CASE STUDY1895

A Romanian Copy of an Italian Painting

The case of Daniele da Volterra’s "Descent from the Cross"

by Petre Alexandrescu at Antim Monastery in Bucharest

By Oana and Dumitru Gorea

Antim Monastery is an architectonic, sculptural and pictorial complex that represents the synthesis of an artistic evolution in art and one of the 18th century’s most representative monuments of Romania.The monastery was erected between 1713 and 1715 by the metropolitan bishop of Wallachia¹, Antim Ivireanu.

Sacred to "All Saints", the church was built after architectural plans drawn by Antim Ivireanu himself, a connoisseur of the arts of drawing, sculpture, architecture and printing. Two of the monastery plans, executed on paper and parchment, can be admired in the State Archives nowadays.Because of his artistic skills, it is assumed that the frescoes of the Antim church were executed under his direction, after his drawings, or that he took part in the painting of the ensemble, along with the artist Preda Zugravul². A testimony to this assumption is Antim Ivireanu’s manuscript, located at the Romanian Academy, where hundreds of painted medallions of biblical characters prove his talent as a painter.

Between 1860 and 1863, due to earthquakes, floods and poor maintenance, Antim Monastery entered a complex process of restoration, including the conservation of the interior mural painting. Next to significant architectural interventions such as the reconstruction of the two towers, the addition of a neo-gothic rosette in the narthex and the iconostasis replacement, the original mural painting was removed due to its advanced state of degradation and the church was redecorated with oil paintings by Petre Alexandrescu.

The most recent restoration of the church took place between 2004 and 2006 and focused on the conservation of the interior paintings. The restoration was based on a project made by conservator-restorer Gabriela Stefanita and the works were coordinated by architect restorer Claudiu Moldoveanu.

Our intervention in this campaign was to restore the scene "Descent from the Cross" located in the narthex on the west wall. As shown further, this scene became singular by studying and comparing it with other representations from the church.
The complex and laborious process of restoration gradually led to the emergence from under various deposits and repaintings of a very interesting painting, depicting the "Descent from the Cross". In this scene, the characters are sculpturally represented, showing the tension and energy of the experience. The tumult of the movements is put into evidence by an interesting compositional scheme arranged on 2 diagonal registers, descending from the upper right corner onto the left bottom corner.
With the development of the written documentation for the restoration work, at the archives of the Theological Institute library, the historic starting point of this dynamic and spectacular scene was found, giving us the answer to why this composition is unique in the mural ensemble from Antim.
The scene "Descent from the Cross" by Petre Alexandrescu is a copy of Daniele da Volterra’s famous painting, made in 1541 in the Trinita dei Monti chapel in Rome. By comparison, almost no distinction can be found between the two artworks in terms of design and general composition.

After finding out this information, the question that arose was how it was possible for Alexandrescu to have such a good knowledge of the well-known Italian painter’s work. This became clear when we began to seek and collect data about the training and artistic activity of the artist.
Less known personality in the Romanian art because of the short period in which he worked as a painter, Alexandrescu was born in 1828. His predilection for art was manifested early, becoming professor of drawing at the age of 17. In this position, he is noticed by Prince Stirbei and in January 1851 he is sent abroad for completing his studies in Vienna and Rome. In exchange, a statement found at the State Archives shows that the artist engaged to undertake the job of public school teacher after completing his studies. In fact, he is following the courses of Academy of San Luca in Rome as student of maestro Natale Carta until 1856, continuing in Paris as a student of Cogniet after this date.

After finishing his studies, Alexandrescu returned to Romania and became known as a portraitist, working also as professor of drawing, next to Theodor Aman and Gheorghe Tattarescu. This was the most creative period of his career, period when his most important works were executed, such as the mural painting from Antim Monastery and from the St. Nicholas Church in Braila. At the same time, he is also remarked as a religious easel painting artist.

Influenced by his training abroad, Alexandrescu made a series of copies after the German painter J. Fr. Overbeck, whom he had probably met in Rome, and after the French Girodet. We can assume that his preferences were not confined solely to contemporary artists and that he was also impressed by a number of Italian Renaissance masters.
Thus, it is normal to suppose that he will make copies after the frescoes of Daniele da Volterra, using his "Descent from the Cross" as a model for the scene from the Antim Monastery. The documents from the archive confirmed our presumption. A note mentions the existence of a canvas painting at the Peles Palace (Sinaia) representing the same scene of da Volterra, possibly executed by Petre Alexandrescu. Following this information, we continued our research at the National Museum of Peles, where several documents mention that the painting was held there. The first statement of this work appears in King’s Carol I painting collection catalogue, made by Leo Bachelin and published in Paris in 1898. On page 50, item 35 is the canvas "Descent from the Cross", with the size of 1.27 x 0.87 cm. A second mention of this painting can be found in Alexander Busuioceanu’s "Galeria de pictura a Maiestatii Sale Carol al II –lea al României", published in Paris in 1939.

In 1948 the painting is taken over by the then Ministry of Arts and Information, and entered in the heritage of the National Museum of Art, where it remained until 1955 when it was transferred to the Regional Museum of Iasi. In 1963, the canvas was definitively moved to the Heritage Collection in Iasi, together with 79 other paintings, sculptures and graphic documents from the collection of the National Museum of Art. In its current evaluation sheet, the painting is marked "anonymous author" and is dated 16th century. The information presented above related with data resulting from the restoration of mural painting from Antim Monastery made us to assign this painting to the painter Petre Alexandrescu. Our next aim is to continue this research by physical- chemical examination so that we can scientifically prove that the work held by the Moldova Museum of Art belongs to this talented painter.

In conclusion, we can state that the purpose of this study is to reveal the creation of a very talented but less known painter, who brought from Occident a new breath into Romanian painting. His painting represents a twist in thematic and representation, a break from the Byzantine canons, where multiple characteristic scenes for the Eastern Orthodox style were replaced with complex compositions, standing as a single scene to cover an entire wall. The painting from Antim church retains imitation elements of Renaissance artists in both composition and style, being so well executed that it can be regarded as the greatest artistic merit of Alexandrescu. Being the only work inherited from this artist, withdrawn from the artistic life too early, in 1868, the painting from Antim can be considered an important step in mural painting development in our country.

Notes:

*The extended version of this article was presented in the Conservation-Restoration Workshop for the Artistic Components of Historic Monuments, March 20 - 21, 2008, Bucharest.