Romanian art consists of the
visual
The visual system comprises the sensory organ (the eye) and parts of the central nervous system (the retina containing photoreceptor cells, the optic nerve, the optic tract and the visual cortex) which gives organisms the sense of sight (th ...
and
plastic arts (including
Romanian architecture
Romanian architecture is very diverse, including medieval, pre-World War I, interwar, postwar, and contemporary 21st century architecture. In Romania, there are also regional differences with regard to architectural styles. Architecture, as the ...
, woodwork, textiles, and ceramics) originating from the geographical area of
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
. The production of art in Romania is as old as the Paleolithic, an example being
a cave painting from the
Cuciulat Cave
Cuciulat Cave ( ro, Peștera Cuciulat) is located on the Podișul Someșan plateau, near the village Cuciulat in the commune Letca, Sălaj County, Romania. It contains the oldest known cave paintings in Central Europe.
The cave has been known to ...
(
Sălaj County
Sălaj County () (also known as ''Land of Silvania'', ''silva, -ae'' means "forest") is a Counties of Romania, county (''județ'') of Romania, located in the north-west of the country, in the Historical regions of Romania, historical regions of Cr ...
). During the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
, multiple cultures lived on the modern territory of Romania. Their
material culture included pottery and abstract clay statuettes decorated with geometric patterns. These may give hints on the way these civilizations used to dress and maybe tattoo. A good examples of this is the Thinker of Hamangia, a clay figurine produced by the
Hamangia culture
The Hamangia culture is a Late Neolithic archaeological culture of Dobruja (Romania and Bulgaria) between the Danube and the Black Sea and Muntenia in the south. It is named after the site of Baia-Hamangia, discovered in 1952 along Golovița ...
. Important cultures of the Neolithic era include
Starčevo–Körös–Criș,
Boian,
Gumelnița–Karanovo, and other ones, the most famous and at the same time the most evolved among them in art being the
Cucuteni–Trypillia culture
The Cucuteni–Trypillia culture, also known as the Tripolye culture, is a Neolithic–Chalcolithic archaeological culture ( 5500 to 2750 BCE) of Eastern Europe.
It extended from the Carpathian Mountains to the Dniester and Dnieper regions, cent ...
. During
Antiquity, the
Geto-Dacians
The Dacians (; la, Daci ; grc-gre, Δάκοι, Δάοι, Δάκαι) were the ancient Indo-European inhabitants of the cultural region of Dacia, located in the area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea. They are often consi ...
produced art and built multiple cities of the ''dava'' type (like Sucidava, Argedava or Buridava).
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
colonies appear in
Dobruja
Dobruja or Dobrudja (; bg, Добруджа, Dobrudzha or ''Dobrudža''; ro, Dobrogea, or ; tr, Dobruca) is a historical region in the Balkans that has been divided since the 19th century between the territories of Bulgaria and Romania. I ...
, including
Tomis (present-day
Constanța), and
Mangalia
Mangalia (, tr, Mankalya), ancient Callatis ( el, Κάλλατις/Καλλατίς; other historical names: Pangalia, Panglicara, Tomisovara), is a city and a port on the coast of the Black Sea in the south-east of Constanța County, Northern ...
(present-day
Mangalia
Mangalia (, tr, Mankalya), ancient Callatis ( el, Κάλλατις/Καλλατίς; other historical names: Pangalia, Panglicara, Tomisovara), is a city and a port on the coast of the Black Sea in the south-east of Constanța County, Northern ...
). After the
Dacian Wars (101–102, 105–106),
Emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...
Trajan
Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...
transformed a big part of
Dacia
Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It ...
into a province of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...
. The province underwent an intense process of
Romanization
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, a ...
(aka Latinization).
Between the 5th and the 8th centuries, the process of
Romanian etnogenesis takes place. This era is labeled by scientist as ''pre-Medieval'' or ''pre-Feudal''. Since Romania was and is an
Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical ...
country, its medieval art was heavily influenced by the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
. The Renaissance has a quite loose influence in
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and s ...
and
Moldavia
Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and for ...
. During the reign of
Constantin Brâncoveanu
Constantin Brâncoveanu (; 1654 – August 15, 1714) was Prince of Wallachia between 1688 and 1714.
Biography
Ascension
A descendant of the Craiovești boyar family and heir through his grandfather Preda of a considerable part of Matei Ba ...
(1688-1714), the
Brâncovenesc style appears, also known as ''Brâncovenesc Baroque'', because it used
Baroque elements from West Europe and
Ottoman ones. The 19th century was one of change. Together with the 20th, it marked the transition from medieval to modern. Across these centuries, multiple Romanian artists and architects study at West European universities, particularly in Paris.
Gheorghe Tattarescu
Gheorghe Tattarescu (; October 1818 – October 24, 1894) was a Moldavian, later Romanian Painting, painter and a pioneer of neoclassicism in his country's modern painting.
