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Showing posts with label Art Nouveau. Show all posts

Târgu-Mureş - Secession details

Cantacuzino Palace

Built in 1899–1902 by Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino (known as “The Nabob”, former mayor of Bucharest, leader of the Conservative Party, and one of the richest men in Romania ever), the architectural ensemble was designed by architect Ioan D. Berindei.

The Cantacuzino Palace can be found at 141, Calea Victoriei (Victoria Road), Bucharest. After G. G. Cantacuzino died in 1913, the palace was inherited by his son, Mihail G. Cantacuzino and his wife, Maria (also known as Princess Maruca, born Rosetti-Tescanu); after the premature death of her first husband, Maruca re-married in 1939, becoming the wife of George Enescu, Romania's greatest composer. In the 40’s, the palace hosted the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and since 1947 the Institute for Romanian-Soviet Studies.

After the death of George Enescu, in 1955, his wife donated the domain to the Museum and to the Composers’ and Musicologists’ Union of Romania, to be dedicated to the memory of the musician. Thus, on the 19th of June 1956, George Enescu Museum was opened. The museum gathers documents and pictures referring to the composer’s life and work. Among other exhibits, there also is the violin the composer received as a present when he turned 4 year old. There are regular classical music concerts hosted by the palace (many of them being organized by the Polish Cultural Institute), and this is a good time to visit the building (for otherwise, the main hall of the palace is not included in the regular museum visit).

The palace was set in French Baroque style with Art Nouveau elements. The façade’s richness in sculptural decoration is notable. On the top of the entrance, the circular fronton bears the princely coat of arms of the Cantacuzino family. The facade is dominated by the main entrance; above it there is a giant shell-shaped porte-cochére and two stone lions guard the stairs and the door that mingle harmoniously with the statues and other ornaments in the Baroque style, and wrought iron balconies surround the home's tall windows.

For the decoration of the building, the architect collaborated with several recognized artists of the time. The mural paintings were made by George Demetrescu Mirea, Nicolae Vermont, Costin Petrescu and Arthur Verona, the sculptures and the ornamentation are made by Emil Wilhelm Becker, while the artfulness of Krieger House in Paris can be admired in the interior decoration (tapestry, chandeliers, lamps, stained-glasses).

Art Nouveau stained glass in Oradea

The echo and influence of the artistic movement that took place in 1900 brought a new spirit in all modern creation, which in a fact is a final blow to the academic eclecticism, removing its canons and a chivvying through invention originality a great artistic diversity.

The stained glass, the opaque and colored glass that is still preserved in the staircases or the people's houses are of great elegance and equilibrium due to its line which draws with precision spatial transparent moving, in a graphic language of rare elegance, in which big spots of color represent dominant compositions of good quality decorative conception, in harmony with the architectural style. As an architectural expression, the ornament as structural symbol, on the one hands, and the qualities of the glass on the other one, benefits by the intimate the relation that will determine the form, that's the symbol of the object which acquires artistic value. Here are some stained glass decorations from famous Art Nouveau Style buildings in Oradea:

Black Eagle Palace (Komor Marcell & Jakab Dezsö, 1907-1908)

Vágó House (Vágó Jozsef & László, 1905)

Ertler House (Mende Valer, 1909)

Elixir Pharmacy

Ullman Palace, (Löbl Ferenc, 1913)

Park Hotel

Dr. Nemes House (Mende Valer, 1909)

Darvasy Palace (Rimanóczy Kálmán Jr, 1910)

Darvas La Roche House (Vágó József & László, 1911-1912)

28-30, Libertăţii Street

5, Vasile Alecsandri Street

2, Avram Iancu Street

2, Avram Iancu Street

From here>

Secession Style in Oradea

In the early 20th century, in Oradea is spreading a new style, creating a stylistic diversification based on assumption of inventions and originality. The new style, Secession, had two great periods - the curvilinear and floral one, and a second with simpler geometric forms. The most important architects of this current were: Komor Marcell, Jakab Dezsö, Sztarill Ferenc, Mende Valér, Vágó József & Laszló, Rimanóczy Kálman junior. Their works were inspired by the Munich, Berlin, Vienna and Budapest Secession.