#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."

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#Exhibit of the Month

September 2023

The cannon from Grinăuți-Moldova

Fire artillery in Romanian space is attested from the first half of the 15th century. The oldest pieces of artillery are the bronze and iron bombards discovered in the fortresses of Giurgiu, Severin, Bârlad and Orheiul Vechi.

The exposed cannon was discovered in the village of Grinăuți-Moldova, Ocnița district, it dates from the second half of the 15th century. From a typological point of view, in the central-eastern European space, the cannon from Grinăuți-Moldova is a unique piece.

It is a short-barreled mortar-type artillery piece that fits perfectly into the line of bombards in Europe used in the second half of the 15th century - the beginning of the 16th century.

The cannon was used to launch projectiles (bullets) at the enemy behind fortifications or natural obstacles. The projectiles were loaded through the mouth of the barrel. The firing angle was over 45 degrees, and the trajectory of the projectile was curved with a range of up to 300-400 m. In Europe, these cannons were called mortars, and in Romanian space they were designated by the word piua, thanks to the shape of this object.

The cannon from Grinăuți-Moldova was discovered by chance in the "Red Bank" location, located 15 km southwest of the Lipnicu plain where Lord Stefan the Great defeated the Tatars in 1470. According to a legend from the village of Grinăuți-Moldova, in the "Red Bank" location, a military confrontation between Moldovans and Tatars would have taken place prior to the battle of Lipnic.

The cannon from Grinăuți-Moldova is made of cast iron by the casting method. The barrel is provided with a single hole in the front, the opposite side being blocked by the flat bottom with flared edge. The inside of the pipe is a relatively wide channel that narrows slightly towards the bottom. Loading with powder and cannonballs was done through the mouth of the cannon. A hole is provided near the base for the wick to ignite and detonate the dust inside the cannon. The surface of the cannon is embossed. The edge of the mouth is thickened, slightly curved. Two cylindrical supports with a diameter of 3.5 cm are provided in the central part of the body of the cannon in the axis, which served as handles for the installation and handling of the cannon on a wooden frame.

The length of the cannon is 30.0 cm, the maximum diameter of the body - 17.8 cm, the outside diameter of the mouth - 19.4 cm, the diameter of the body in the middle - 13.5 cm, the outside diameter of the base - 17.0 cm, the caliber of the cannon (mouth diameter) is 12.8 cm, the length of the inner chamber of the cannon - 27.4 cm, the weight of the cannon - 18,730 kg.

The cannon from Grinăuți-Moldova entered the custody of the National Museum of History of Moldova through the care of local history teacher Vlad Lvovsky.

The conservation of the piece of cultural heritage was carried out by Valeriu Bubulici, and the reconstruction of the atmosphere by the restorer Mihail Culașco.

#Exhibit of the Month

Constantin Brâncuși in Medallistics

September 2023

The cannon from Grinăuți-Moldova

#Exhibit of the Month