Scholarly record

ITALY - AN INSPIRATIONAL THEME FOR IMPORTANT ROMANIAN ARTISTS LOCATED IN THE PATRIMONY OF THE BUCHAREST MUNICIPALITY PINACOTHEQUE

A. M. Maciuca

Abstract

The Bucharest Municipality Pinacotheque is a project that was born through a successive chain of donations supported by a warm spirit of meditation and goodwill. The birth certificate is dated July 19, 1933 and has the signature of the Mayor of that period, Dem I. Dobrescu, which works by affiliation, together with the Municipal Museum, under the institutional trusteeship, as today, the Capital City Hall. Initially, the PinacothequeВ’s heritage consisted of numerous donations of art or movable property from the elite families of the society at that time, or from other institutions supporting culture. After the official opening, the Pinacotheque channeled its actions in two major directions. The first and most important was the policy of new acquisitions, focused on the purchase of works of artistic value in relation to the allocated funds. Artistic, historical, documentary, or any other type of value was to be determined either by an expert procurement commission or confirmed by the prizes that these works had already been awarded in the various Official Societies or Saloons. The second direction was to educate the public in order to acquire the necessary knowledge to cultivate the artistic taste in order to improve and expand artistic education. Regarding the interest of the Bucharest Pinacotheque to make new acquisitions, we can observe, by carefully scrutinizing its patrimony, that it was wanted from the very beginning, that painters already established in Romania to be part of its collection. Among them are names in modern painting in Romania, but who, at the beginning of their career or in the training period. studied or painted a good time in Italy. Through scientific research, fieldwork and studying the archives of the Romanian Academy, I discovered that although not too often invoked, the connection of Romanian artists with Italy is particularly important, both for the contribution to the creation of modern Romanian art and for the widening of the fields of interests on which it is based. In determining such a link, we have at least three major situations: artists who studied and formed in the Italian space, artists who settled in Italy, and artists who painted more or less occasionally Italian landscape features, especially urban, but also historical and architectural sites. Through scientific research, fieldwork and studying the archives of the Romanian Academy, I discovered that from Theodor Aman and up to Corneliu Antonescu, for example, we really have a true fascination for Italy and the thematic horizon it offered. What seduces first of all the eye and sensibility of the Romanian artist is not the iconic Italian or anecdotal so articulated in a multimilenist civilization, but the grandeur of forms and the refinement of the unique colors born from the multiple layers of materials and shapes that light walks unmistakably. The Venetian or Florentine scenic mystery, the Roman magnificence, the sensuality and the meridian light are found constantly and constantly, regardless of the explicit identity of the painter. Both Gheorghe Petra?cu, whose Venetians became mythological, as well as ?tefan Popescu, Nicolae D?r?scu, Marius Bunescu, Corneliu Baba and many others, notorious or less well-known, offer the remarkable image of a real and legendary Italy at the same time in remarkable works, some of which can be seen in the patrimony of the Bucharest Municipality Pinacotheque.

Publication details

Back to publication list