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THE EMERGENCE OF THE ROMANIAN PROFESSIONAL CLASS (3 – Part I) – TULCEA: 1880 – 1930

November 15th, 2010 · PEOPLE

THE EMERGENCE OF THE ROMANIAN PROFESSIONAL CLASS (3 – part I) – TULCEA: 1880 – 1930

Reverend Zenovie Livovschi (right) and his Family at Tulcea, 1884: his wife - Polixenia Nicodinescu (left), his mother-in-law Zinca Eiser (centre left), his father-in-law Constantin Nicodinescu (centre right), his eldest son Vicentiu Livovschi, aged five (left) and daughter Ecaterina Livovschi (aged three, seated right)

TULCEA is a Romanian port on the right bank of the lower Danube river, close to the Danube Delta and the Black Sea. It came into its own in 1878, after the Treaty of Berlin which followed Romania’s War of Independence from Turkey. As a result of this treaty Romania regained from the Ottomans the province of Dobrogea, whilst Russia its ally profited from the defeat of the Ottoman empire by occupying Southern Bessarabia, hitherto part of the Principality of Moldavia: it gave Russia control of the mouths of the Danube and a say in the Danube Commission. These latest political border changes resulted in huge exchanges of  population, whereby Moldavians from these lost three counties of Cahul, Ismail and Balgrad were displaced to colonise instead Dobrogea, together with ethnic Aromanians, who were a Romanian-speaking ethnic group from the Balkan Penninsula South of the Danube.

The Livovschi family was part of this same equation:  they left their village of Hadjiabdullah in County Cahul where 22-years old Reverend  Zenovie was the Orthodox parish priest

St Nicholas cathedral Tulcea where Rev Zenovie Livovschi was Dean from 1880 to 1916

to become Deacon of St Nicholas Cathedral in Tulcea. For the young Romanian priest this was a God-sent promotion signed by the diploma of Joseph, Archbishop of the Lower Danube at Galatz on 17 April 1880 (nr 266 countersigned by Arhimandritul Ciuca):

“By the Grace of God, the Most Humble Joseph, Archbishop of Lower Danube”

(Prin mila lui Dumnedeu, prea-Smeritul Iosif, Arhiepiscopul Dunarei de Jos)

Reverend Zenovie’s first challenge was to consolidate the Romanian Orthodox church in the new province as the old-established Greek and Bulgarian Orthodox hierarchs were jostling with each other to preserve their influence and status in the province, in spite of the new order established by the national Romanian Orthodox church.

Spiru Haret College Tulcea where Rev Z. Livovschi held the Chair of Religious Education (1878-1928)

At the same time, young Reverend Zenovie was also to be nominated to the chair of religious education at Tulcea Spiru Haret College which he served for the next two decades. This is confirmed in a letter nr 52617 dated 18 Sep 1878 from the “Ministerul Cultelor si al Instructiunei Publice”  Bucuresti addressed to Rev Zenovie as:

“Cucernice Parinte, Subsemnatul am onoarea de a va face cunoscut, ca va numesc pe diua presentarii la post profesor suplinitor la catedra de religiune de la liceul din Tulcea” (signed by the Minister and Director respectively)

Rev Zenovie’s endeavors did not pass unnoticed  in April 1913 he is promoted By Nifon, archbishop of the Lower Danube (Galati) to the grade of “Stavrofor”  (priest allowed to wear the pectoral cross during the Holly Service) and on the 1914,  5 February he is further nominated to serve as President of the Theological Tribunal in the new territory of Balcic (Southern Dobrogea, acquired from Bulgaria as the result of the First Balkan war 1912-1913).

FAMILY BEGINNINGS: Reverend Zenovie’s direct ancestors were all Romanian Orthodox priests going back to Reverend Ioan of Sudarca, County Soroca (Popa din Sudarca) who built the wooden church of Archangel Michael in 1793: this church is preserved to this day as a national monument in the Open-air Museum in Chisinau, of what is now the Republic of Moldova.

Plan of the wooden church of Sudarca, Co Hotin, erected in 1793 by Rev Ioan Livovschi (Popa din Sudarca), gt gt grandfather of Rev. Zenovie Livovschi of Tulcea

The Reverend Ioan fled the Uniate religious persecution waged against Romanian Orthodox believers from Galicia, a Polish province which was occupied by the Habsburgs during the 18th century partition of Poland. As they fled the city of Lwow, capital of Galicia, to seek refuge in Northeastern Moldavia, then occupied by the Russian Czar, during the first Russian census of Bessarabia the family were nicknamed after the city of Lwow, where they came from, being given the surname of Livovschi. Theirs was a large clan with several cousins graduating form theological schools to climb the slippery ladder of the Orthodox church hierarchy in Russia: one of these cousins was a composer of liturgical music and choir master at the Czar’s cathedral in St Petersburg:

Russian Lithurgical Music by Grigory Lvovsky - Choir master at the Czar's cathedral in St Petersburg

This was Grigory Lvovski whose Cherubic Hymn is sung today in all Orthodox churches around the world.  Another kinsman was during the 19th century the founder of the Russian Orthodox Mission in Japan and another cousin became the abbot of one of the main monasteries of Bessarabia. The Czarist administration of Bessarabia established a rigid social structure on the indigenous Romanian population, along three main classes – aristocrats, clergy and freeholding farmers – the latter having received attractive privileges to induce them settling in a province whose population was dispersed by the ravages of centuries-old wars between the Ottomans and the Russians.

Soroca Fortress, Bessarabia the County where the Livovschi founded in 1793 the church of Sudarca

It is therefore clear that in the Russian empire, the Clergy had the elevated status of an educated middle class enjoying certain freedoms and privileges. including the use of a property and farming of the glebe land, not to mention the collection of a church tax from the parishioners. As such the Livovschi prelates were beneficiaries of all these rights.  As the Czars extended their empire closer and closer to the Black Sea and the mouths of the Danube, so did Russian-occupied Bessarabia’s borders grow at the expense of the Ottoman empire. With each expansion of the political borders the Livovschis moved South to serve the church in the newly-populated areas. One last such Southward migration during the second quarter of the 19th century was when Reverend Theodore Livovschi, Zenovie’s father moved from County Soroca to TOMAI an area which was the object of an exchange of population whereby the Muslim Tartars were evacuated to the `ottoman provinces of Crimea  and their land was resettled by Christian Turks known as Gagauz who originated form Bulgaria, South of the Danube. Reverend Theodore, grandson of Rev. Ioan, the first settler, died young leaving Zenovie as a young orphan who was taken care of by his elder sister Ana. This Ana Livovschi married Rev Ion Stanescu, parish priest in  Hadji-Abdullah, County Cahul on the estate of the Prince Constatin Muruzi (1815-1878) Prime Minister of Moldavia who was married to Princess Raluca Mavrocordat. Ana Livovschi Stanescu ensured that her younger brother Zenovie enrolled in the Theological Orthodox Seminary of Ismail (Scoala Duhovniceasca) to follow the family’s ancient tradition of clerics. As  the Orthodox church required priests to be married before they were ordained, Zenovie found a wife in the village where his brother-in-law was parish priest. This was Polixenia Nicodinescu daughter of  Constantin Nicodinescu and Zinca Eiser, both refugees from the 1848 Revolution, who fled the city of Fagaras in Transylvania to settle on Moruzi’s estate in Co Cahul. Here Constantin, who was an iron master was employed as miller in the village of Hadji Abdullah.

