HISTORY * ARCHITECTURE* THE FINE ARTS * MUSIC* THEATRE * CINEMA *

Until late 18th century the fine arts in the Romanian lands followed two distinct traditions: the Byzantine tradition (the two Romanian states Moldavia and Wallachia and the Romanian Transylvanians) and the Western tradition (the zones inhabited by Transylvanian Saxons, Magyars, Szecklers and the Banat Swabians). This division was even more striking in the arts than in architecture, because of the rigorous iconographic standards kept by the church. Still, in some Orthodox churches in Transylvania, one can see valuable art works clearly influenced by Western styles and trends (e.g. the Gothic-style paintings at the Stray 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, completed in 13621366, are among the most imposing achievements in Byzantine-type mural painting. They also became a model for the wall painters in the Romanian lands and Transylvania, who belonged to local schools of painting. Besides the features (archetypal models and the contemplative, stylized canon) commonly shared with the entire Eastern Orthodox world, Romanian painting has its own specific traits too. This is true regarding frescoes, miniatures, lithurgic embroidery, illuminations. A Four Gospels illuminated by Gavriil Uric, the first Romanian painter known by name, in 1429, is now at the Bodleian Library of Oxford University.

The 16th century Wallachian frescoes, and, even more so, the exceptional outwall paintings adorning the monasteries in Northern Moldavia (Bucovina): Moldovita (1532-1537), Voronet (1547), Sucevita (1582-1596) represent the last flourishing epoch in the history of Byzantine painting after the fall of Constantinople. These paintings display a harmonious composition, well-balanced relation between the whole and the details, and brilliant colors. Sculpture holds a modest place in the Middle Ages in the principalities outside the Carpathian arc, the Byzantine-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 designed with Caucasian and Arab models in mind, a foundation of the Wallachian ruler Neagoe Basarab (1512-1521). In Transylvania, on the contrary, sculpture was extensively used in the decoration of Catholic religious abodes.

Detachment from Byzantine canons, characteristic of the 17th and 18th century, reached an acme in the 19th century once the lay character asserted itself in the arts and arts became adapted to modern life both in subject-matter (portraits and historical scenes) and in techniques (easel painting) or artistic trends (Academism and Romanticism). Such trends, styles, preoccupations and fashions were introduced by foreign artists, who had come from Austria, Germany, Poland, Italy, invited by the great boyards who commissioned them family portraits. In the early 40s of the 19th century, the first Romanian artists educated in the West started making a name for themselves. They had been mainly educated in Germany, and, after 1850, the French vogue made its way in painting. Theodor Aman (1831-1891) and Gheorghe Tattarescu (1820-1894), representatives of Academism, were the first beneficiaries of West European education.

Nicolae Grigorescu (1838-1907), who brought plain-air painting into Romanian arts, and Ioan Andreescu (1850-1882) completed their education along with the Barbizon painters, while Stefan Luchian (1868-1916) assimilated the post-Impressionist experience in Paris. With them, Romanian painting made its brilliant entrance into the zone of modernity. The three great painters practically also represent three types of reception and sensitivity. Grigorescu's portraits of peasant girls, effusive and proud, and particularly his landscapes full of lyricism are quite famous. Andreescu had an unmistakable call for landscape painting, of a pensive, introvert atmosphere. Luchian added a tragic intensity to the delicacy and grace of his flowers, which brought his renown.

Paciurea - The Chimera of Earth

Brâncusi - Gate of Kiss

In the same period of time, a renewal of the sculptural idiom came through resuming the ties with timeless local traditions, by Dimitrie Paciurea (1873-1932) and Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957). Paciurea, the first Romanian artist endowed with a gift for monumental sculpture, resorted to the mythological and fantastic vein of popular traditions (chimeras, sphinxes). Brancusi, settled in Paris in 1904, who restructured the whole 20th century art and became the founding father of this centuries abstract sculpture. A few of his works are in Romania: Prayer (1907) an essentials image of piety, Wisdom of the Earth , and the ensemble (1936-1938) at Targu Jiu, a town close to his native place, the Hobita village, consisting of the Endless Column , The Table of Silence and of the Gate of Kiss . The sculptures at Targu Jiu were dedicated to the Romanian soldiers who died in World War I. They are Brancusi's only open air ensemble of sculptures in the world.

Brâncusi - The Prayer

Brâncusi - Wisdom of the Earth

The period between the two world wars saw a considerable diversification and innovation of Romanian painting, which absorbed a variety of modern trends. Nicolae Tonitza (1886-1940), Francisc Sirato (1877-1953) and Lucian Grigorescu (1894-1965) are among the best-known names. Worth mentioning are also the names of Gheorghe Petrascu (1872-1949), whose work is characterized by the material nature of expression, elimination of narrative in painting, energy and nobility of attitude. Theodor Pallady (1871-1956), a friend of Matisses, is characterized by rigour in composition and a discreet color palette. The Romanian avant-garde is represented by Victor Brauner (1903-1966), who would later became famous in France, Marcel Iancu (1895-1984), as well as the abstractionist Hans Mattis-Teutsch (1884-1960) and many others.

Nicolae Tonitza	Francisc Sirato
Gheorghe Petrascu	Theodor Pallady - Toujours du Baudelaire
Tuculescu - Orange Flower	Tuculescu - Self-portrait with leaf

The communist period tried to confine the arts, like all the other domains, into the fetters of ideological dogmatism, but as elsewhere, the boycotting of ideological canons took on the 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) and Cornel Medrea (1889-1964), who produced remarkable monumental sculptures, and Gheorghe Anghel (1904-1966), whose statues of great Romanian personalities are very much appreciated due to his ability to capture a spiritual quality of the portraits.