Tag: Neo-Romanian Decorative Panel

Neo-Romanian tower ceiling decoration: peasant cosmogony

Valentin Mandache

The following images are from the Minovici museum, also knonw as Mina Minovici villa, in Baneasa – Herastrau area of Bucharest, which is one of the most iconic Neo-Romanian style edificies, erected in 1905 – ’06 after the plans of architect Cristofi Cerkez, to house the Romanian ethnographic art collection of dr. Nicolae Miovici, the first national art museum in the country. What drew my attention was the amply decorated ceiling of its imposing tower, a rare occurrence for this architectural order. It is clearly inspired from the late medieval Wallachian, also known as Brancovan, church decoration, such as that which I documented at Stavropoleos church. It is a cosmogonic composition, depicting the celestial universe, with its constellations seen in the yellow colour vines and leaves curling intricately around small red buds signifying the diverse worlds and flowers with red stamen and yellow petals signifying the burning asters, where the Sun, the largest flower, is at the centre of the cosmos. The decoration is thus an excellent rendering of the Romanian peasant cosmogonic belief system, expressed in legends and ballads such as the well known Miorita, which I can say with a high degree of expectation that is architecturally rendered in this wonderful painted ceiling.

Neo-Romanian tower ceiling decoration signifying the cosmos with the Sun at its centre, Minovici villa, arch. Cristofi Cherkez 1905 - '06, Baneasa - Herstrau area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)
Neo-Romanian tower ceiling decoration, Minovici villa, arch. Cristofi Cherkez 1905 - '06, Baneasa - Herstrau area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)
Minovici villa, arch. Cristofi Cherkez 1905 - '06, Baneasa - Herstrau area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

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I endeavour through this series of periodic articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.

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If you plan acquiring or selling a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing and transacting the property, specialist research, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.

Neo-Romanian monkey

Valentin Mandache
Neo-Romanian style Garden of Eden as jungle scene representation, late 1930s house, Kiseleff area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

The Neo-Romanian style decorative panels depict most usually themes from the Romanian peasant mythology or Byzantine church imagery. These are expressed in decorative motifs containing animal and plant symbols inspired from the local flora and fauna found in this area of south east Europe at 45 degree north latitude. Among those representations is the omnipresent grapevine plant associated with the tree of life motif or peacocks and doves that express the beauty and serenity of the Garden of Eden. Other typical representations are those of oak leaves, berries, wolves or even bears and squirrels.

The panel above is most unusual and probably unique among the Neo-Romanian style depictions, in the sense that it contains a jungle motif panoply centred on the image of a monkey. That is a portrayal of the Garden of Eden, pointed out by the two gracious peacocks and the two orchids springing up from a flower pot. The sense of abundance is given by the pineapple-like fruit grabbed and eaten by the monkey. I very much like how the monkey sits with its legs on the slender necks of the peacocks.

I believe that the primate species in this panel resembles the macaque monkey, a sacred animal in India and the question that renders itself is: who would have decorated his or her house in this corner of the Balkans with symbols inspired and adapted from the remote Indian environment and creeds? That should be a person notably linked trough profession or travels to that country. The house which sports the panel is a hybrid 1930s inter-war Venetian and Art Deco modernist Italian palazzo inspired edifice.

That kind of a quite opulent building decorated with this combination of symbols should have belonged to a rich person from the Romanian aristocracy or high bourgeoisie, who would have experienced life threatening events and travelled to those sort of exotic places. The person which springs to my mind and fits somehow the bill is the aviator Prince Valentin Bibescu, who has been one of the first and most famous Romanian pilots, an early graduate of Louis Blériot’s school and who in 1931 undertook a famous long distance airplane ride from Paris to Calcutta. The airplane pilot in that era was in most aspects a dangerous profession and Bibescu, for sure, had his fair share of life threatening experiences, which would explain the Phoenix Bird panel. That air-raid to Calcutta would on the other hand explain the Indian flora and fauna inspired panel in a Neo-Romanian guise on that house. Of course that is only a supposition, which has to be further verified and documented, but nevertheless is a starting point of a very intriguing quest. I am looking forward to hearing suggestions from my readers, which would unravel the mistery of that fascinating panel!

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I endeavor through this daily series of daily articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.

***********************************************

If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contactpage of this weblog.