Transylvania - 1848 Revolution which caused Ironmaster Constantin Nicodinescu of Fagaras to take refuge in Moldavia

Prince Constantin Mavrocordat father of Pss Raluca Moruzi, godmother of Polixenia Livovschi

To this couple of refugees a baby daughter was born, whose godmother was the landlowner’s wife Princess Raluca Mavrocordat. Being the daughter of a Phanariot ruling prince, Raluca Mavrocordat Moruzi chose for her god daughter a Greek christian name of Polixenia. At the age of sixteen Polixenia was to marry Reverend Zenovie in Hadjiabdullah where their first son Vicentiu was born n 1889. This was only a year after the Treaty of Berlin by which the Kingdom of Romania gained its independence. By 1880 the young Livovschi family migrated South to the new Romanian province of Dobrogea where they took with them the elderly Nicodinescu parents – all of them seen in the above photograph, taken in 1884 in Tulcea.

Livovschi between 1880 and 1916 at Tulcea:

Rev. Zenovie Livovschi and Polixenia were to have four sons and two daughters: apart from the eldest son Vicentiu, all children were born in Tulcea and all of them were educated at the local Spiru Haret College, which is now an Academy. They lived at the rectory of the St Nicholas cathedral and by the time the two daughters Ecaterina and Emilia became of school age Spiru Haret came also to accept girl pupils. However, the beginnings of the education system in Romania of the 1880s was confronted with certain financial difficulties causing the Ministry of Education being unable to meet its obligation of paying the school wages: st this critical moment Zenovie was the only member of the staff to carry on working without pay as a RE teacher. Amongst his colleagues was Moisil the father of the Mathematician who was going to become an Academician and who remained a family friend.

Family life continued in a very happy environment and to the credit of Zenovie, he succeeded in being able to keep in higher education all his children who went to become graduates from the University of Bucharest:

Ecaterina Livovschi Panea - photo taken after her graduation in Medicine from the University of Bucharest. Seen here in 1904 (left) with her brother Vicentiu and sister-in-law (seated) Stefania Burada

the eldest son Vicentiu graduated in Pharmacy. `his sister Ecaterina attended a private school in Bucharest, the Pensionul Pompilian where she befriended Stefania Burada who was going to become Vicentiu’s wife. Ecaterina took a degree in Medicine to become an ophtalmologist and married a fellow doctor Ion Panea. They both started their medical career in Focasni, in Moldavia, before WWI. Emilia, the second daughter also read Pharmacy and married a fellow pharmacist Barozzi who had his pharmacy on Calea Calarasi in Bucharest. As for the younger sons, Virgil Livovschi and Octavian Livovschi, they both studied engineering, one graduating from the University of Grenoble where he was a contemporary of a cousin on his maternal side George Savuleanu. One of them died during the Great War whilst fighting the Germans in the Carpathians at Caineni Pass whilst the other never recovered from shell shock being interned at the Hospital in Cosciugeni, in Bessarabia, where he died soon after.

Tulcea: The Monument to the War of Independence of 1877. Vicentiu Livovschi was Captain of the Tulcea Regiment nr 33 Dorobanti and was mentioned in dispatches both during the Second Balkan War as well as the Great War of 1916-1919.

The eldest brother Vicentiu did his military service at Calarasi with the local Tulcea Regiment the 33 Dorobanti. There was a fourth son Aurelian, the youngest and coming as a surprise to the old couple – Rica as he was known, was less academically inclined but a great sportsman/ His education unfortunately was interrupted by the Great War as he had, together with his parents to take refuge in the Danube Delta in the wake of the Bulgarian occupation. Rica established an unusual record on skating on the frozen Danube during winter with the aid of an umbrella which he used as a sail covering the distance between Tulcea and Sulina on the Black Sea in record time. Unfortunately never anyone before or after repeated this feat which was not officially recorded.

Romania entered the Great War on the side of the Allies only after the demise of King Carol I in 1916. By this time all but one of Reverend Zenovie’s children was at home, the youngest son Aurelian (Rica) which was still in secondary education in Tulcea. By this time all his siblings fled the parental nest living either in Bucharest, Buzau or Focsani. The rumblings of the war started to be heard in Tulcea as Romania was occupied by the German armies with the exception of the province of Dobrogea where the Bulgarian armies were out to seek revenge from their defeat in the Second Balkan war, which caused them to lose Balcik with two counties known as the “Cadrilater”. The Bulgarian occupied Tulcea where they made a beeline for the Deanery of St Nicholas cathedral, hoping to extract by hook or by crook all the gold cache which orthodox priests were reputed to have secreted away as savings: no little was their disappointment when Reverend Zenovie told them that he had none: whatever savings he had it went paying the huge university expenses of five of his six children – the Bulgarians would not believe him so they took candles from the cathedral to burn the toes of the old prelate with candle wax, but still to no avail, so they left empty-handed trying their luck elsewhere. The parishioners were horrified knowing Zenovie as a much loved and saintly person, leading a sober life devoted to the church and its community. Amongst them there were some native Tulceans of Bulgarian extraction who took it upon themselves to warn Rev Zenovie that they heard to troops would come back to have a second go at extracting money out of him: they urged Zenovie and his family to flee Tulcea, which he did, hiding with his wife and youngest son Rica in the wilds of the Danube Delta, until the war was over in 1918 and the occupying German and Bulgarian armies repelled.

Tulcea - the Church of the Transfiguration (Schimbarea la Fatza) where Reverend Preot Econom Stavrofor Zenovie Livovschi was Rector from 1918 to his retirement in 1930

During the family’s absence the Deanery was destroyed. Now the Reverend Zenovie was given by the Bishop a new, less demanding assignment, as rector of the Church of the Transfiguration (Biserica Schimbarea la Fata), the most ancient church in Tulcea, known as the Russian Church. It stood on the top of one of the seven hills in Tulcea, not far from the Independence Obelisk memorial to the War of Independence, which earlier during the occupation was destroyed by the Bulgars. A new and last chapter was going to unravel for the Livovschi’s presence in the city of Tulcea from 1918 to 1930 when, after 50 years of service to the Orthodox church in town Zenovie and Polixenia retired to a modest retirement house in Bucharest bought for them by their Pharmacist daughter Emilia Barozzi.

Livovschi in TULCEA between 1918 and 1930:

see follow up article

THE EMERGENCE OF THE ROMANIAN PROFESSIONAL CLASS (3 – part II) – TULCEA: 1918 – 1930

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Deceniul Pierdut al Romaniei (Tom Gallagher)

November 13th, 2010 · Books, OPINION, Reviews

Deceniul pierdut al Romaniei – mirajul integrarii Europene dupa anul 2000 (Tom Gallagher)

Deceniul pierdut al Romaniei (Tom Gallgher)

Profesorul Tom Gallagher, analist politic al Romaniei, este un iscusit cunoscator al tarii noastre: clarviziunea sa, sub un unghi britanic, pigmentat de spiritul acid al stramosilor sai Irlandezi ne prezinta o imagine fara farduri a Romaniei, asa cum nu am vrea sa o stim, in toata splendoarea ei Carpato-Balcanica cu un puternic iz Oriental: caci fie ca am vrea sa ne confruntam cu noi insine si sa ne vedem precum imparatul despuiat, sau fie ca am dori sa ne amagim in continuare si sa ne credem scapati de napasta trecutului dictaturii comuniste, titlul cartii ne spune totul, incapsuland in cateva vocabule esenta mioritica a Romaniei de azi: Zece ani pierduti si marasmul unei neimpliniri!

L-am intrebat pe autor:

Dar de ce un singur deceniu? De ce nu doua , dela 1989 incoace? de ce chiar nu sapte decenii, de la razboi incoace?

De fapt ne putem confrunta cu o mie si una de intrebari, caci aceasta este filosofia acestei carti incitante – sa incepem nu numai sa intelegem si sa analizam, sa aratam cu degetul si sa ne confruntam cu responsabilitatea individuala a cetateanului roman, dar mai ales sa decidem in ce directie vrem sa purcedem.

