Serie

Georges De Bellio, Friend Of The Impressionists

In 1878, Theodore Duret quoted the names of several amateurs (rather few, actually) in order to prove a fact that might have seemed a paradox at the time, namely that people with a certain reputation appreciated artists like Claude Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley and Berthe

Samuel Von Brukenthal (1721-1803). A Collector, An Epoch, A Destiny

click here for Brukenthal Museum An emblem of Sibiu, the Brukenthal Museum is one of the most important abodes of culture that has garnered national and European repute. Since its official opening on February 25, 1803, it laid an indelible mark on the cultural life of the

The L@st Witch

Ever since I was little, the future was something dark and puzzling to me. I am surprised that I have lived so long, when I was around five (it was then, no question, that I got sick) I could by no means picture myself at fifteen and here I am, dear me, well past those days

The Faces Of Decadence

A civilization starts decaying when Life becomes its only obsession. Flourishing ages aim to values per se: life is but a means of attaining them; the individual being is not aware that he lives, he just lives – a happy slave of the shallowness that he breeds, nurses and

Ciuleandra

excerpt Finally, one Sunday the old man decided that we should drive to the estate belonging to an uncle of mine in Arges, to Manesti, and spend three-odd days there. We had to leave early, so as to get there by noon. But since the old man had some kind of unexpected business,

At Grandiflora

excerpt In the town square, behind Gustav Café, there is the variety entertainment ale-house with the strange name Bucharest Hotel (it has room only for women-artists), Mr. Cocoşel's winter public house. Ancient house, rather long and low, the hotel twinkles its

Woolen Gardens

European travelers such as Antonio Maria del Chiaro were struck long time ago by the uncommon abundance of woolen carpets in each Romanian home, be it aristocratic, bourgeois or peasant. Carpets were laid mainly onto the walls of the rooms, but they also covered the beds,

A Last Judgment That Lacks Heaven

The relevance of iconography for the study of the history of mentalities has been uncontested in the Western cultural space for the last few decades. The seminars organized in Aix-en-Provence on the relationship between iconography and the history of mentalities as far back

Enemies And Friends Of Man III

excerptsTHE WATER PIXY. Representations. The Water Pixy and the Human Head. The Water Pixy's Wraith. Stories. The Water Pixy in Other CulturesAccording to Romanian popular beliefs in Bucovina, the Water Pixy is a tall, heavily- built woman, some say as tall as a camel,

Comments On The Legend Of Master Manole

excerpts1. Participation and RepetitionPerhaps the most significant difference between modern man and archaic man consists in this: for archaic man, a thing or an act acquires significance only in as much as it participates in a prototype, or in as much as it reiterates

A Landmark On The European Map: The Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum

Historian The National Village Museum in Bucharest is the kind of museum in which the traditional exhibition halls are replaced by authentic households, consisting of dwellings and their extensions, technical devices, churches and triptychs transplanted from their places

The Earth Beliefs Of The Romanian People I

excerpt THE MAKING OF EARTH AND ITS LIFE STORYI have already put together in my earlier works a whole series of histories and beliefs dealing with the world before its making as well as with the world above the endless realm of eternal water: And I strongly doubt that anyone