#Exhibit of the Month

To mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși, 2026 was declared by the President of Romania the Year of Constantin Brâncuși. Constantin Brâncuși, one of the greatest sculptors of the twentieth century, was born in 1876 in Hobița, Gorj County, and passed away in 1957 in Paris; he was buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery. In 1904 he arrived in Paris, where he attended courses at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. There he also worked in the studio of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), the founder of modern sculpture, and met Amadeo Modigliani (1884-1920), the Italian sculptor settled in France. Inspired by the work of these artists, he perfected his artistic training in Paris. His works are held in museums both at home and abroad, in the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries, France, and the United States of America. For his outstanding merits he was awarded the Order of the Star of Romania in 1923; in 1931 Nicolae Iorga proposed him for the Order of Cultural Merit; and only in 1990 was he posthumously elected a member of the Romanian Academy.
One of the artist's most famous creations is the sculpture Mademoiselle Pogany, considered a national symbol of modern Romanian art. Its protagonist was Margaret Pogany (1879-1964), a young Hungarian painter who came to Paris in 1909 to study painting techniques. Visiting her studio, she asked the sculptor to make her portrait, even leaving him a photograph and a self-portrait. In 1911 Brâncuși sculpted her likeness from memory in marble and in bronze, focusing on the deep, large, almond-shaped eyes, the subdued eyebrows, the narrow nose, the small mouth, the austere hairstyle and the modest gesture of the hands, rested against the face. Between 1912 and 1933 he produced nineteen versions of Mademoiselle Pogany.

The commemorative medal "Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1976). Expoziție Filatelică Omagială - București 1976" was struck in Romania at the State Mint by the engraver Ștefan Grudinschi. Executed in bronze with a diameter of 60 mm and a weight of 113.73 g, the medal is remarkable for its memorial and artistic value. Obverse: the sculptor's bust facing left, with the semicircular legend "CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI - 1876-1976." Reverse: a fragment of the triptych The Gate of the Kiss. Semicircular legend: "EXPOZIȚIA FILATELICĂ OMAGIALĂ - BUCUREȘTI 1976."
The medal "Constantin Brâncuși. Mademoiselle Pogany. Craiova Art Museum. 1987" was also executed in bronze at the State Mint (Bucharest); it has a nominal diameter of 60 mm (because of the circular cutting the actual dimensions are D: 45 mm; weight: 53.55 g). The obverse shows, in the central field, an image of the Craiova Art Museum framed by the semicircular legend "MUZEUL DE ARTĂ - CRAIOVA / 1987." The reverse depicts a replica of the sculpture Mademoiselle Pogany made by Brâncuși's pupil O. Moșescu, accompanied by the inscription "CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI - M-elle POGANY / 1913."

Virtual Tour

#Exhibit of the Month

September 2022

Needle case

This is a case for needles, unusually large in size. It was used in the Stone Age as a container for storing and preserving small and fragile items. The case was discovered by the famous researcher Ilie Borziac in 1996 during archaeological excavations at a multi-layered Upper Paleolithic site in the village of Cosauți, Soroca district. The artifact was found at a depth of 9.7-9.85 m in a loess-like occupation layer, among the remains of a seasonal deer hunter camp (in the so-called occupation layer 5). The occupation layer was dated by radiocarbon method to 18140 ± 180. The object is 17.6 cm long and 1.5 cm in diameter. It was made of a thin-walled tubular bone, probably of a large bird (eagle, bustard or gull). The ends of the object were cut across. A round hole 5 mm in diameter with carefully polished edges was made at one of the ends.

The entire surface of the product is polished to a shine. It is ornamented with notches. The notches are applied rhythmically around the entire perimeter. They, without a doubt, indicate that the work was made by human hands. The length of the notches is 3-3.5 mm. They are located transversely, grouped in three rows. The number of notches in the rows is 8/8, 16/10, 14/7, with an average distance between notches of 4 mm.

The researchers who addressed the issue of the functionality of this rare archaeological piece, put forward several hypotheses. One of them is that the artifact probably had a multifunctional practical utility. According to one hypothesis, the presence of a hole at one end of the object indicates that it is a flute. This opinion was called into question due to the identification of only one obvious hole on the surface of the artifact. Most likely, the presence of the hole indicates that a thread was passed through it to hang the case with needles in order to protect and secure it. On the other hand, the relatively large size of this object also allows it to be used as a coupling. According to another version, this kind of vestiges could be used by hunters to remove skins from hunted animals, as a tube for pumping air under the skin of small animals in the process of skinning them. This not only greatly facilitated the removal of the skin, but also kept the subcutaneous fat intact.

Specimens of equally large sizes, similar to the one found at the ford on the Dniester, made of tubular bone with cut off epiphyses, were discovered at several Neolithic sites in Yakutia. Here they were used as needle cases. Some of them were found with needles inside, which confirmed their practical functionality.

#Exhibit of the Month

Constantin Brâncuși in Medallistics

September 2022

Needle case

#Exhibit of the Month