TOME 3 (47), 2013
HORIA VLADIMIR
ȘERBǍNESCU
Caricatura militară în presa
umoristică românească, de la Unire până la Războiul cel Mare (1859-1916)
Abstract
The article analyses for the first time the evolution of
cartoons within the evolution of Romanian humorous press from the middle of 19th
century till the beginning of the first World War.
The first cartoons were
published in 1859, after the Union of the
Romanian Principalities, when the freedom of press was established and the
first humoristic journals were released. These cartoons were produced by
amateur artists and simply illustrated the comic of some political jokes or
anecdotes with no concern for the quality of the artwork. The printing
conditions were also very poor and lithography was often preferred to the
better quality engraving methods.
Military subjects mainly
consist in critics of the political involvement of some high ranking officers
or the army was considered as a repressive force. During the Independence War
of 1877-78, the cartoons with military subject adopted a patriotic accent and
the image of the Dorobantz (the territorial infantryman) became the traditional icon of the
Romanian soldier.
During the first decades,
the greatest part of the cartoons were made by unknown amateur graphic
designers, but sometimes foreign talented artists, some of them of Polish
origin, such as Alexander Kaczanowski, Hipolit Dembitzki, Wincenz Faleski,
produced good quality cartoons.
From mid 1890s a new
pleiad of young talented romanian artists tackle with the humoristic artwork.
Some important comic journals such as Moftul Român (“The Romanian Trifle”), Moş Teacă (“Father Scabbard”), Zeflemeaua (“The Tount”), Ţivil-Cazon (“Civil-Military”) and especially Furnica (“The Ant”) published many good quality cartoons
and anecdots, some of them with military themes. This time the humor evolved to
a wider approach in which the relationship between the officers and men, the
military life or the contacts with the civilian world overhauled the political or international
matters. The most important cartoonists of that period were: Constantin
Jiquidi, Nicolae Mantu, Nicolae Petrescu-Găină, Ary Murnu, Iosif Iser, Francisc
Şirato, Camil Ressu.
Keywords:
cartoon, humoristic press,
military, lithography, Romanian artists.
MARK BRYANT
Graphic Warriors. International
War Cartoonists, 1792–1945
Abstract
Over the past three centuries satirical artists have
often been overlooked in the histories of international conflicts. At best
their images have been used to decorate the pages of scholarly treatises but
even then their names have frequently been omitted and very little information
has been given about their lives. This brief survey highlights some of the
greatest international cartoonists and caricaturists working from the time of
the Napoleonic Wars until the end of the Second World War. More than 70 artists
are mentioned from 15 countries, including Australia,
France, the Czech Republic, Germany,
Holland, New
Zealand, Poland,
Romania, Russia, the UK
and the USA.
Keywords: war, cartoon, caricature,
international, satire.
GHEORGHE VIDA
Figura lui Vlad Țepeş
în opera lui Theodor Aman
Résumé
L’étude se propose
d’analyser la peinture d’histoire de Théodore Aman (1831-1891) du point de vue
de la stylistique de l’historisme, comme courant artistique issu vers le milieu
du XIXe siècle. La recherche se focalise sur les travaux d’Aman concernant la
figure emblématique du prince Vlad l’Empaleur, personnage clef de l’histoire
médiévale roumaine. Le peintre suit de près l’évolution de l’historisme
européen, allant de l’improvisation fantaisiste du style troubadour jusqu'à la
démarche de type archéologique de Thomas Couture dans Les Romans de la
Décadence. Chez l’artiste roumain cette archéologie devint l’occasion d’une
analyse picturale de source réaliste.
Keywords: history painting, historicism,
“style troubadour”, Vlad the Empaler, realism.
ADRIAN-SILVAN IONESCU
Art or Moral Boosting Propaganda?
Photography from the Romanian Battlefield
during the Great War
Abstract
During
World War I in 1916 Romania
sided with the Allies and the General Army Staff included professional
photographers in a newly established department providing official and
propaganda images. That was known as Serviciul Fotografic al Armatei (The
Army's Photographic Department). Head of this department was appointed
Lieutenant Ion Oliva, a reservist who, in his civil capacity worked as an
architect. Oliva carefully chose experienced photographers to include in his
team. A wide range of subjects starting with portraits of Royalty were used
extensively throughout the war for propaganda purposes. Many images captured
King Ferdinand reviewing the troops or decorating the braves or Queen Marie
caring for the wounded soldiers in a Red Cross apron.
