Centre for Romanian Studies

The Art of Nicolae GROZA

Painting on Glass by Nicolae GROZA (Belgium)

The technique of painting on glass (“Hinterglassmalerei”, in German, or “Verre eglomisé”, in French)  was practiced throughout Europe and as far as India, Indonesia, China and Japan.
We find wonderful examples of Western European art during the Renaissance in Italy, France and Spain as well as in the Low Countries and in Central Europe. There is a suggestion according to which this technique spread in Continental Europe via Constantinople in the wake of the Ottoman invasion when Byzantine artists took refuge in Venice.  Thereafter other centres of paintings on glass proliferated in Europe.

Early 19th c. English naive painting on glass in original maple frame (East Anglia School showing Dutch influence)

In Georgian Britain the art of “transfers” of engravings onto glass was a different, yet related technique.
In Bohemia, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Southern Poland but also in Italy, Spain and Portugal religious representations on glass painted by naive artists survive to the present day. Although geographically and culturally distinct, they have many common traits . 
In Orthodox countries we find icons on glass especially in Transylvania. The technique is carried on to the present day.

Nicolae Groza, a Romanian artist now living in Belgium, near Liege follows the tradition of Transylvanian icon painters on glass and his themes often borrow symbols, motifs and the graphism from the old icons. However Groza gets his inspiration from non-religious subjects – from folk legends and historical characters.
Nicoale has an extraordinary sense of humour, imagination and a high artistry which sets him apart from his contemporaries. He has held many individual and group exhibitions of these works which are in private collections in England, Belgium, Romania, Germany, France.

Nicolae Groza - Paintings on glass (private collection)