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  • The first Cantacuzins in the heritage of Bucharest’s Municipality Museum.

    The first Cantacuzins in the heritage of Bucharest’s Municipality Museum.

    A new documentary exhibition has been made available to visitors on the premises at Bucharest’s Municipality Museum. Playing host to the new exhibition in the Museum’s main building, the Sutu Palace, located in Bucharest’s City Center.

    The theme is “The first Cantacuzins in the heritage of Bucharest’s Municipality Museum”. The curator of the exhibition, Mihaela Rafaila of the Museum’s Modern and Contemporary History Compartment has revealed, for us, the underlying intention in staging the exhibition.

    „Through the temporary exhibition themed ‘The first Cantacuzins in the heritage of Bucharest’s Municipality Museum’ I intended to introduce to the lay public some certificates written on paper or on parchment, in the Slavonic and Romanian languages, with Cyrillic letters, where the members of this important family of the 17th and 18th centuries are mentioned in their capacity as witnesses, through the dignities they held as part of the Princely Council, but also through the selling-purchase acts they signed at that time or issuing charters or decrees, such as the case of ruling princes Serban and Stefan Cantacuzino. “

    The first of the great dignitaries, men of culture and even vaivodes who were members of this boyar family in Wallachia was court marshal Constantin Cantacuzino, who was born in 1598 and assassinated in 1663. He was the central figure as part of the exhibition hosted by the Bucharest Municipality Museum.

    „As an outcome of his being married to vaivode Radu Serban’s youngest daughter, princess Elina or Ilinca, as she was called around the house, Constantin Cantacuzino began his ascension according to Wallachia’s high-office positions scheme. Apart from his personal fortune, inherited and amassed, the court marshal benefitted from his wife’s dowry, which enabled him to have his 11 children, six boys and five daughters, relate to the most distinguished Moldavian and Wallachian families of boyars.

    Benefitting from a special education, court marshal Constantin Cantacuzino was a great lover of books. Having INTINSE economic and diplomatic relationships and also enjoying the respect especially from the ottomans, court marshal Cantacuzino at that time was known as vaivode Matei Basarab’s secret councillor, being a towering figure of Romanian politics in the 17th century.”

    Here is curator Mihaela Rafaila, briefly introducing to us the great dignitary’s wife, Elina Cantacuzino (1611-1687):

    “In turn, Elina proved her special qualities: she was forgiving of her husband’s murderers, tenacious in her bid to rescue the house after the disappearance of the family’s STALP, cautious in distributing the fortune among her children, loving towards the boys, whom she gently advised to have a truly brotherly relationship, manly because of the journey she took to the Holy Places. “

    What are the documents the Bucharest Municipality Museum exhibition brings before visitors, which are highly relevant for the history of this distinguished Romanian family ?

    “As part of the exhibition, the name of the founder of the Cantacuzino family in Wallachia, Constantin Cantacuzino, is mentioned for the first time in the act of June 8, 1626, in his capacity of witness of the Princely Council, the dignity he held being that of great court marshal. ”

    The exhibition themed The First Cantacuzins brings three volumes before the public, important for the history of Romanian culture. The exhibition lays special emphasis on the Bible of Bucharest, also known as the Bible of Serban Cantacuzino, the first complete translation of the Bible into Romanian, published in 1688.

    Mihaela Rafailă:

    „On display as part of the exhibition we also have three books ‘The Holy and Divine Gospel, composed following the structure of the Greek Gospel’, printed at the behest and with the financial support of ruler Serban Cantacuzino, in the year 1682. Then there is The Bible, also known as ‘The Bible of Bucharest’, as well as ‘The Political and Geographical History of Wallachia’, whose author was identified by the great historian Nicolae Iorga as being province governor Mihai Cantacuzino.

    Then again, speaking about the Bible of Bucharest, it represents the first complete translation of the Divine Writ, made at the command of the Most Kind-Hearted Christian and this our enlightened ruler Ioan Șerban Cantacuzino Vaivode. It was printed on filigree paper.

    The covers are wooden panels bound in leather, whose decoration was made through hot pressing. The editing of the Bible represented an important stage in the process of imposing the national language as liturgical language, at once being a reference monument of the printing press art of Wallachia. That once and for all set the path the ecclesiastical written language would take.