Tom Galagher se fereste sa ne dea solutii, dar analiza lui ascutita a fenomenului politic si social romanesc este suficienta ca sa sugereze, prin excluderea practicilor negative si destructive romanesti, care ar fi alternativa. Si totusi sa piara gandul ca i-ar apartine doar acestui analist britanic calitatea de a ajunge la o concluzie lucida a “deceniului pierdut” sugerat chiar de imaginea copertei cartii:

Am ramas, intr-adevear de caruta!

Romanii lucizi si-au luat de mult catrafusele si au votat cu piciorele, destzarandu-se. Pentru aceste cateva milioane de refugiati economici, decizia nu a fost usoara, iar consecinta adaptatarii la un mediu cultural si social foarte diferit de ceea ce si-au imaginat  initial (strazi pietruite cu aur si livezi cu pere malaiete) le-a cauzat multora o trezire brutala, poate mult prea brutala pentru unii – dar majoritatea care si-au lasat obiceiurile proaste acasa s-au pus pe munca, au inghitit si cel putin pentru viitorul copiilor lor nascuti pe pamant strain s-au adaptat la noul mediu. Poate viitorul Romaniei, recuperarea decenilor irosite sa le apartina lor.

Desigur, putem perora pe aceasta tema la infinit – dar sa ne intoarcem la cartea profesorului Gallagher.

Prima impresie a cititorului este de o prezentare bine structurata si construita, sprijinita de citate si note bibliografice sobre si amanuntite.

Pentru acei cititori care urmaresc zilnic presa romaneasca impresia poate s-ar lasa tentata de un “deja vu” – dar acestia s-ar insela cu siguranta pentru ca insasi analiza politica riguroasa face ca prezentarea “deceniului pierdut” sa fie clara ca un cristal si sa se coaguleze in jurul unei concluzii implicit incontrovetibile, nu doar pentru romani, dar pentru birocratii europeni care au fost trasi pe sfoara de acele personajii caragialesti care se perinda la infinit prin guvernele Romaniei contemporane.

Lectura acestei carti nu este cat de putin arida, din contra – ea decurge cu usurinta, oferind pasajii pline de umor, daca reusim sa ne detasam suficient de amorul propriu si sa ne vedem asa cum suntem.

Dar aceasta nu este suficient – daca nu reactionam ca sa  eradicam racilele politicianismului romanesc, nu numai ca tara va ramane de caruta, dar ar risca sa ramana sub controlul unui grup restrans de moguli intocmai acelor republici bananiere din America Latina, sau chiar si mai rau a acelor tari africane cazute, fara drept de apel, sub controlul unei dictaturi  neinchipuite pana acum in istoria Europei civilizate.

“Deceniul pierdut al Romaniei – mirajul integrarii europene dupa anul 2000”, aparut la editura All, Bucuresti, 2010.

315 pagini, concluzii, index bibliografic, index general

ISBN  978-973-571-961-6

http://www.all.ro

Constantin ROMAN, autorul acestei recenzii a publicat recent in limba engleza o antologie a femeilor din Romania sub titlul: “Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women”

http://www.blouseroumaine.com

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THE EMERGENCE OF THE ROMANIAN PROFESSIONAL CLASS (2) – BUZAU: 1912 – 1948

November 4th, 2010 · Diary, PEOPLE

THE EMERGENCE OF THE ROMANIAN PROFESSIONAL CLASS (2) – BUZAU: 1912 – 1948

Capt. Vicentiu Livovschi & Family during ca 1912, Buzau

Captain Pharmacist Vicentiu Vicentiu Livovschi Roman, aged 33 with his wife Stefania Burada, aged 29 and three of their five children (from left to right): Victor (aged 4 ). Angelica (aged 3) and Valeriu (aged 6).

Capt Vicentiu Livovschi on the Bulgarian Front, during the Second Balkan War (1913). This is the official Wedding Photo of his Orderly who married a Bulgarian native girl from Shivitza. At the wedding ceremony Capt Livovschi acted as Witness in Church

Vicentiu was a graduate in Pharmacy of the University of Bucharest (1896-1900) after which he did his military service (1900-1902) with the Tulcea  nr 33 Regiment (Dorobanti) where he gained the grade of Captain. He served in the second Balkan War (1912-1913) on the Bulgarian front at the end of which he took a lease of the Drogheria Centrala, in Buzau, situated opposite the town hall on strada Targului.

At the beginning of the Great War in 1916 as Romania was occupied by the Prussian armies, Livovschi entrusted his Pharmacy to an administrator. He was drafted as Major in the Army’s Medical Corps being posted to the Military HQ Hospital  nr 6, alongside Drs Varlam, Amza Jianu and Victor Gomoiu.

Dr Victor Gomoiu (left) and Vicentiu Livovschi at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Army Reservists (Uniunea Ofiterilor in Rezerva) 1935

In the wake of the advance of the German armies, Major Livovschi commandeered a train to evacuate refugees from Buzau to  Northern Moldavia which was not yet occupied by the Germans. During the rout of the Romanian Armies Vicentiu’s family suffered severe losses with a brother killed at the Caineni Pass in the Carpathians and another brother suffering from shell shock of which he died later.

On his way to Northern Moldavia, Vicentiu’s train was diverted from Buzau to Brasov, a city of Transylvania which was under imminent threat of occupation by the Germans. Here he managed to organize the evacuation of 3,000 wounded soldiers from the Military Hospital in Brasov and move them to the relative safety of the unoccupied territory, no mean feat given the chaos of the country and the total lack of logistic resources.

On 24 Jul 1917, by Royal Decree, published in the official  newspaper  “Romania” nr 169, of  the Royal Romanian Army’s General HQ at Iasi: Captain V.Z.Livovschi was,  “Granted the Order of the Crown of Romania with swords (Coroana Romaniei cu Spade),  with the grade of Knight (Cavaler) to Pharmacist Captain (Reserve) Vicentiu Zenovie Livovschi, for the Evacuation of the Military Hospital nr 3, for having  frustrated the enemy from capturing several trains laden with wounded soldiers and equipment, from the city of Brasov, in September 1916”  (N.B. it refers to  the evacuation from Brasov of 3,000  wounded  soldiers and medical equipment during a single night, when the Romanian troops withdrew from Transylvania in the wake of German advance)

On the Moldavian front Livovschi who spoke Russian,  was a liaison officer with the Imperial Russian Armies Command, a task for which he was awarded by Czar Nicholas II the Order of St Stanislas.

Romanian Army Gas Warfare Eschool at Cernauti under the Command of Major V. Livovschi 1919

During the war, Vicentiu’s family joined him in Moldavia, settling in the village of Podul Iloaiei,  near Iasi, where the youngest daughter Mariana was born.
In 1919 he was promoted to Lieut Colonel and on being demobilised he became a Colonel for his services in organizing the School of Gas Warfare (Scoala de Gaze) at Chisnau in 1919.

After the war he became President of the Association of Demobilised Officers, (UOR – Uniunea Ofiterilor in Rezerva) having as secretary his cousin Victor Stanescu. He was President of the Red Cross, Deputy Mayor of Buzau, President of the Association “Amicii Artei” ( Friends of the Arts), which had a theatre and an orchestra and  founded with members of his family the town’s first musical Quartet.

On his return from the Great War, between 1920 and 1941  Vicentiu Livovschi took an active part in the

Colonel Vicentiu Livovschi on Remembrance Day parade in Buzau 1935

town’s cultural and civic life. In his professional field as a pharmacist he created in his laboratory new beauty products  (crema “Si”, pudra “Do”) and was running a thriving Pharmacy.

Deputy Mayor Livovschi (Panama hat) inaugurating the town's first modern fire engine of Buzau in July 1928

As Deputy Mayor of Buzau,  he tabled the motion of providing the town’s  first modern fire engine to replace the antiquated horse-drawn water pump.

