From Byzantine to Brâncovenesc: The Periodization of Romanian Art in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

This chapter analyses the first writings about Romanian art in the decades following the formation of the nation-state in 1859 and explains the configuration of key artistic periods that constituted the basis of the future history of Romanian art. It focuses first on the notion of the ‘Byzantine style’ and examines how this was used by both foreign and local commentators to describe, restore and promote historical monuments in Romania. It shows how they struggled to integrate Romanian art into a grand narrative of European art, often resorting to uniformization and a disregard for local specificities. The second part explores writings that represent a rupture with earlier approaches, and which were both an expression of an emancipated local voice and the basis for future, ethnic-focused histories of Romanian art. The new narratives centred on the distinctive monuments of the Brâncovenesc period, which were promoted by more and more thinkers as representing the first truly ‘national’ architecture. Although it has received less scholarly attention, Romanian art historiography from the second half of the nineteenth century was the basis from which the grand narratives of Romanian art history emerged in the twentieth century. It also provided the artistic source material for the Neo-Romanian architectural style.