    The Bible was widely spread in the Romanian principalities, Wallachia, Moldavia and in Transylvania and even reached Poland, when a copy was given to former metropolitan bishop Dosoftei, who was in exile. Another copy was in the possession of Pope Benedict the 14th, the copy, as we speak, is kept in the Library of Bologna University. The displayed copy circulated in Transylvania, the counties of Alba and Hunedoara. “

  • Exhibitions in 2022, hosted by the Bucharest Municipality Museum

    Exhibitions in 2022, hosted by the Bucharest Municipality Museum

    A string of painting, sculpture and graphic art exhibitions whose eventual aim is to put to good use the rich heritage of Bucharests Art Gallery Collection will be mounted by the Bucharest Municipality Museum all throughout 2022. Brought to the fore for art lovers will be artists house-studios, but also costume collections, rare documents, traditional art and photographs of old Bucharest. The beginning of the museum is linked to the decision of Bucharest Town Halls Communal Council, issued in late July 1921, whereby the suggestion was put forward, for the foundation of a communal museum. In 1956 it was officially decided that The Sutu Palace (a historical monument built in 1834) would become the headquarters of the museum. In 1959, the History Museum of the City of Bucharest was reopened to the public. The museums history and fine arts sections merged, and that is how Bucharest Municipal Citys Arts and History Museum came into being. In 1999, the institution regained its initial name, the Bucharest Municipality Museum. At the moment, part of Bucharest Municipality Museum are 14 museums, collections and memorial houses. One such museum is “Theodor Aman. ” The museum awaits its public for a temporary exhibition, to be inaugurated on April 7th. The museum will be open to the public until March 2023. From May 27, on the premises at the Frederic Storck and Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck Museum, an exhibition will be opened, themed “From Cape Kaliakra to Balchik. A painting itinerary.”



    Elena Olariu is the deputy director of Bucharest Municipality Museums Art, Restoration and Preservation Centre. She will now be speaking about those exhibitions, to be opened soon on the premises of Bucharest Municipality Museum.



    “The Theodor Aman Museum is one Bucharests most beautiful museums, playing host to painter Theodor Amans collection, it was also his house, a lot of people must have visited the museum already. Those who are not familiar with it, I invite them to seize the opportunity, the house is superb. It is an old house we preserved, in a bid to keep the interior just as it was decorated when the painter was still alive. Then again, apart from the permanent exhibition, in April, an exhibition will also be opened, themed Aman in plein air. Which means we present what the artist painted outdoors. Our lady colleagues were very inspired when they picked up the theme, as it is an opportunity to see the gardens Theodor Aman painted. In the month of May we will have another exhibition, just as interesting, venued by the Frederic Storck and Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck Museum. Paintress Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck travelled to Balchik many times, there she met Queen Marie of Romania, a close friend of hers. Therefore, the exhibition will present Cecilia Cuțescu-Storcks works, inspired by those places. Ours will be an artistic journey, we will also have the chance to see the interior of the house, with a couple of novel works belonging to the Storck family house, we hope it will be an interesting exhibition. Actually, each year we stage small-scale exhibitions on the premises at the Storck Museum, and this time I decided we should focus on Balchik as well.”



    In late April this year, the Sutu Palace in Bucharest will play host to the exhibition themed “Phanariot Princely Documents as part of the Bucharest Municipality Museum Collection”. Starting May 18, the Sutu Palace will also be the venue for an exhibition themed “The Romanian principalities. Landscapes of the 19th century European engraving”. The exhibition puts to good use the heritage of the Bucharest Municipality Museums Prints and Imprints Collection. Also, the exhibition seeks to introduce visitors to the Romanian atmosphere of the 19th century. More than 50 works will be exhibited, depicting places in the Romanian Principalities captured by foreign engravers, and bringing center-stage elements of urban and rural architecture. Two exhibitions will be opened in August, as part of the Donations and Donors series. The Sutu Palace will venue the “Ioana Gabriela and Alexandru Beldiman Donation”, while the Nicolae Minovici Museum will play host to the exhibition themed “Under the Sign of Royalty: the Photographs of a young princess.” Elena Olariu is the deputy director of Bucharest Municipality Museums Art, Restoration and Preservation Section. Here she is again, speaking about this coming Septembers exhibition hosted by the Sutu Palace, themed “Painter Gheorghe Tattarescus Family, Faith and Home. “



    “It will be an exhibition dedicated to Gheorghe Tattarescus house, so we will exhibit several objects from that house. These are objects that have been restored, and that was accomplished thanks to my colleagues who succeeded to restore a great part of the Gheorghe Tattarescu Memorial House, and Im speaking about objects but also about paintings. We will have on display ceramics, painted icons, books, artists personal objects, several paintings of a small exhibition, so that the public can see those wonderful objects that have also been restored. They will be presented as an absolute first, which is also an opportunity to make the work of our colleagues in the Restoration section known to visitors. Perhaps very few people know that most of the exhibited objects also go through the restoration labs, where our colleagues work, and the work they do is less well-known to the public, yet it is a kind of work we have been trying to bring center-stage, via those types of exhibitions.”



    In September and October, 2022, the Bucharest Municipality Museum, though its exhibitions, will put to good use the creation of three women sculptors: Elena Surdu Stănescu, Henriette Cihoschi and Doina Lie.


    (EN)