The “Mother of God with Child” icon, made by Nicolae Grigorescu during the time he worked for the Agapia Monastery, is being auctioned in Bucharest, with a starting price of 18,000 euros.
The icon was auctioned PHOTO: Artmark
The lot can be admired at Artmark, in the Christmas Auction – Sacred Art session.
Its documentary-artistic value is exceptional. “With her, it seems, he prepared for the test to obtain the contract for painting the Agapia Monastery church”, explains art historian Ioana Beldiman, who emphasizes the founding role of this period in the formation of the master. The icon illustrates the exact moment when Grigorescu introduced into Romanian sacred art the freshness of living faces, chromatic luminosity and human sensitivity that would become the defining elements of local modernity:In a context where religious painting was deeply dominated by Byzantine canons or schematic academic models, the intervention of the youngbrings an authentic breath of renewal and artistic expressiveness to the icon”, writes News.
The image is superbly described since 1910 by Alexandru Vlahuţă, the artist’s friend and first monograph: “In the middle of a fiery light – a kind of golden bruise, which would be the color of eternity – the Mother of God is standing in the clouds, with her right hand on the globe, with her left hand holding the baby Jesus, who, leaning his elbow on the globe, raises his right hand as a sign of blessing. Both she and the child look into infinity… A prodigious song of colors. What can words say about the beauty of a song?”.
Along with this central piece, the event brings together an important Transylvanian collection of icons on glass – with works by the illustrious painters Petru from Topârcea, Constantin Boghină jr., Matei Ţâmforea, Pavel Zamfir and Ioan Pop from Făgăraş – and marks a research premiere: the discovery of the first icon signed by Nicolae Furnică, the authorship of which will contribute to the reassignment of a series of icons previously considered generic as coming from the workshops of the Făgăraș-Rupea area. The collection of the late lawyer Constantin Vişinescu is distinguished by rigor, coherence and rarity, having been formed over more than three decades, and can be considered a landmark of private Romanian sacred art, as it brings together some of the most representative icons on glass of the Transylvanian and mountain schools of the 18th-19th centuries, carefully selected for authenticity, state of preservation and iconographic value.
The pieces, which were purchased, for the most part, directly from old families or small local collections, capture the diversity of icon makers – from the centers of Nicula and Făgăraş to mountain workshops – and include rare themes (for example: icon on the glaze with “The Last Supper”, made by the painter Ioan Pop from Făgăraş, in the first half of the 19th century, a very rare work that is auctioned from 500 euros).
Also present in the selection of this auction are two collection pieces that belonged to the writer Ion Minulescu – the wooden icon “Saints Constantine and Elena”, made by the Romanian school in the first half of the 19th century, with tempera and gold leaf (from 300 euros) – and the former politician Corneliu Vadim Tudor – the Greek triptych icon “The Mother of God with the Child, Saint George and Saint Demetrius“, made in 1891 (from 700 euros).
The entire selection dedicated to this Christmas auction, which takes place on December 9, from 6 p.m., both at the Cesianu-Racoviţă Palace and online, on the Artmark Live Platform, can be found in the catalog published on the house’s website, but also in the exhibition at the gallery in CA Rosetti Street no. 5. Daily (from Monday to Sunday), always with free entry (between 10.00-20.00).