Vicentiu Livovschi, Commander of the Buzau Boyscouts (Cohorta Buzau) ca 1923

In 1920, with the help of his eldest son Valeriu,  Vicentiu Livovschi founded the County’s Boyscout movement (Cohorta Buzau), whose Commander he was. As such he organized at Mamaia, annual summer camps for the boyscouts. These are mentioned by Mircea Eliade in his “Memoirs of the Equinox” and in his novel “Romanul unui adolescent miop”. Vicentiu Livovschi further served as  Governor of the Boys Technical College (Liceul Industrial de Baieti, Buzau) .

Vicentiu Livovschi in his Pharmacy Laboratory in Buzau where he prepared new beauty products

In Buzau he registered a patent nr 21033 (model V.Z.Livovsky) for “Camping-Comfort” a portable suitcase-bed-table-tent-luggage, awarded the gold medal at the National Exhibition of Inventions and national products, under the patronage of the Romanian Ministry for Industry and Commerce.

His house and pharmacy in downtown Buzau were burned down during the retreat of the German armies in 1944, Two years later in 1946 he rebuilt the Pharmacyonly to have it confiscated and nationalised in June 1948 by the communist regime. Like the entire professional elite of a country which he served well, he was left in his retirement without any means of survival other then depending on the financial help of his four children. He was lucky not to die a political prisoner during the witch hunt which destroyed most of his generation: although living at the limit of poverty he remained to the end  optimistic and dignified until his demise in Bucharest, in the 1950s.

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Poetry in Translation (LXXIX): Anna Vivanti Chartres (1868-1942) – “Ego”

November 1st, 2010 · Diaspora, PEOPLE, Poetry, Translations

Anna Vivanti Chartres (1866, London - 1942, Turin)

Anna Vivanti Chartres – Poetry in Translation (LXXIX)

Anna Vivanti Chartres (1868-1942) was born in London, the daughter of Anselmo Vivanti an Italian political exile and follower of Mazzini who fled  Mantua after the 1861 riots. Her mother, was the German writer Anna Landau sister of Rudolph and Paul both uncles having followed a successful literary career. Having been brought up as a multi-lingual child with a cosmopolitan life in England, Italy, Switzerland and the USA, Anna Vivanti married in London  Jack Smith Chartres (1862-1927). Her husband was an Anglo-Irish barrister and British Civil Servant, who negotiated on behalf of Sinn Fein, together with Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith, the Anglo-Irish Treaty leading to the Independence of the Republic of Ireland.

Anna Vivanti Chartres was a close friend of Giosuè Carducci and her poetry is regarded as being part of the  stream of late Italian romantic poetry. She is buried in Turin where her grave is inscribed with a verse dedicated by Carducci:

Barro a la chiusa imposta con un ramicello di fiori

Glauchi et azzurri comme i tuoi occhi, a Annie.

* * *

Ego

II Mondo ha spalancato i suoi mille occhi,

E « Chi sei tu? „ mi grida: e ” cosa fai?

Dimmi la fede tua, l’età, la patria,

Che cerchi, donde vieni e dove vai ! „

Del mio paese chiedi? Io ti rispondo:

Non ho paese: è mia tutta la terra!

La patria mia qual’è? Mamma è tedesca,

Babbo italiano, io nacqui in Inghilterra.

E quale la mia fede? Io vado a messa;

La musica mi edifica e ricrea;

Ma sono battezzata protestante,

Di nome e di profilo sono ebrea.

Chiedi dell’età mia? quasi ho vent’anni.

E quale la mia meta? Ancor l’ignoro.

Che cerco? Nulla. Attendo il mio destino,

E rido e canto e piango e m’innamoro.

*  *  *

Ego

Orasul se trezeste facandu-si ochi, o mie,

Soptindu-mi in ureche: cine esti tu, Straine?

La ce Domn te inchini? Unde te-ndreptil?

Spre care mari si tari te-ndeamn-acuma Crezul?

Ma-ntrebi  de unde sunt? Sunt de aiurea!

Si de nici-unde… Planeta mi-este  tara!

Ce Patrie ma stie?    Germania materna,

Italia paterna, si Anglia de-o seama.

Si mai ma-ntrebi de crezu-mi? Sunt crestina,

Iar muzica ma-nvata si m-alina,

Dupa botez sunt anglicana,

Din mosii mei, de fel, sunt si evree.

Ma-ntrebi ce varsta am? Doua decenii.

Spre care tarm m-andrept? Nu stiu prea bine.

Ce caut? Mai nimic, decat destinul,

Doar rad si cant cand ma cuprinde dorul.

(Rendered in Romanian*) by Constantin ROMAN October 2010)

All rights reserved, Copyright Constantin ROMAN

*) cu multumiri pentru sugestii Doamnei Isabela Vasiliu-Scriba,

Bucuresti, Noiembire 2010

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Hungarian ‘Savoir-faire’ and Romanian Navel-gazing

November 1st, 2010 · Art Exhibitions, OPINION, Reviews

Hungarian ‘savoir-faire’ and Romanian navel-gazing:

Footnote to the Hungarian Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, Piccadilly on: “Treasures from Budapest – European Masterpieces from Leonardo to Schiele”

London - "Treasures from Budapest - European Masterpieces from Leonardo to Schiele"

LOCATION: For those readers who would not know, the Royal Academy of Arts is situated in Burlington House, in London’s West End avenue of Piccadilly: this is a prestigious location for several reasons, first of all because the hosting Institution is a venerable British household name of an artistic tradition going back to the 18th century. The RA, for short, organizes regular exhibitions of greatest prestige, on par with those of the greatest London Museums and commands an extensive following. The venue is Burlington House, one of the few aristocratic houses built in the 17th century to be located near to the Court of St James’s, which at that time was the main residence of the English Monarchs. Even today the foreign diplomats coming to London are “accredited to the Court of St James’s” although in fact they are received by HM the Queen at  Buckingham Palace. This makes the RA and Burlington House being situated near all the historic, political and cultural focal points in Central London such as the Royal Society, Clarence House, all the Gentlemen’s Clubs, Christies Auctioneers, all the important Art galleries of St James’s and Bond Street, Apsley House at Hyde Park Corner and all the best shops in Piccadilly and Regents Street and Bond Street, not to mention the tourists attractions of Piccadilly Circus, the Trafalgar Square with the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery and Soho, the Theatres and the Government buildings in Whitehall.

Given the above pointers it is clear that the Hungarian exhibition “Treasures from Budapest” of October 2010 could not have chosen a better location: it is central, it is prestigious, it is in an elegant building with excellent tradition and exhibiting space and a huge pull to the general and specialist public from England and abroad.

The Royal Academy, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London West End

The Hungarian PR coup is that much more remarkable as the RA plans events five to seven years in advance before a particular proposal could find a slot and eventually could materialize: some efforts such as the proposed exhibition of art treasures from the private Collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein stumbled on administrative difficulties which caused it to be abandoned recently: the Hungarians were lucky because their exhibition was brought forward; we understand from the British curators that their Hungarian counterparts in Budapest were co-operative, accommodating and extremely helpful: all to a good end! This venture will not have been made possible without the financial support of the OTB Bank: these days it is a sine-qua-non condition to have wealthy and willing sponsors and our Hungarian friends understood this simple truism.

THE EXHIBITION:

This exhibition showcases the breadth and wealth of one of the finest collections in Central Europe. It  comprises works from the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, with additional key loans from the Hungarian National Gallery. Most of the works come from the early collection of the Princes Esterhazy, great patrons of the arts: indeed the name is immediately connected with the baroque period when Haydn was a court Kapellmeister but also the princes were spending lavishly on commissioning and collecting paintings; the Raphael which is chosen for the poster is indeed a masterpiece of World art and is known as “The Esterhazy Madonna” (1508).

