#Exhibit of the Month

Around thirty icons from the collection of the National Museum of History of Moldova feature Saint Nicholas the Hierarch and Miracle Worker. While most represent the later iconographic tradition, a few early images stand out as rare examples due to their composition.
In the icon "Saint Nicholas with Scenes from His Life", the hierarch is depicted bust-length, blessing the Gospel. He is framed by two round medallions showing Christ and the Mother of God, who hand him the Gospel and the omophorion. Saint Nicholas, earlier than other saints, was portrayed with scenes from his hagiographic cycle. The first images of his life date back to the 11th century, represented on a folding icon from the Monastery of Saint Catherine at Sinai.

The museum icon dates from the early 19th century, preserving the traditional chest format typical of classical icons. Twelve panels illustrate episodes from the saint's life, arranged from left to right: four on the upper register, four on the lower, and two on each side, as follows: Birth of Saint Nicholas (1), Baptism of Saint Nicholas (2), Miracle of Healing the Crippled Woman (3), Apprenticeship of Young Nicholas (4), Ordination as Deacon (5), Ordination as Bishop (6) Vision of Constantine (7), Saint Nicholas Saves Three Voivodes from Execution (8), Miracle of Rescue from Drowning (9), Miracle of Saving Basil from the Arabs (10), Dormition of Saint Nicholas (11), Translation of the Relics of Saint Nicholas to Bari (12).

Saint Nicholas the Hierarch is commemorated by the Orthodox Church twice a year: on December 6/19, the day of his birth, and on May 9/22, the day his relics were transferred from Myra to Bari (1087). Among all saints of the Christian world, the image of Saint Nicholas is one of the most popular, easily recognizable even to those unfamiliar with iconography.

He was born in the Roman Empire, at Patara in the province of Lycia, between 260-280, though early sources omit the exact date. Coming from a wealthy family, he rejected fame and luxury. From an early age he devoted himself to prayer and the study of Holy Scripture, while also mastering other disciplines. He avoided noisy gatherings and idle talk, attended church regularly, and pursued a life of chastity. Later he dedicated himself to pastoral ministry, defending the Christian faith with perseverance and firmly opposing heresies.
Through his care for people and the benefactions he performed everywhere, he became highly venerated not only in Myra but also in the surrounding regions. The grace of the Holy Spirit dwelling in his heart was revealed through miracles performed both during his life and after his death, earning him the enduring title of "Miracle Worker." Saint Nicholas passed away in the 330s (circa 334-337), and his remains were placed in a sumptuous marble tomb in the episcopal cathedral where he had served for many years. This soon became an important center of pilgrimage.
Holy Tradition has preserved with accuracy the features of his portrait, and his appearance in icons is marked by a distinct individuality. Ecclesiastical art has produced numerous iconographic representations, ranging from bust images to full-length depictions. The diversity of these representations suggests that the final iconography of Saint Nicholas was not yet established, taking shape only in the 10th-11th centuries. It is said that an authentic icon from the basilica in Myra, executed during the saint's lifetime and mentioned in written sources as early as the 11th century, played a significant role in his veneration.
Icons depicting the hagiographic cycle of Saint Nicholas spread widely in both Byzantine and post-Byzantine art, confirming the importance and popularity of his cult.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“Bucharest: a Novecento portrait”

2-31 May 2019

The Bucharest Municipality Museum in partnership with the National Museum of History of Moldova presents the "Bucharest: a Novecento portrait", a photo exhibition to be on display in Chișinău at the National Museum of History of Moldova. The exhibition, which can be seen from May 2-31, 2019, presents a trip through Bucharest in the 20th century and shows the urban and architectural development of the city.

The way we want to live today, and our desire to have an ideal home, owes much to the 20th century, achievements or failed experiments that have taken place over the past 100 years. The present project aims to map the human geographies of the 20th century and the overlapping "maps" do not belong exclusively to the past, but rather to an ongoing present that attempts to define a possible forecast for a medium term.

The city is like a living organism. And it was born because we built it to resemble our lives, but also to change it in the end. The city was from the very beginning the social, cultural, economic and political instrument through which we have experienced throughout millennia ways of living, socializing, confrontation projections and transactions, all set to serve the desire for comfort in the day-to-day life. And this daily life has imposed during the historical stages the typology of requests that periodically modeled the offer. It is, in fact, a true food chain. We cannot say that we, from the present, have lost something, unlike our parents or grandparents 80 or 100 years ago. But we see images that differ, starting from clothing details on the street landscape. The difference is only given by the changes that have occurred in the sphere of spiritual characteristics. The inside is, in the end, the starting point for changing everything. Both in our lives and in everyday life.

People on the street are a barometer of urban civilization. What they represent by attitude, clothing, rigor, and especially what they consume every day or at certain age. But the city inhabitant has a home life differentiated from a professional and cultural calendar and always enriched and diversified by accumulation and multiplication. His story and Her story, from 1900 to 2000, from grandfather to grandnephew, does not have a consistent precedent in Romanian historiography. The history of living, the space of the house, the accessories of the domestic areas have their story. But there is also the axis of a horizontal time, that of repetitive ages with each generation: childhood, adolescence, maturity and old age. How the faces of these ages looked from 1900 to 2000 is an anthropological challenge and Bucharest can be an interesting case study for Romania's cultural history.

Cities are constantly moving. Bucharest is a city that lives in ambivalence. It also suffered a lot, but it always knew how to regain its peace and joy to live. Bucharest is the city of simultaneous different speeds; it is a city of different cultural spaces. All because Bucharest has always been an open, accessible, welcoming city with all those who were looking for a new homeland. Bucharest has been and continues to be the homeland of many people coming from various cultural areas. And the presence of these people, their desire to live differently from home, made Bucharest a cosmopolitan city.

This twentieth-century journey aims not only to show in detail the evolution of urban society, but rather to show some changes in behavior, way of life, concerns, and even type of habitation and inner surroundings.

We, of the present, with the way we want to live and the aspiration of everyone for the ideal home, are with all these landmarks, twentieth-century tributaries of successes or failed experiments that have taken place over the last one hundred years.

In the organizational team of the exhibition are included Dr. Adrian MAJURU - Manager, Dr. Dan PÎRVULESCU - Deputy director, Dr. Vasile OPRIŞ - Head of History section, Ana IACOB - museographer and Ştefan CSAMPAI - exhibition graphics (Bucharest Municipality Museum) and Dr. hab. Eugen SAVA - General director and PhD student Mariana VASILACHE-CUROȘU - Deputy director (National Museum of History of Moldova).

#Exhibit of the Month

Icon “Saint Nicholas with Scenes from His Life”

“Bucharest: a Novecento portrait”

2-31 May 2019

#Exhibit of the Month