#Exhibit of the Month

To mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși, 2026 was declared by the President of Romania the Year of Constantin Brâncuși. Constantin Brâncuși, one of the greatest sculptors of the twentieth century, was born in 1876 in Hobița, Gorj County, and passed away in 1957 in Paris; he was buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery. In 1904 he arrived in Paris, where he attended courses at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. There he also worked in the studio of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), the founder of modern sculpture, and met Amadeo Modigliani (1884-1920), the Italian sculptor settled in France. Inspired by the work of these artists, he perfected his artistic training in Paris. His works are held in museums both at home and abroad, in the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries, France, and the United States of America. For his outstanding merits he was awarded the Order of the Star of Romania in 1923; in 1931 Nicolae Iorga proposed him for the Order of Cultural Merit; and only in 1990 was he posthumously elected a member of the Romanian Academy.
One of the artist's most famous creations is the sculpture Mademoiselle Pogany, considered a national symbol of modern Romanian art. Its protagonist was Margaret Pogany (1879-1964), a young Hungarian painter who came to Paris in 1909 to study painting techniques. Visiting her studio, she asked the sculptor to make her portrait, even leaving him a photograph and a self-portrait. In 1911 Brâncuși sculpted her likeness from memory in marble and in bronze, focusing on the deep, large, almond-shaped eyes, the subdued eyebrows, the narrow nose, the small mouth, the austere hairstyle and the modest gesture of the hands, rested against the face. Between 1912 and 1933 he produced nineteen versions of Mademoiselle Pogany.

The commemorative medal "Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1976). Expoziție Filatelică Omagială - București 1976" was struck in Romania at the State Mint by the engraver Ștefan Grudinschi. Executed in bronze with a diameter of 60 mm and a weight of 113.73 g, the medal is remarkable for its memorial and artistic value. Obverse: the sculptor's bust facing left, with the semicircular legend "CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI - 1876-1976." Reverse: a fragment of the triptych The Gate of the Kiss. Semicircular legend: "EXPOZIȚIA FILATELICĂ OMAGIALĂ - BUCUREȘTI 1976."
The medal "Constantin Brâncuși. Mademoiselle Pogany. Craiova Art Museum. 1987" was also executed in bronze at the State Mint (Bucharest); it has a nominal diameter of 60 mm (because of the circular cutting the actual dimensions are D: 45 mm; weight: 53.55 g). The obverse shows, in the central field, an image of the Craiova Art Museum framed by the semicircular legend "MUZEUL DE ARTĂ - CRAIOVA / 1987." The reverse depicts a replica of the sculpture Mademoiselle Pogany made by Brâncuși's pupil O. Moșescu, accompanied by the inscription "CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI - M-elle POGANY / 1913."

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

„Mapping the Black Sea”
(The Black Sea in the European Cartography)

June 18-30 2021

The earliest cartographic evidence of the Black Sea coast in antiquity is the map of the Black Sea made on the leather covering a shield from 230-240 AD. It was discovered during archaeological excavations of the fortress of Dura Europos on the Euphrates River in Syria. It predates the so called Tabula Peutingeriana (4th c.), an itinerary or guide produced by Roman engineers.

The development of commerce and navigation in the Mediterranean basin, carried out mainly by Italian city states of Venice, Genoa, Ancona, and Amalfi,required the creation of portolans, which described the ports, connections and distances between them and the easiest access routes. The most renowned masters of navigational charts were Petrus Vesconte from Genoa, Angelino de Delorto and Guillelmo Soleri from Majorca, among others. Hence map-makers' workshops in Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Amalfi and Majorca established the foundations of modern European cartography.

Abraham Ortelius was among the first Europeans to create historical maps, including one of the Black Sea. Conceptions of the Black Sea Coast in the 16th-18th c. appeared in the works of many European mapmakers, cartographers' guilds and workshops. Famous map-makers notable for their achievements include Nicolas and Guillaume Sanson, Guillaume de l'Isle, Johann Baptist Homann, Isaak Tirion, and Johann van der Bruggen.

The maps and geographic descriptions presented in the exhibition show that throughout the ages there were economically and scientifically minded people - scientists, sailors, ecclesiastics, merchants and military men - who overcome all obstacles and prohibitions for the sake of collecting, analyzing and providing information and knowledge, oriented not to the human faith, but to the humanist mind.

The exhibition is organized in the frame of the project "Black Sea Archaeology, History and Culture Portal (ArHiCuP) under the Joint Operational Programme Black Sea Basin 2014-2020, co-financed by the European Union through the European Neighborhood Instrument. The partners in the project are: Museum of National History and Archeology Constanta, National Museum of History of Moldova and Municipality of Nessebar.

The exhibition will be displayed in the National Museum of History of Moldova between 18 and 30 June 2021.