Biography
Early life and studies
Tattarescu was born in Focşani i ...
is representative for
Neoclassicism, as well as
Nicolae Grigorescu
Nicolae Grigorescu (; 15 May 1838 – 21 July 1907) was one of the founders of modern Romanian painting.
There is a metro station named after Grigorescu in Bucharest. It was given his name in 1990, before which it was named after Communist army ...
is for
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
. This shift is also reflected in the architecture of cities, which started to look more European,
Neoclassical and
Beaux-Arts architecture
Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorp ...
being very popular in late 19th and early 20th centuries. Later, Romania remains connected with the West, trends and styles such as
Art Nouveau,
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
or
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...
being as fashionable here as in West Europe.
Historic overview
Prehistory
The present-day territory of Romania was inhabited by various cultures during Prehistory. The first objects featuring abstract geometric ornaments are from the
Late Paleolithic
The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...
and early
Mesolithic, discovered in 1966 in the
Iron Gates area, in settlements at Cuina Turcului,
Schela Cladovei, Ostrovul Banatului etc. Usually these are household items with simple geometric incisions. A
cave painting was discovered in the
Cuciulat Cave
Cuciulat Cave ( ro, Peștera Cuciulat) is located on the Podișul Someșan plateau, near the village Cuciulat in the commune Letca, Sălaj County, Romania. It contains the oldest known cave paintings in Central Europe.
The cave has been known to ...
(
Sălaj County
Sălaj County () (also known as ''Land of Silvania'', ''silva, -ae'' means "forest") is a Counties of Romania, county (''județ'') of Romania, located in the north-west of the country, in the Historical regions of Romania, historical regions of Cr ...
), probably dating from the Late Paleolithic.
During the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
era, various cultures populated the current territory of Romania. Just like in the rest of Europe, the Neolithic starts in area of Romania in the 4th millennium BC. Scientists think that at the beginning of the Neolithic, migratory populations come here from
West Asia
Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...
, which will remain here and fuse with the locals from Mesolithic. Human communities make a transition to sedentary life. They left us pottery and abstract clay statuettes decorated with geometric patterns, that may give us hints on the way these civilizations used to dress and maybe tattoo. Just like art Palaeolithic art, Neolithic artworks are decorated with abstract geometric patterns, lines and spirals. Some of them may had religious or magical meanings. However, there's a big chance of these geometric ornaments having a purely decorative purpose, without any deep meaning.
The first Neolithic culture, known as the
Starčevo–Körös–Criș culture has spread all across the territory of present-day Romania, and produced many ceramic objects, especially vessels, but also
zoomorphic
The word ''zoomorphism'' derives from the Greek ζωον (''zōon''), meaning "animal", and μορφη (''morphē''), meaning "shape" or "form". In the context of art, zoomorphism could describe art that imagines humans as non-human animals. It c ...
and
anthropomorphic figures. After it, the
Vinča-Turdaș,
Boian,
Vădastra,
Hamangia,
Gumelnița–Karanovo,
Cernavodă cultures and other ones lived simultaneous in different areas. Chronologically, the Vinča-Turdaș is the earliest one from the list. It produced highly stylized anthropomorphic statuettes. The Hamangia culture that inhabited
Dobruja
Dobruja or Dobrudja (; bg, Добруджа, Dobrudzha or ''Dobrudža''; ro, Dobrogea, or ; tr, Dobruca) is a historical region in the Balkans that has been divided since the 19th century between the territories of Bulgaria and Romania. I ...
produced ceramic figurines too. A really famous one, known as th
Thinker of Hamangia depicts, as the name suggests, a man thinking, staying on a small chair, with his elbows on the knees. Because of its expressiveness, the figure is one of the most iconic Romanian artworks.
The most famous Neolithic culture is
Cucuteni–Trypillia. It produced many
polychrome
Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors.
Ancient Egypt
Colossal statu ...
vessels in various shapes. All these vessels show the precision of the Neolithic people, since
potter's wheel
In pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in the shaping (known as throwing) of clay into round ceramic ware. The wheel may also be used during the process of trimming excess clay from leather-hard dried ware that is stiff but malleable, a ...
wasn't invented it, and so all these objects were produced manually. Just like any other culture of its time, it used geometric ornaments to decorate its artifacts, including sinuous lines,
spirals,
oval
An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.) it is given a more precise definition, which may include either one ...
s combined with zigzags, and
rhombi
In plane Euclidean geometry, a rhombus (plural rhombi or rhombuses) is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. Another name is equilateral quadrilateral, since equilateral means that all of its sides are equal in length. The ...
. The colours used for these vessels include white, red and/or chocolate black, used in various shades, since these they can be bicoloured or tricoloured.
