representative for the way the Palace looked after the remodeling in the 30’s. But concerning these things we will speak in a future article.

Author: Ștefania Enache
Photo: Corina Gheorghe
- Publicitate -spot_img

Mai multe articole

Știrile zilei