Romanian art

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Ox cart, one of the most iconic Romanian artworks, by Nicolae Grigorescu, 1899

Romanian art consists of the

Emperor Trajan transformed a big part of Dacia into a province of the Roman Empire. The province underwent an intense process of Romanization (aka Latinization).[3]

Between the 5th and the 8th centuries, the process of

Ottoman ones.[5] 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 is representative for Neoclassicism, as well as Nicolae Grigorescu is for Impressionism. This shift is also reflected in the architecture of cities, which started to look more European, Neoclassical and Beaux-Arts architecture 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 or Bauhaus
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 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 (Sălaj County), probably dating from the Late Paleolithic.

During the Neolithic 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, 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

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 produced ceramic figurines too. A really famous one, known as the 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 vessels in various shapes. All these vessels show the precision of the Neolithic people, since potter's wheel 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, ovals combined with zigzags, and rhombi. 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

Monteoru, Ottomány and Žuto Brdo - Gârla Mare.[6]

See also

Notes

  1. ISBN 978-606-33-1053-9
    .
  2. ISBN 978-606-33-1053-9
    .
  3. ISBN 978-606-33-1053-9
    .
  4. ISBN 978-606-33-1053-9
    .
  5. ISBN 978-973-1805-27-6
    .
  6. ISBN 978-606-33-1053-9
    .
  7. ISBN 978-0-7148-7502-6
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-7148-7502-6
    .

References and further reading
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