#Exhibit of the Month

German porcelain is highly prized among antique collectors for its exceptional material quality, originality, and the meticulous craftsmanship of its decorative design.
The museum's collection preserves five figurines from one of the oldest porcelain manufactories in the Thuringia region of Germany - the statuary group known as *"The Musicians"*, crafted at the Volkstedt manufactory. These pieces entered the museum's holdings in 1991, acquired from a resident of Chișinău. With undeniable historical and artistic value, they bear the distinct imprint of the Rococo style.
The Volkstedt manufactory has a long-standing tradition in producing figurines, including those depicting musicians. In 1760, Georg Heinrich Macheleid - inventor of hard-paste porcelain in Thuringia - founded a production workshop in Zitzendorf, which was relocated to Volkstedt in 1762. Macheleid led the manufactory until 1764. Over time, the factory changed ownership and management multiple times. Under the direction of Christian Nonne, it flourished between 1767 and 1797, a period marked by significant artistic development. Volkstedt began creating figurines that would later gain international recognition.
It was during this flourishing period that the museum's porcelain statuettes, titled *"The Musicians"*, were produced. They depict five “putti”: four playing musical instruments (flute, mandolin, horn, and pipe), while the fifth conducts. Each figurine is entirely handcrafted - from modeling to painting - and delicately adorned with pastel tones and gilded details, capturing the playful movement and refined artistry of each musician. The base is made of mass-colored porcelain in a rare grey-green hue. The contrast between green, white, and gold accents lends the ensemble an unusually delicate appearance. These ornamental features are characteristic of the Rococo style, which emerged in France and is closely associated with the reign of King Louis XV.

The mark applied to the figurines consists of two crossed forks, clearly rendered in underglaze blue, with slightly blurred paint - a detail that helps date their production. Because the crossed forks often resembled the crossed swords of the Meissen trademark, the Volkstedt manufactory was compelled to change its mark starting in 1787. Initially represented by a single fork, the mark briefly returned to two forks before being replaced in 1800 by the graphic symbol "R", referencing the town of Rudolstadt. Therefore, the brief period during which the two-fork mark was reinstated - and during which the museum's figurines were likely produced - is estimated to be between 1787 and 1800.

The statuettes range in height from 10 to 18 cm and are preserved in relatively good condition.

These late 18th-century German porcelain pieces, now on display, are exceptionally rare. They stand as true works of art by German craftsmen and serve as important historical testimonies to the evolution of porcelain manufacturing in Germany.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“Science and Society in Bessarabia of the Modern Times”

(April 30 – October 1, 2010)

The exhibition is organized in partnership with the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History, the National Library, and the Museum of Romanian Literature. The exhibition aims to familiarize the public with the history of science in Bessarabia in the modern times. For the first time there were combined and exhibited the most important museum collections reflecting the works and daily activity of Bessarabian scientists (documents, books, photographs, personal things, awards, etc.) Having been organized for familiarization of cultural and scientific values kept in different collections, the exhibition also has some collateral objectives:

-   making-up of estimative/evaluative inventory of the museum collections in the field of “the development of science” in Bessarabia in the 19th – early 20th centuries;

-   reconstruction of some exhibition segments presenting the evidences of the place and role of science in the development of Bessarabian society.

   Due to these 222 exhibits the visitors can discover a significant chapter in the history of the Bessarabian science in the modern times. The exhibition includes items which belonged to Alexandru Sturdza, Alexandru Hajdau, Costache Stamati, Alexis Nacu, Stefan Margela, Iacob Hancu, Bogdan P.Hasdeu, Polihronie Sircu, Alexander Yatsimirsky, Leon Casso, Arseny Stadnitsky, Zamfir Arbore, Ion Surucean, Axente Fruna. Being an expression of the creative power of several generation of the Bessarabians for more than a century, these valuable items (studies and research monographs, journals, annals of scientific societies, manuals) constitute an evidence of a great cultural raising in Bessarabia under the influence of Russian culture (after 1812). In a whole, the exhibits are an expression of a message through the works of high culture – the message of the resistance and victory of the Bessarabian Romanians in the time of the foreign domination.

   Scientific life in Bessarabia in the first half of the 19th century is presented in the exhibition through the activity of some scientific societies which had their headquarters in Odessa (Bessarabia was the administrative authority of the Governor-General of New Russia):

- The Imperial Agricultural Society of South Russa (1828) (the Bessarabian A. Sturdza was one of its establishers and its vice-president between 1833 – 1847);

- The Odessa Society of History and Antiquities (1839). In the journal of this society there were published many works written in the first half of the 19th century by the Bessarabians: Alexander Sturdza, Costache Stamati, Alexis Nacu, Carol and Matei Cotruta, Ion Surucean and others.

In the exhibition there are used a series of works written by foreign authors during the 19th century. These works constitute an impressive part of scientific research carried out by the imperial order in and about Bessarabia (A. Egunov, L. Berg, A. Zashchuk, P. Batyushkov, etc.). Simultaneously, there are exhibited works of Bessarabian authors, which were written or published in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, Bucharest (Stefan Margela, Iacob Hancu, Polihronie Sircu, Alexander Yatsimirsky, Leon Casso, Arseny Stadnitsky, Zamfir Arbore, etc). By the end of the 19th century the historical investigations carried out by several generations of Bessarabians resulted in delineation of research priorities:

-   Ion Surucean has laid the foundations of local epigraphy
-   Ion Halippa is the founder of local archive studies
-   A. Yatsivirsky and Polihronie Sircu are the founders of Bessarabian Slavic studies.
In the late 19th – early 20th centuries in Bessarabia there is a tendency of association in societies and scientific organizations. Their activities also are reflected in the exhibition:
-   Scientific Commission for Archives from Bessarabia (1898)
-   Historical and Archaeological Church Society (1904)
-   Society of Naturalists (1904), an exemplary centre of high scientific and practical organization in the field of agricultural research. Its activity is directly related to the establishment an activity of the Zemstvo Museum (collection of documents, photographs, entomological and ornithological exhibits). The work of the society is in line with local tradition in the field: College of Horticulture (1842) was the first agricultural research centre in Bessarabia (N. Mogilyansky, N. Zubovsky, N. Dimo, M. Pautynsky, P. Ungureanu).

Finally, in the exhibition there are presented a series of publications from 1912, original scientific papers, which are a national treasure (albums, calendars, studies, etc.). On the walls of the exhibition room there are photographs of the universities from St. Petersburg, Sorbonne, and Odessa; statutes of the scientific societies; a gallery of portraits of scientists from Bessarabia.

-Nicolai Dimo (in center) in his laboratory-