Leonardo da Vinci - Study of Soldiers (Art Treasures from Budapest)

Other signal canvasses which this event celebrates is  Leonardo (Study of soldiers head) at one end of the spectrum and at the other to Egon Schiele a main representative of early 20th century Austria Hungary and a protégé of Gustav Klimt. The Northern European schools are represented by Lucas Cranach, Rubens and Rembrandt, and the French by Poussin, Claude and Laurent de la Hyre. Highlights from the museum’s superb collection of works on paper include two studies by Leonardo for his mural of the Battle of Anghiari, fine drawings by Dürer and Altdorfer, and figure studies by Tiepolo and Watteau.

John Constable: Art Treasures from Budapest

Works by Royal Academicians Sir Joshua Reynolds, John Constable and Angelica Kauffman. Amongst other works  once owned by the British is for example a Cornelis van Poelenburgh’s portrait of the children of the Elector Palatine Frederick V – known as the “winter king” – was owned by Charles I and has his crowned monogram on the reverse of the panel.

Also, the small 1814 oil sketch by John Constable of East Bergholt, which not only depicts a huge gold standard at the heart of a massive peace celebration in the village but also an effigy of a beaten Bonaparte in his tricorn, hanging from a gibbet.

Egon Schiele - Art Treasures from Budapest

It is understandable that the central European artists, in particular German and Austrians would have a greater weight in the Hungarian art collections and more recently these made the object of press headlines as legal disputes arose over the original ownership and restitution of art treasures plundered by occupying armies from East and West: if the Western museum were good at returning their disputed oil paintings, the Russians had no such scruples – but the organizers of the RA could not be too careful as they covered all eventuality in a disclaimer under the banner:

List of objects proposed for protection under Part 6 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (protection of cultural objects on loan)

The Esterhazys were astute and discerning Collectors hence the importance and the variety of the 200 exhibits of this London venue: drawings and sculpture from the early Renaissance to the twentieth century. Selected works by artists apart from Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael but also El Greco, Rubens, and Goya, a collection completed after 1871 the year where the Hungarian state acquired the Esterhazy collection with more recent artists such as Manet, Monet,  Gauguin, Schiele and Picasso.

Raphael's "Esterhazy Madonna" - the Poster of the Hungarian Exhibition

WHY talk about a Hungarian exhibition on a Romanian Cultural Studies site?

WHY indeed! At a first glance it may appear fortuitous to do just that and yet there may be many reasons to have done it and one can think of a few, at random:

* One could immediately think of the common historical space of Central-Eastern Europe at the archaeological treasure troves found in Transylvania before WWI and now belonging to Museums of Hungary.

* One could equally think of the Bibliotheca Corviniana, of that Hungarian Renaissance king of Romanian stock – Matthias Corvinus, born in Cluj/Koloszvar and his stupendous collection of illuminated manuscripts, mostly dispersed but some returned to Budapest, during the 19th century, by the Sultan.

* One could further connect with the Transylvanian origins of the Esterhazys before they  were ennobled by the Habsburgs or about the collections of other Hungarian aristocrats some of whom were magyarized Romanians such as the Banffy or the Szeczeny.

* Last but not least the post-Impressionist artist School of Baia Mare (Nagybánya) and in particular of  the paintings of Simon Hollosy (1857-1918) (of whom there is mention in the catalogue).

But more important it is to REFLECT on and see in PERSPECTIVE the Romanian cultural presence in the United Kingdom or rather the quasi-lack of it, or its very modest presence. To give very few examples on exhibitions of other Central and Eastern (former communist block) countries:

*  The Czechs and the Poles seem to have been absent for a long time in London for reasons difficult to explain, although their art treasures are quite exceptional in spite of the ravages of the 20th century

*  Bulgaria had a dazzling exhibition at the British Museum about The Gold of the Thracians

*  Serbia was very much present at the Royal Academy as part of the great “Byzantium” exhibition with several important religious works of art. By contrast Romania which could have contributed so much with the tapestries of the Moldavian monasteries had only ONE item offered by the National History Museum!

Clearly the ‘talibans’ of the Romanian Orthodox church do not see the benefits of Romanian cultural presence abroad – although the monks of Mount Athos or the hierarchy of St Anne’s, from Mount Sinai seem to have taken a more enlightened view!

*  The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford did however include a series of archaeological artifacts from Romania in an exhibition which included the Cucuteni Neolithic period including some from Bessarabi and Bulgaria: but this was mostly a specialist exhibition within a narrow niche specialism for historians and archaeologists, rather than of a general public appeal.

*  Our Russian overlords are nevertheless more active on the international PR cultural scene, whether in permanent exhibitions from the Hermitage (now sadly closed), from Russian Collections abroad (Diaghiliev costumes at the V & A) or the RA exhibition of Impressionist art.

*  Romania was an indirect beneficiary of the Brancusi retrospective at the Tate Modern – but this was not a Romanian initiative, per se, as the exhibits were overwhelmingly from the USA, UK and Western Europe: predictably there was a ‘back-door’ tentative to make a claim to such illustrious exhibition by some Romanian Cultural outfit, which went largely unnoticed even by those visitors who having seen the Brancusi exhibition did NOT absorb the detail of the artist’s  Romanianness. Why shall one blame them when even Romania waited the best of a century before it reclaimed the sculptor? The previous important Brancusi retrospective was in Paris, at the Cente Pompidou, in the mid 1990s.

* Romania’s really great cultural presence in Great Britain and in Western Europe was made under the Monarchy of King Carol I and Carol II respectively. After the vagaries of a XX century Europe in turmoil and the advent of the dictatorship which created a near embargo on artistic exchanges (other than folk dancing and the odd opera singer or ballerina who took the opportunity to defect) Romania excelled by a long absence from the world cultural scene. This situation could be assigned to several factors but it is mainly due to the destruction of the cultural elites which died under torture in communist prisons or hard labour camps and their replacement by the ‘great unwashed’ – essentially those ‘reliable’ Party officials with no vision, no clue, no desire and no imagination, other the perpetuation of physical and moral abuse, the fudging of History, the destruction of Memory and the shear isolationism (other than in sport). After the so-called ‘1989 revolution’ which put down the dictator and his wife – the second echelons of the Communist Party swiftly filled in the gap and the trend of deculturalisation or the leveling by the lowest denominator was carried out at a national scale. Currently the greatest attraction of those governing the country are the rewards of corruption and wild Capitalism, where everything goes. This phenomenon is responsible for the paltry attempts at putting the country on the Cultural map of Europe and the World. The practice by the infamous “Institutul Cultural Roman” in Bucharest at spending huge amounts of money in organizing exhibitions in rural France, in villages that nobody heard about, really beggars belief! Why not in Paris or Lyon? Such inept locations of obscure villages may have as only excuse that nothing was thought or planned in advance and that the major funds were instead diverted towards such extraordinary feats as publishing the French translation of the  PhD thesis of some former Foreign Minster: his summum of philosophical wisdom  of some  40 years past: this was printed by an obscure Parisian publisher who subsequently sold the whole edition to the Romanian Cultural Institute – just as it was the practice before the ‘revolution’ with the works of Ceausescu and his wannaby ‘scientist’ wife.

Tell us what has changed?

One could go on with a long litany of half-cock attempts by Romanian officials under the guise of signal  ‘achievements’ which now they crow about from the rooftops of Romanian government buildings, events which pass completely unnoticed there where it matters.

We have it from a reliable source in London that attempts were made in the second half on the 1990s by some  Romanian exiles to initiate a prestigious exhibition iof the Post-Byzantine Orthodox tapestries of Moldavia. To this end a Minister of State was expedited to London to meet its British Counterpart. The latter who combined on his watch Sports with Art (oh, yes, under Labour anything was possible, including putting once’s foot in the mouth… ) offered as a venue  Kenwood House, a country house in Hampstead, some 16 Kms from Central London, in NW6… Not only the venue was geographical eccentric and inconvenient to be visited by the greater public, but the space was  in an ORANGERY (!!!), where such ancient treasures would have been damaged by sunshine, humidity and temperature variations …

The Orangery, Kenwood House improper for the display of ancient tapestries!