Other
topics were offered by the front line: the crude images from the trenches,
cannons and machine-guns in action, soldiers cleaning and greasing their
weapons, troopers washing and sewing their rugged uniforms or eating their soup
hidden on the bottom of the trench, young officers relaxing and reading or
playing the violin. There were also the snapshots of German prisoners and heaps
of German captured helmets and other trophies such as heavy guns and
ammunition, destroyed railway stations, bombed towns or villages burnt to
ashes. The suffering of the enemy, became in the logic of political warfare,
equal uplifting as the heroic poses of our troops in action and key to moral
boosting. It was a team effort and it is difficult to state who did what, who
was the specific author of any given picture. Some of the images made their way
into published magazines and into illustrated newspapers due to their art
potential. But many prints were sent out to various units to the frontline to
raise the troops' moral as propaganda material, when propaganda was not yet a
dirty word. Going through the archive today it is not so easy to dismiss as
propaganda some of these prints. Acting as a buffer between the horrors of
reality and the soldier's perception of the world, many of these images are
more art than mere propaganda and would be difficult for any curator to draw a
clear line.
Keywords: war
photography, propaganda, art photography, The Great War, Ion Oliva
MANUELA CERNAT
Jean Negulesco, un
pictor ignorat în România de ieri şi de astăzi
Abstract
Rated
among the Top Ten directors in the Hollywood golden decades 1940-1950, American
filmmaker of Romanian origin Jean Negulesco was also a gifted painter. Yet,
this chapter of his creative activity is little known in Romania and abroad even though his works are
exhibited in some major European and American
Museums. Entering the Bucharest Painting
Academy in 1919, he soon left for Paris where he attended
both the Académie Julian and La Grande Chaumière classes. In December 1923 he
opened his first personal exhibition in Bucharest,
followed by a Paris
one in 1926, warmly received by the critics. Moving to the United States,
he got the generous support of Duncan Phillips and soon opened a painting
school which proved very successful. Despite the economic crisis, his first
exhibitions in Washington, Seattle
and on the West Coast were successful both from an artistic and financial point
of view. They paved his way to Hollywood
where his renown of portraitist inspired Greta Garbo to open for him the gates
of the Los Angeles Gotha. But it is the French art historian Elie Faure who
pushed the young painter to enter the film industry. In the early forties,
fully exploiting the cultural richness accumulated in Bucharest
and Paris
during his painting studies, Jean Negulesco became one of the “most European”
American filmmakers, celebrated for the sophisticated visual style of his
movies.
Keywords: Jean Negulesco, famous Hollywood
filmmaker, painter, rediscover, reevaluation, Romanian origin, early painting
career, personal painting exhibitions, Bucharest, Paris, Washingon, art
collections, art museums, memories, correspondence.
NOTE [NOTES]
TUDOR STĂVILĂ
Școala de Belle Arte din
Chișinău.
Fondatori
și susținători
Abstract
Alexandru Plămădeală (October, 9, 1888, Buiucani district,
Chişinău – April, 15, 1940, Chişinău) is considered the most important
Bessarabian sculptor of the first half of the XXth century and founder of Art
school in Kishinev.
He graduated from the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Moscow, in the workshop
of Russian sculptor Volnuhin. After 1918 he returned to Chisinau where he was
appointed as director of the School of
Drawing in 1919, later transformed in School of Fine Arts. He worked there for 21 years.
The Fine Arts Museum was founded in 1939 by the city favourite sculptor
Alexandru Plămădeală and French painter Auguste Baillayre, who later became the
first director of the Museum. It was known that Alexandru Plămădeală personally
selected 160 works of Bessarabian and Romanian artists to set up the first
gallery of the Fine
Arts Museum.
Plămădeală's masterpiece is the Monument of Stephen the Great in the Public Garden
in Chişinau (1927). Among other works, Plamadeala made a series of portraits of
Romanian and Bessarabian creative people and intellectuals as the singer Lidia
Lipcovschi, the bust of Alexandru Donici, the portrait of Bogdan Petriceicu
Haşdeu, the portrait of Valentina Tufescu, the portrait of his wife Olga
Plămădeală, the portrait of painter Sion I. Teodorescu, and the portrait of the
poet Ion Minulescu.
Keywords: art
history, founders, School of Fine Arts, Fine
Arts Museum,
sculptural portrait.