Early Neo-Romanian style pattern

Valentin Mandache
Early Neo-Romanian style pattern decorating the exterior walls of a late 1890s house in the St Joseph's Cathedral area, Bucharest (©Valentin Mandache)

The pattern contains the representation of the lilac leaf motif, popular in the Art Nouveau and also early Neo-Romanian style (itself, at that stage, one of the many national-romantic styles that developed within the general Art Nouveau movement coordinates). I encountered, during my fieldwork in the city, a number of such exquisite early Neo-Romanian houses that display this peculiar pattern, as is the window example documented in this article, a decorative pattern that seemingly was popular among the craftsmen, architects and house owners of Fin de Siecle Bucharest.

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I endeavor through this daily series of daily articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.

***********************************************

If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contactpage of this weblog.

Neo-Romanian style decorative panels

Valentin Mandache

A conspicuous feature of the Neo-Romanian architectural style is represented by the elaborate decorative panels that emphasize areas of the façade or stairway. They contain a wealth of designs centred on a number of motifs inspired from the late medieval Wallachian church decorative panoply such as that of peacocks in the Garden of Eden, protector eagle or lions guarding the gates of Paradise. There are also instances of decorative panels containing non-religious abstract motifs in a variety of designs. Bellow are a few examples from the wealth of such attractive architectural artefacts embellishing Neo-Romanian style houses in Bucharest and Targoviste in southern Romania.

Neo-Romanian style decorative panel, late 1920s house, Dorobanti area, Bucharest. (©Valentin Mandache)

The panel above is a representation of the protector eagle, guarding the Garden of Eden, engaged in a  manichean battle with a serpent, the embodiment of evil. The Garden of Eden is envisaged as a luxuriant grape vine full of fruit, with its vines contorted around the eagle in the shape of a Greek cross, an allusion that the supreme deity watches that never ending fight.

Neo-Romanian style decorative panel, early 1930s house, Dacia Boulevard area, Bucharest. (©Valentin Mandache)

The panel from the second photograph is rendered in a more schematic, crisp manner, an indication of the Art Deco influence over the Neo-Romanian style that started to manifest in the early 1930s.

Neo-Romanian style decorative panel, late 1920s house, Targoviste, southern Romania. (©Valentin Mandache)

The image above shows an imaginative decorative use of a loft air vent, rendered in the shape of an abstract Greek cross, covered by a rectangular ironwork pattern containing smaller crosses of that type.

Neo-Romanian style decorative panel, mid-1930s house, Targoviste, southern Romania. (©Valentin Mandache)

This forth decorative panel contains a floral motif that does not have immediate religious references, rendered in an Art Deco manner, a result of the high influence of that style on the Romanian architectural scene in the 1930s.

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I endeavor through this daily series of daily articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.

***********************************************

If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.

Magnificent Neo-Romanian style “Tree of Life” decorative panel

Valentin Mandache
Neo-Romanian style window decoration, Piata Romana area, Bucharest. (©Valentin Mandache)

I was literally blown away when I first encountered the splendid “Three of Life” window decorative panel, shown in the photograph above, part of the elaborate decoration of a late 1920s – early 1930 Neo-Romanian style house in central Bucharest. It is still well preserved, with the exception of the upper part of the window reticular screen, which was probably broken sometimes in the last decade by ignorant proprietors to make way for air conditioning ducts, a blemish that is nevertheless repairable. The panel is in fact a complex composition of many symbols, inspired from the rich Romanian church and peasant mythology, arranged together in a succession of metaphors that unfurl along the three of life theme.  I can detect there the origins of life motif in the plant pot represented on the base sector, sitting on three grains (the Trinity) from which the life sprang up as a fruit bearing vine plant. The middle sector shows life’s many paths represented by the two decorative side window dressings that illustrate the continuous Manichean encounters between the good (symbolised by the protector eagle) and evil (symbolised by the dragon) forces. Their encounters are interrupted by ornate medallions containing the symbol of the cross, epitomising the peaceful moments attained at some points in life. The upper sector is a representation of the Garden of Eden, where two peacocks, attributes of beauty and peace, feed from a fruit laden cup sustained by a double traverse cross symbolising in the Byzantine/ Orthodox imagery the triumph of Christ and therefore of life over death. The three sectors thus form together an elaborate and full of details three of life, that gives personality and meaning to the the whole architecture of the house. There are many other symbols within this wonderful assembly, like the rope unfurling on the edge of the reticular screen, symbolising the infinity, etc. The whole panel is an wonderful Neo-Romanian style design, which has found in the local church and peasant art and mythology an extraordinarily rich source of inspiration.

***********************************************

I endeavor through this series of daily articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.

***********************************************

If you plan acquiring a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing the property, specialist research, planning permissions, restoration project management, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contact page of this weblog.