On hearing about the British proposal, (made in the best faith by a politico who had no clue, to his Romanian colleague who matched his ignorance), the Romanian  who initiated the consultative  meeting in London and who was a resident in Britain for many years exclaimed to the visiting Romanian Secretary of State:

“But (the British Secretary of State) talks through his hat!”.

Kenwood House Orangery: sunshine, humidity, temperature variation, lack of wall space and geographical eccentricity made it a totally unsuitable venue for a potential exhibition of Medieval tapestries

As the Romanian sense of hierarchy always required an inevitable kowtowing, such remark caused consternation, although it was made in private after the official meeting ended:

“Vai Domnule, cum puteti spune asa ceva? Un ministru nu vorbeste prin palarie!”

“Pray, Mister, how can you say such a thing? a Minister never talks through his hat!”

Of course there was no need to bother with further explanations which will have fallen on deaf ears. Still the Romanian cultural komissar was offered  generous logistics  PR assistance in London, including the promise of sponsorship by  international private banks: all in vain as the visiting Minister switched off completely! Predictably the  ‘official’ visit  to London never went beyond its tourist attraction and the project was still-born through lack of follow-up; quite typical, but not surprising:

Think small comrades and carry on navel-gazing – we are and we shall remain the ‘best and most talented Nation in Europe’, regardless of our failures and inadequacies!

But maybe ‘thinking Hungarian’ is not such a bad thing, after all, think Central London and allow for a five-year plan, which for ex-commies it should not be so difficult – it is like home from home!

Prince Jeremy Mohyla (1555-1606), Voyevode of Moldavia, tomb veil, Post-Byzantine School of tapestry weavers. Romania has the richest collection of Byzantine tapestries in the world - by some account, richer than Russia's

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Spanish-Romanian Cultural Complicities (I)

October 30th, 2010 · Books, Diaspora, OPINION, PEOPLE, Translations

Spanish-Romanian Cultural Complicities (I)

Trajan's Column (Rome) hailing the Conquest of Dacia

Thinking of the peoples of the Iberian peninsula and those inhabiting he Carpathian Mountains and foothills, at the other end of Europe one could dream of some convergence going back to the Roman empire and the common foundation of a Latin language: after all the Iberian-born Emperor Trajan added to his surname the appellation of “Dacicus” in memory of the epic conquest of what was going to become later the Romanian space – the legendary “Dacia felix”: to this day Trajan’s memory is vivid in the Romanian psyche if one considers the incidence of infants baptised with this name.

Prince Ieremia Movila Voyevode of Moldavia - ancestorJoaquín Garrigós Bueno of King Juan Carlos of Spain

A much lesser known historical link is the descendance of the Spanish Bourbon Kings from the Moldavian Voyevode Ieremia Movila, whose daughter, having married in a Polish aristocrat became the ancestor of Marie Leszczynska, spouse of Louis XV King of France, whence the current descendants of the Kings of Spain. This Moldavian princely link  also makes the King of Spain a cousin of  Queen Anna de Romania, whilst on a different family link the Queen Sophia of Spain is a cousin of King Mihai de Romania through the  Greek royal family. Given these pedigrees Princess Margarita de Romania is several times over a cousin of the Prince of the Asturias.

Clara Haskil (1895-1960) Romanian pianist of Ladino-speaking stock

In more recent times the Sephardic tribes fleeing Iberia found refuge in the Danubian Principalities hence the “Spanish rite” Jewish cemeteries extant in Romania of a community now nearly extinct who kept for centuries their Ladino dialect. Amongst Romanians of Sephardic descent figures is the pianist Clara Haskil (1895-1960), who received, as a child prodigy, a scholarship from Queen Elisabeth of Romania (Carmen Sylva) to study at the Vienna conservatoire.

Romannian soprano of Spanish stock, Viorica Cortez (b. 1935) a diva of the metropolitan Opera of New York

During the XIX century a few Spanish merchants traded as far as Moldavia only to find Romania a new ‘Land of Promise’ as was the case of the forebear of the Romanian soprano Viorica Cortez (b 1935) who pefrormed Madama Butterfly 65 times at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

The 20th century’s tumultuous history caused some strong-headed people to fight on foreign land which was the case of many Romanians involved in the Spanish civil war  on the Republican side. Amongst these was the son of a Transylvanian rabbi Walter Roman who later married a Spanish lady. On his return from Spain and after the installation of a communist dictatorship, Walter Roman became the Communist Party ideologist and an editor of the Communist Party Publishing house, whilst his wife taught Spanish at the university of Bucharest. Their son  followed in his parents political shoes to become Romanian Prime Minister, having been close to the Romanian neo-communist regime of President Iliescu who engineered the coup de palais following which Ceausescu and his wife were executed.

At the other end of the political spectrum were the uprooted Romanians who sought refuge in Spain, once Romania became a Soviet-controlled dictatorship: among the latter one could cite Prince Constantin ‘Bazu‘ Cantacuzino (1905 Romania – 1958, Spain) – the step son of composer Georges Enesco. Prince Bazu was nicknamed The Flying Prince for earning his living as a stunt pilot, after he lost his immense fortune to the communist regime in Romania.

Prof Alejandro Cioranescu of the University of Teneriffe

Another prominent exile was Alejandro Cioranescu (b Romania 1911 – d. Tenerife 1999) doctor Honoris causa of the University of Tenerife at La Laguna – an expert on the Spanish baroque and on the French-Spanish bibliography his books Estudios de literatura española y comparada (La Laguna, 1954), El barroco o el descubrimiento del drama (La Laguna,1957),  Los hispanismos en el francés clásico (Madrid, 1987) and Bibliografía franco-española, 1600-1715 (Madrid 1977) remain to this day standard references in the field.

Amongst the ‘greats’ of universal literature who found exile in Spain was Horia Vintila (1915, Romania – 1992, Spain) who wrote directly in several languages including Spanish in which he published several novels such as Marta, o la segunda guerra, (Barcelona, 1987), Persecutez Boèce!, (Barcelona, 1983), Un sepulcro en el cielo, (Barcelona, 1987). He was the nominee of the prestigious French literary Prix Goncourt in 1960, a prize which he was compelled to renounce following a character-assassination witch hunt masterminded by the Romanian secret services through the French left-wing press. It is worth noting that the novel nominated by the Goncourt, “Dieu est ne en exil”, which was translated in fourteen languages was NOT in fact a political novel and it was inspired by the life of the exiled Roman poet Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) who died in Tomi, on the Romanian shores of the Black Sea.

Horia Vintila's Goncourt Prize (1960) novel translated in 14 languages

Horia Vintila was also a prolific essayist and literary critic as he published amongst other titles: Presencia del mito, (Madrid, 1956), Poesia y liberdad, (Madrid, 1959), Espana y otras mundos, (Barcelona, 1970),  Mestor de novehita, (Madrid, 1972),  Introduccion a la mundo peor, (Barcelona, 1978),  Literatura y disidencia, (Madrid, 1980),  Los deechos humanus, la novsledel sigle XX, (Madrid, 1981). Horia Vintila was professor of Universal Literature  at the Official School of Journalism and later founded the Chair of Universal Literature at the Complutense University in Madrid.

A special mention amongst the contemporary afficianados of hispanic -romanian links and an expert of Romanian literature is the former director of the Instituto Cervantes in Bucharest, Joaquin  Garrigos Bueno a prolific translator  of more than 30 Romanian novels, in particular of Mircea Eliade (Boda en el cielo,  Diario intimo de la India, Los jovenes barbaros,  La noche de San Juan) and Emil Cioran (El ocaso del Pensamiento, El libro de la quimeras, Brevario de los vencidos,) but also of Camil Petrescu, Emil Voiculescu, Liviu Rebreanu and other classics and contemporary writers.