CRISTIAN VASILE
Proiecte
de reorganizare a Direcției Monumentelor Istorice în anii 1960
Abstract
In
1948 a venerable cultural institution such as the National Commission on the
Historical Monuments ended its existence due to communist authorities’
decision. After three years the government set up a scientific commission under
the aegis of the Romanian
Academy, but its
functions were limited. No sooner than the year 1959 the old commission
reappeared as the Department on the Historical Monuments being part of the
State Committee for Constructions, Architecture, and Systematization. Due to
its activities endangered churches and other historical monuments were
restored. However, in 1965 – after Nicolae Ceauşescu took over the leadership
of the Romanian Communist Party – the ideological sections of the RCP’s Central
Committee gathered archaeologists, architects, art
historians, and other experts in order to seek a better functioning for the
Department on the Historical Monuments. In the end Ceauşescu’s plans for
territorial systematization brought the annihilation of the Department in 1977.
Keywords: historical
monuments; cultural heritage; Communist cultural policies; art restoration; art
history.
MIHAI SORIN RĂDULESCU
Despre genealogia Anei Aman
Résumé
L’article reconstitue les
liens de parenté et les propriétés d’Ana Aman née Politimos, qui, avant d’être
mariée au peintre Theodor Aman, avait épousé Iorgu Niculescu-Dorobanţu. La
famille Niculescu-Dorobanţu est liée à deux églises peintes par Nicolae
Grigorescu, toutes les deux dans le district de Prahova: à Puchenii Mari et à
Mărginenii de Jos. Ana Politimos a eu de son premier mariage, un fils et une
fille Zoe qui est devenue cantatrice d’opéra en Occident sous le nom de Zina de
Nory. Le nom de la famille Politimos vient d’un mot néogrec qui signifie
«précieux». Les propriétés de cette famille riche s’étendaient dans toute la
Valachie, depuis le district de Gorj jusqu’à celui de Buzău. Du côté maternel,
Ana Aman descendait d’une famille de boyards du district de Teleorman, les
Butculescu, dont la filiation remonte au XVIIe siècle.
Keywords: Aman, Niculescu-Dorobanţu,
Butculescu, genealogy, family, painter.
ARHIVA [ARCHIVE]
ECATERINA CINCHEZA-BUCULEI
Pictura
pronaosului bisericii mănăstirii Sucevița
Full text
IOANA IANCOVESCU
Picturile
din bolniţa Bistriţei
Full text
MARINA SABADOS
Expoziţia Mărturii. Frescele Mănăstirii Argeşului, Muzeul Naţional de Artă al României, Bucureşti, 6 decembrie
2012 – 25 august 2013
RECENZII [BOOK REVIEWS]
VICTOR IERONIM STOICHIȚĂ, Efectul Pygmalion. De la Ovidiu la Hitchcock, traducere din limba engleză de Delia Răzdolescu, Humanitas, București, 2011, 362 p., 121 il. Reviewed by Cosmin Ungureanu, p. 249.
LULI AUGUST STURDZA, Așa s-au întâmplat, așa le-am însemnat..., Ed. Humanitas, București, 2012, 246 p. + il. Reviewed by Adrian-Silvan Ionescu, p. 252.
MARINA SABADOS, Grigorescu la Agapia, Editura Doxologia, Iaşi, 2012, 240 p., 207 ilustraţii. Reviewed by Ioana Vlasiu, p. 254.
MICHEL DRAGUET, Le Symbolisme en Belgique, Fonds Mercator, Musées Royaux des Beau-Arts de Belgique, 2010 (ed. a doua), 350 p. cu il. Reviewed by Corina Teacă, p. 258.
PAUL REZEANU, Brâncuși. Tatăl nostru, Autograf MJM, Craiova, 2012, 706 p. Reviewed by Virginia Barbu, p. 258.
GREG DICKINSON, CAROLE BLAIR, BRIAN L. OTT (Ed.), Places of Public Memory. The Rhetoric of Museums and Memorials, The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, 2010, 282 p. cu il. Reviewed by Corina Teacă, p. 259.
RUXANDRA DREPTU, Corneliu Michăilescu. Călătorie prin imposibilul cotidian, Ed. Institutului Cultural Român, București, 2013, 295 p. + il. Reviewed by Adrian-Silvan Ionescu, p. 260.
EMANUEL BĂDESCU, RADU OLTEAN, Carol Popp de Szathmári, fotograful Bucureștilor, Art-Historia, București, 2012, 32 p. + il. Reviewed by Adrian-Silvan Ionescu, p. 263.
REVISTA REVISTELOR [REVIEW OF REVIEWS]
Ars Transilvaniae XXI, 2011 (author: Ioana Iancovescu), p. 267
De libris. Buletin bibliografic 2008-2013 (authors: A.S. Ionescu and Virginia Barbu), p. 268
