In the sec. XIX Romanian art completely leaves its Byzantine character; consciously turns to the West. Gheorghe Asachi, who did his studies in Vienna and Rome, amateur, but influential in Moldovan public life and director of the first art school in Iaşi, founded in 1841, was one of the first champions of the new artistic current. Foreign artists, German, Italian and French, who visited the Romanian principalities, and the painters C. Lecca in Muntenia and M. Popp in Transylvania also contributed to this movement. With them the classical period was inaugurated, of which the most noteworthy representative was G. Tăttărescu, followed by S. Henţia and GD Mirea. French oriental realism was represented by Th. Aman, painter, engraver, and first director of the Bucharest School of Fine Arts. First realist and creator of the Romanian landscape was N. Grigorescu, followed by I. Andreescu. Impressionism is represented by G. Popescu, while St. Luchian went from realism directly to a more constructive though richly colored style. With him the period of contemporary Romanian painting is inaugurated, in which almost all the modern currents are represented, but all characterized by a certain measure, due to the fundamental agreement of a naturalist vision, and by a note of lyricism. Among the many modern painters we remember Sabin Popp (1896-1928), St. Dimitrescu (died 1933), G. Petraşcu, M. Bunescu, Iser, N. Tonitza, Teodorescu Sion. At the beginning of the twentieth century there was also a new orientation in religious painting. The classicism of the century. XIX had also penetrated into the church, but O. Smigelschi started the Neo-Byzantine style, a modern construction style, which tries to preserve the decorative values of the Byzantine line and color. Similar principles follow C. Petrescu, A. Damian and C. Bogdan.
According to listofusnewspapers, the artistic movements of Germany are rather reflected in the painting of the Saxons and the Hungarians of Transylvania. Among the most important painters we note K. Dörschlag, H. Eder, L. Mezey, G. Müller-Merész.
As for monumental sculpture, this had never flourished during the Byzantine era, and not even Transylvania has monuments of it apart from some modest Baroque works of the century. XVIII. The first sculptors were foreigners (eg, K. Storck, progenitor of a whole dynasty of Romanian sculptors). Then came the Romanians I. Georgescu and Şt. IonescuValbudea, who studied in Paris, and represent classicism. In the spirit of the various modern schools work D. Paciurea, I. Falea, C. Medrea, O. Han and others. C. Brâncuşi is one of the creators of “synthetic” sculpture.
The architecture underwent towards the end of the century. XVIII the decisive influence of the West. But the fruitful era of modern constructions began only after the proclamation of Romanian independence (1877). Towards the end of the 1st century Mincu created the so-called “Romanian” style. Followers of the Mincu are G. Cerchez, P. Antonescu, Duiliu Marcu, etc.
The minor arts. – Among these the most characteristic is the wood carving that adorns the houses, the rustic objects, and numerous church doors (Cotmeana, about 1389; Snagov, about 1517). Stone sculpture developed in Wallachia and Moldavia under Byzantine and Eastern influence, on tomb lids, while in Transylvania it flourished in the Baroque era on epitaphs. The goldsmith’s, very rich, at the beginning of the century. XIV is affected by Western influence; from the century XVII onwards is below that of the East. Its production centers were some Romanian monasteries and some Saxon cities. Among the goldsmiths we remember Sebastian Hann (1644-1713). The luxurious embroideries of liturgical use and the funeral sheets constitute an important artistic branch, cultivated in the monasteries since the century. XIV (in Tismana) or from the century. XV (in Putna) onwards.