Joaquin Garrigos Bueno - "Mircea Eliade tiempo de un centenario"

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Architect Octavian Ciupitu, “Curierul Romanesc”, Sweden, September 2009 – Book Review

October 26th, 2010 · Books, Diaspora, OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations, Reviews

Blouse Roumaine –  the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women

Review by Octavian Ciupitu, Curierul Romanesc, Sweden

(after the Romanian Text of September 2009)

The above title refers to an E-book collated and edited by Constantin ROMAN and published in English, in January 2009, by the Centre of Romanian Studies (London). This is an anthology of the lives and times of 160 women, born between 1805 and 1983, whose claim to fame is linked to Romania.  In this first edition the book contains 1,047 pages, with  black-and-white as well as colour illustrations.

Constantin Roman set out with a great deal of energy and enthusiasm in revealing the destinies of some extraordinary women who were either native-born or, as the case maybe, were closely linked to the Romanian scene. The philosophy of this book is to present, for the first time in English as a language of wide circulation, the universal value of some outstanding women, some of whom are little-known outside Romania, but also some women whose contrasting destinies gained a controversial reputation. To these are added the names of fifteen “Honorary Romanians”, by marriage or by vocation, mostly royals.

This “Hall of Fame” displays a tapestry of individual biographical essays interwoven with the destinies of world celebrities of living memory, an exercise meant to demonstrate the seminal contribution  of  Romanian culture, which unbeknown to many permeated a wide world stage.

This review refers to the 1st version of the 1st edition which has 1,047 pages divided in the following chapters:

  • Acknowledgements
  • Foreward by Catherine Durandin
  • Preface – Matisse’s ‘Blouse Roumaine’
  • Chapter 1 – Five Millennia of Romanian Women
  • Chapter 2 –  Gazetteers :

#  Gazetteer of 160 women by date of birth (1805-1983)

# Gazetteer of 160 Women presented in 58 categories by Call, Profession or Social Status

  • Chapter 3 Profiles in Alphabetical order from A to Z
  • Chapter 4 Indexes

# Index of Names

# Index of Geographical Locations

# Index of Quotations

  • Appendix Notes on Romanian and foreign spelling equivalents – surnames and nouns

Daniel Rosenthal - 'Revolutionary Romania' (19th c)

The Foreword is signed by Catherine Durandin, Chevallier de la Légion d’Honeur, French Historian and Novelist, Professor of Romanian  at the INALCO – the Institut National de Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris, author of several books on Romania, who was invested  with the Order of the Grand Cross of Romania.

The Preface chapter, entitled “Matisse’s Blouse Roumaine” is an eighteen-pages long essay on the theme of the Romanian ethnic blouse (iia romaneasca) as it is painted in the corpus of Henri Matisses’s oeuvre and beyond. Constantin Roman uses the pretext of Matisse’s iconic painting to discuss in a broader context the Romanian cultural phenomenon embodied by a woman wearing the ethnic embroidered blouse,  starting  with the canvass of Daniel Rosenthal (1820-1851) the painter of “Revolutionary Romania” (1848), then presenting Nicoalae Grigorescu’s (1838-1907) “Girl from Muscel County” and moving on to Queen Marie of Romania (1875-1938) and Princess Ileana of Romania, Archduchess of Austria (1909-1991) both of them wearing the Romanian garb, as seen in a photograph of the 1920s and finally arriving at Matisse’s celebrated eponymous canvass “La Blouse Roumaine”(1940)  now at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris and Pablo Picasso’s “Seated Woman with Book” (Norton Simon Museum, Passadena, California). Furthermore, the Preface presents two other themes entitled “A Romanian Blouse by Picasso?” and respectively “Post-WWII Romanian Women and the West”.

Chapter I: containing thirty two pages is most absorbing for its theme of  “Five Millennia of Romanian Women” which in its turn is subdivided in five separate subjects: “Women of the Carpathian-Danubian Space – Five thousand years of Civilization”, followed by “Women of Myth and Legend”, “Women of Old – from Antiquity to the end of the XVIII century”, “Modern and Contemporary Women – XIX and XX centuries” and respectively “ The New face of Romania – XXI century”.

Queen Marie of Romania, wearing the national dress

Chapter 2: has twenty four pages starting with a four-pages Timeline of Women by date of birth (1805-1983), beginning with the Revolutionary Ana Ipatescu (1805-1875) and finishing with the poet Ioana Alexandra Maris (b. 1983). This is followed by a nineteen-page Gazetteer of 160 Women within 58 distinct categories by Call, Profession or Social Status as follows: 22 Acadmics, 9 Actresses, 14 Anti-communist Fighters,  2 Architects, 9 Art Critics, 1 Book Binder, 6 Ballerinas,  20 Charity Workers, 2 Communist Politicians, 3 Courtesans,  2 Designers,  4 Diplomats,  11 Essay Writers, 6 Ethnographers,  87 Exiles or first-generation Romanians born abroad, 1 Explorer,  12 Feminists,  1 Folk Music Singer,  2 Gymnasts and Dressage Riders,  5 Historians, 15 Honorary Romanians,  3 Illustrators,  13 Journalists,  3 Librarians,  3 Linguists, 1 Literary Critic,  15 Mass Media Personalities,  5 Medical Doctors and Nurses,  1 Museographer, 1 Musical Instruments Makers,  24 Novelists,  15 Opera Singers,  14 Painters, 6 Peasant farmers,  4 Philosophers, 6 Pianists,  4 Pilots,  5 Playwrights,  29 poets, 30 Political Prisoners,  5 Politicians,  2 Revolutionaries. 34 Royals and Aristocrats,  8 Scientists, 4 Sculptors,  1 Slave, 20 Socialites and Hostesses,  51 Spouses and Relations of Public Figures,  2 Spies,  4 Tapestry Weavers,  25 Translators, 6 Unknown Illustrious,   4 Violinists, 3 Workers.

Given the aforesaid criteria, as each of the 160 women of this Anthology falls in several of the above categories, it stands to reason that the sum of all names in all categories put together are, understandably, well in excess of 160, more precisely they reach 577. To illustrate this point by giving a single example and searching for Silvia Constantinescu, the founder and promoter of the “Curierul Romanesc” Quarterly (Sweden) we find her name five times among the following categories of:  “87 Exiles”,  “13 Journalists”,  “3 Librarians”,  “15 Mass Media Personalities” and “25 Translators”, respectively.

Chapter 3: represents the main corpus of the Anthology containing 920 pages divided in sub-chapters each of these corresponding to a letter of the Alphabet. Each of the  sub-chapters is preceded by a list of names, period and date of birth and death, followed by individual biographical  essay for each woman. The structure of each entry observes an identical format: name, dates, category, portrait photograph,  quotations, critical biographical essay, primary and secondary sources, URLs and iconography. In the case of artist painters an exhaustive list of exhibitions is given; for instrumentalists and singers there are selected lists of main performances as well as recordings available on CDs and DVDs, or/and the location of Opera houses and theatres where they had main performances, or début. For the reader who wishes to find out in greater detail about the biography or achievement of particular women these references are a treasure trove of over 4,000 entries.

Chapter 4: contains 45 pages with three Indexes as follows: 20 pages – Index of Surnames, 12 pages – Index of Geographical Place Names and respectively 13 pages – an Alphabetical Index of  605 Quatations from ‘Abortion’ to ‘Zip’ and from ‘Indoctrination’ to ‘Torture’.

The ADDENDUM: is intended to guide one through the confusing differences of the Romanian and the foreign  spelling equivalents depending on the source language – Romanian, French, English, or German.

