Design

Romanian Profile

excerpts In the first half of the XVIIth century, there appeared a new combination of imported styles which has been characterized as the first Wallachian manifestation. The prototype of this style is the village church of Gherghiţa in Prahova county. A later example of

A Unique Museum

The 24th of May, 1908 was a memorable day for Bucharesters. At 11 a. m. , the harmonious building of the ZoologyMuseum was inaugurated with great pomp. Erected at one end of Kiseleff Avenue, a fashionable promenade, in only one year (1904-1905), on the initiative and under

Inns, Churches, Parks And Avenues

Bucharest became the capital of Wallachia in the middle of the sixteenth century in preference to the earlier sub‑Carpathian capitals of Câmpulung, Curtea de Argeş and Târgovişte. It became the capital of the united Romanian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia

Laugh To The Left

In the visual arts, the laugh, the ridicule and caricature have a certain regime, which is rather different from the one developed in literature, mainly because it is an expression of criticism and contempt much more immediate and politically engaged. Starting in Germany

I Kiss Your Ass, Beloved Leader!

excerpt Lying on the hot tile floor, Brave Leader was reaching back and scratching his ass with the Romanian people. What he lovingly called the Romanian people was in fact a tiny little bathroom brush with ivory engravings, which he never parted with, and liked to have

Wise Humor As A Sum Of Contraries

Speaking about I. L. Caragiale, i. e. the quintessential comic playwright in Romanian theater, N. Steinhardt made a few distinctions likely to offer generous openings: However powerful its spiritualism, Asia terrifies us with its uncivil dirt and squalor, while blind and

Captain Scabbard

excerpts EPIZOOTIC A few years ago, Captain Scabbard's company was transferred to the border to protect the country from cattle diseases. He found this very convenient, as by the frontier there is far less discipline among officers, and life is more regular. Besides,

Brâncuşi Vs. Brâncuşi

Modernism has brought to paroxysm the need of personal mythologies, immanent to Western civilization. No wonder that some of the heroes and saints of the avant-garde came from those peripheral European territories still uncharted from a spiritual point of view. By the beginning

Constantin Brâncuşi: The Temple Of Liberation And The Hieratic Emblem Of The Chimera

The Chimera, a sculpture carved in oak wood between 1915 and 1917-18, currently exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, has so far attracted but limited exegesis. Petru Comarnescu, in a conference held in Craiova in 1957, made reference to the body streamlined as to

Brâncuşi And The Significance Of Matter

In a holographic note drawn up in Romanian in the third person, Brâncuşi speaks about himself as about someone else and makes an important remark in connection with his relationship with materials. Turned down in 1910, he exhibited fully carved stone and marble for the

Battlesheep

 Mioriţa, the most popular Romanian ballad, has its name coming from a rather ambiguous female character, the meek ewe that discloses the plot to her fair master, whose two fellow shepherds plan to kill by the time of sunset, looting his larger and worthy flock. Mioriţa

Hariclea Darcle (1860-1939)

There are masterpieces of musical drama the destiny of which became final in the history of opera owing to singers with a flash of genius. Seemingly, this is how Puccini's Tosca was born, whose protagonist, a superb Romanian soprano from Brăila, lend brilliancy to