Neolithic cultures are succeeded by the ones of
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
, initially characterized by inferior artistic elements if we compare it to Cucuteni art. New architectural elements appear, especially in military structures. Besides
bordei, which were specific to Neolithic settlements, fortifications appear. In one of these Bronze Age settlements, the one discovered at
Monteoru (
Buzău County
Buzău County () is a county (județ) of Romania, in the historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Buzău.
Demographics
In 2011, it had a population of 432,054 and the population density was 70.7/km2.
* Romanians – 97%
* Roma ...
), there are stone walls and defence towers. Ceramic, although in absence of ornamentation like in Neolithic times, starts to change too. Gold,
bronze and
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
vessels are produced. In a short interval of tine, in comparison with the
millennia
A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting point (ini ...
of Neolithic art, a few cultures of a high technical and artistic level develop on the territory of Romania. Bronze Age cultures include
Sighișoara-Wietenberg,
Verbicioara,
Monteoru,
Ottomány and
Žuto Brdo - Gârla Mare.
Cave painting from the Cuciulat Cave in Romania.jpg, Cave painting, probably from the Late Paleolithic, pigment on stone, Cuciulat Cave, Sălaj County
Sălaj County () (also known as ''Land of Silvania'', ''silva, -ae'' means "forest") is a Counties of Romania, county (''județ'') of Romania, located in the north-west of the country, in the Historical regions of Romania, historical regions of Cr ...
思想者塑像.JPG, The Thinker, by the Hamangia culture
The Hamangia culture is a Late Neolithic archaeological culture of Dobruja (Romania and Bulgaria) between the Danube and the Black Sea and Muntenia in the south. It is named after the site of Baia-Hamangia, discovered in 1952 along Golovița ...
, BC, terracotta, National Museum of Romanian History
The National History Museum of Romania ( ro, Muzeul Național de Istorie a României) is a museum located on the Calea Victoriei in Bucharest, Romania, which contains Romanian historical artifacts from prehistoric times up to modern times.
The mus ...
, Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
坐着的女人塑像.JPG, The Sitting Woman, by the Hamangia culture, BC, terracotta, National Museum of Romanian History
The Goddess from Vidra.jpg, The Goddess from Vidra, by the Gumelnița–Karanovo culture
The Gumelniţa–Karanovo VI culture was a Neolithic culture of the 5th millennium BC, named after the Gumelniţa site on the left (Romanian) bank of the Danube.
Geography
At its full extent the culture extended along the Black Sea coast t ...
, BC, ceramic, Bucharest Municipal Museum
Serbia, Vinça culture, Neolithic Era - Vinca Idol - 2000.201 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif, Female figure, by the Vinča culture
The Vinča culture (), also known as Turdaș culture or Turdaș–Vinča culture, is a Neolithic archaeological culture of Southeast Europe, dated to the period 5700–4500 BC or 5300–4700/4500 BC.. Named for its type site, Vinča-Belo Brdo, ...
, BC, fired clay with paint, Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...
, Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, USA
库库特尼陶碗陶罐.JPG, Polychrome
Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors.
Ancient Egypt
Colossal statu ...
vessels (from left to right): a bowl on stand, a vessel on stand and an amphora, by the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture
The Cucuteni–Trypillia culture, also known as the Tripolye culture, is a Neolithic–Chalcolithic archaeological culture ( 5500 to 2750 BCE) of Eastern Europe.
It extended from the Carpathian Mountains to the Dniester and Dnieper regions, cent ...
BC, fired clay with paint, Palace of Culture
Palace of Culture (russian: Дворец культуры, dvorets kultury, , ''wénhuà gōng'', german: Kulturpalast) or House of Culture (Polish: ''dom kultury'') is a common name ( generic term) for major club-houses (community centres) in t ...
, Iași, Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
Boian culture 2011 12 (edited angle).jpg, Vessel, by the Boian culture, BC, ceramic, Bucharest Municipal Museum
See also
*
List of Romanian artists
The following is a list of notable Romanian artists.
Romanian notable artists
* Theodor Aman
* Ion Andreescu
* Corneliu Baba
* Sabin Bălaşa
* Horia Bernea
* Constantin Brâncuși
* Victor Brauner
* Doina Bumbea
* Ștefan Câlția
* Silvi ...
* For information about Romanian literature, see:
Romanian literature
Romanian literature () is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.
History
The development of the Romanian literature took place in parallel with tha ...
* For information about Romanian history, see:
History of Romania
This article covers the history and bibliography of Romania and links to specialized articles.
Prehistory
34,950-year-old remains of modern humans with a possible Neanderthalian trait were discovered in present-day Romania when the '' Pe� ...
* For other topics on Romanian culture, see:
Romanian culture
The culture of Romania is an umbrella term used to encapsulate the ideas, customs and social behaviours of the people of Romania that developed due to the country's distinct geopolitical history and evolution. It is theorized and speculated that ...
Notes
References and further reading
* Vasile Florea: ''Arta Românească de la Origini până în Prezent''
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