This wealth of information on women with  a varied and complex personality offers a fascinating learning curve for those readers gifted with an intelligent and inquisitive mind, who may be particularly   interested in a multidisciplinary approach of a social landscape projected against a European  history stretching over  two centuries.

As we follow the labyrinth of diverse destinies, depicted with fervour and consummate scholarship by the author, it is tempting to allow oneself to be spirited away in this ocean of  of information, where each detail competes with each other for its intrinsic value and occasionally even for its sensational dimension. The quotations too make for an illuminating reading on a path of discovery: to give only two examples which are close to the spirit and philosophy of the Curierul Romanesc Quarterly:

The first quotation is an extract from the book “La Apa Vavilonului” (At Babel’s river), volume 2 (2001) by Monica Lovinescu (1923-2008), journalist, political analyst, radio broadcaster, anti-communist and Human Rights Activist exiled in Paris:

In Romania dissidence was an exception. Our resistance was present when it did not exist in the other satellite countries and it ended just as it started with our neighbouring countries. We fought and died in the Carpathian mountains, as the West was blind and deaf, basking in its victory and forgetting its hostages. From the prisons where our élite was destroyed in the 1960s  emerged only the shadows of our earlier determination. Three successive waves of terror – 1948, 1952 and 1958 – had drained the collective organism. We caved into, a  near-total silence. We sacrificed ourselves for nothing. With this sense of utter uselessness most of the survivors emerged from the jails, some of whom, while “free”, remained at the beck and call of the Securitate..

Finally, a second quotation is extracted from the interview of September 1997 which Stefan Racovitza, an exile in Switzerland had with Silvia Constantinescu, the founder and editor of Curierul Romanesc Quarterly (Sweden):

“Yourself”… “and some other exiled Romanians, you were alluding to the inability of Western intellectuals to accept/understand the horrors of Communism and furthermore you were also alluding to the dominant position of the Left-wingers in the West. Such was the case in Sweden. This attitude made light work for the Romanian embassies and for the Romanian Orthodox Church in Bucharest to denigrate those amongst the exiles who were politically active. The same was the case in Stockholm when it came to the campaign of denigration against the “Curierul Românesc” newspaper. This was carried out as much through Romanian communist channels as through their Swedish counterparts, which were extremely enthusiastic in this vein.”

The above two quotations of this Anthology were specially selected in order to prove that the idea of keeping alive the Memory of Romania’s Calvary  under Communism  represents an important theme of this book beyond the inevitable need of spicing the interest of the Anglo-Saxon readership with lighter interludes!

For this reason alone  the idea of  disseminating the Blouse Roumaine far and wide fills in an important gap – an exercise which is long overdue.

http://www.blouseroumaine.com

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: The original  Romanian text was published by architect Octavian Ciupitu in Curierul Romanesc, Sweden (see link below). Both the author and his wife Doamna Silvia Constantinescu founders of “Curierul Romanesc” allowed the translation of the above review  to be published by the Centre for Romanian Studies (London). The illustrations and the reference to the Foreword by Catherine Durandin were further added to the English version by the Centre for Romanian Studies (London).

Source:

http://curierulromanesc.net/

by kind permission.

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Can’t find the Word for Democracy!

October 25th, 2010 · Art Exhibitions, International Media, quotations

The Times Cartoon June 1990 (Calman): "Can't fin the Worf for Democracy (in Romanian Phrasebook)"

Calman cartoon in the Times of London – alluding to the mob-rule by Romanian miners called by President Iliescu and Prime Minister Petre Roman to quell the fledgling Democracy movement in Bucharest in June 1990, only six months after Ceausescu was put down in a classic coup-de-palais:
Under the title:

“Fear of mob-rule grips Romania”(June 1990)

the caption says:

“Can’t find the word for Democracy in Romanian Phrase book”

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STOP PRESS: Romanians @ the Vancouver International Film Festival – 2010

October 4th, 2010 · Diary, International Media, Reviews

Vancouver International Film Festival - VIFF 2010

STOP PRESS: Romanians @ the Vancouver International Film Festival

(September 30 to 15 October, 2010)

Our Canadian Correspondent informs us about the following SIX Romanian Films being shown at the VIFF:

1.  Aurora
2.  The Autobiography of Nicholae Ceausescu
3.  Belly Of The Whale (Burta Balenei)
4.  Derby
5.  If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle (Eu Cand Vreau Sa Fluier, Fluier)
6.  Morgen

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AURORA:

Directed by  Cristi PUIU:  “Cristi Puiu’s first film since The Death of Mr. Lazarescu stars the director himself as a troubled engineer whose secret plan methodically unfolds as Bucharest day turns into night. A stunningly shot and uncompromising work from a contemporary master. Aurora will not be to everyone’s taste, but it is undoubtedly the work of an audacious, intelligent writer-director (and, at least for now, actor) who’s both ready and very able to deal with areas of human experience of which many other filmmakers seem barely to be aware. It was the inescapable fact of mortality in Mr Lazarescu; here it is the pain and confusion of just being alive. And Puiu’s special approach to the realist aesthetic ensures that Aurora rings unusually true. Superb stuff.” – Time Out

2.  The Autobiography of Nicholae Ceausescu

The best works of the recent Romanian New Wave directly engage with the decades of the dictatorship, and Andrei Ujica’s three-hour masterpiece gives us the raw material with which the past can help clarify the present, revealing the omnipresence of propaganda that, after the Iron Curtain was raised, was ripe for ironic reinterpretation. Ujica’s montage and mise en scène are more akin to Hollywood musicals or ‘70s epics like The Deer Hunter than a traditional historical period piece; there’s even home-movie footage revealing the dictator to be an adept hunter of bears and a cheater at volleyball. Most impressive is a series of parades with world leaders seeking to outdo themselves with fascistic splendour, culminating in an extraordinary state visit by Ceausescu to North Korea. Ujica presents Ceausescu as Ceausescu wanted himself presented. Hence, the title – and, as it’s an autobiography written by someone other than the subject, it’s a fictional wo

Most documentaries seek to control what you see; Ujica unpacks footage shot to serve its master, revealing that any footage – even propaganda – contains its own contradiction.

3.  Belly Of The Whale (Burta Balenei)

Ana Lungu and Ana Szel’s improvised, very, very low-budget discovery takes as its subject a section of Romanian society not usually examined in other films of that country’s New Wave. Belly of the Whale looks unflinchingly at these thirtysomethings with a remarkable intimacy built via a controlled mise en scène,

4.  Derby

Directed By: Paul Negoescu. Mircea has a 15-year-old daughter whose boyfriend is invited to dine with the family. He arrives early and they go to her bedroom. While watching TV, Mircea can hear his daughter moaning from her room. The dinner starts and Mircea finds out that the boyfriend supports a different football team.

5.  If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle (Eu Cand Vreau Sa Fluier, Fluier)

Directed By: Florin Serban: A cast of nonprofessional actors (including several actual convicts), keen attention to the minutia of prison life and the vérité-style camerawork employed by cinematographer Marius Panduru (Police, Adjective) leave the film steeped in atmospheric verisimilitude.

6.  Morgen

Directed By: Marian Crisan. Winner of the Palme d’Or for short films at Cannes with Megatron, Marian Crisan came upon the idea for his first feature in a local newspaper, when he read about illegal immigrants discovered in a sewer. Crisan’s hometown in northern Romania close to the Hungarian border, Morgen deals with the absurdity of the concept of national borders in an interdependent Europe. But Crisan, who possesses a keen visual sense – even by the end of the film it’s likely you won’t have realized each scene unfolds in a single take – isn’t primarily an issue-oriented filmmaker: he’s closer to 21st century Chaplinesque



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The Art of Nicolae GROZA

October 3rd, 2010 · Art Exhibitions, Diaspora, PEOPLE

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)


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