7/23/2019 Treasures From Romania at the British Museum

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Treasures from Romania at the British MuseumAuthor(s): William WatsonSource: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 113, No. 817 (Apr., 1971), pp. 234-235Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/876628.

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7/23/2019 Treasures From Romania at the British Museum

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CURRENT

AND

FORTHCOMING EXHIBITIONS

(No.20)

should

be

compared

with

Wilson s

Rome

from

the

Ponte

Molle.

It

is clear

that,

like

Wilson,

Cozens

was

primarily

in-

terested,

not

in the world of classical

antiquity

or the

details of

topography,

but

in

shapes

and

the

relationships

between

shapes, space,

tone,

light,

at-

mosphere

and

movement. From

his

second

Italian

journey,

when he accom-

panied Beckford, seven sketch-books sur-

vive,

two of which

are exhibited

(No.

I

o

I).

Comparison

of

the

pencil

and

wash

sketches

on

the

pages

opened

with

finished

water-colours

of these

subjects,

hung

nearby,

shows that

he

drew

no more

than he

needed;

forms are

already

generalized,

and

effects of

nature,

with

which

he became

increasingly

preoccupied

(Fig.84),

were

usually

superimposed

on

the

composition

later,

in

the

studio. The

range

of

his

effects,

in

the

last

decade of

his

activity,

is as

great

as the

variety

and

subtlety

of his

compositions.

He can use

light

to create a

feeling

of tension and

unease

(Fig.83);

he

can

use

it

to

convey

the serenity of a summer afternoon (Fig.82).

Mountains

over

a Lake

(No.92),

an

example

in mint condition

in which Cozens s

deep

blues

sing

out,

is an

essay

in the

Sublime;

other mountain scenes

(Fig.8i)

have

an

almost oriental

delicacy.

Everything

Cozens

required

for his

art

was contained

in his Italian

experience,

and his work thereafter

consisted of

pro-

ducing

water-colours,

exquisitely

sen-

sitive in their tonal

gradations

and

balance,

derived

from

his sketches

and his

response

to the Italian

scene

(it

is

presumably

because

he had

no need

of fresh material

that

so

few

English subjects

survive).

The names

of

eight patrons,

including

Rowlandson s friend Wigstead, are listed

as

ordering

versions of the

Pays

de Valais

(No.2),

and

four variants

of

The

Lake

of

Albano

and

Castel

Gandolfo

are

shown

together

here

(Nos.28-3I):

all

differ

very

slightly

in

the

disposition

of details

of

foliage,

bushes and

clouds,

and

one

includes

in the middle

distance

a

smoking

chimney,

a

compositional

device

(see

also

Fig.83)

later

used

with

great

effect

by

Girtin.

It

is

possible,

in the

Whitworth,

to

study

Cozens

in relation to

English

water-colour

as a

whole;

and one of the

most

revealing

comparisons

is between his

brilliant

sketch

The

Cloud

(No.Ioo),

in

which

the

washes are

loosely

brushed in

without following the pencil outlines, and

Turner s Coniston

Fells. In

some future

exhibition

it would be instructive to

see

Cozens

against

the

background

of

the

I770 s

and

in relation to

his

contem-

poraries

and immediate

successors,

so

that one could

test

in

detail

the truth

of

Constable s

well-known

remark that

John

Cozens

was the

greatest

artist who

had ever touched

landscape .

JOHN

HAYES

Treasures

from Romania

at the

British

Museum

After

a tour

in

Europe

this

exhibition

now

finds

its

way

to the

British

Museum.

Occupying

the

eastern marches of the

classical

world,

lodged

between Medi-

terranean

naturalism

and barbarian

traditions of

abstract

design,

then between

Renaissance humanism

and the hieratic

convention

of the eastern

church,

the

heirs

of

the

Daco-Getae

prove

to be as

coinposite

in

their

art

history

as in

their

Latin-Slavonic

language.

If

we allow

all that the cataloguers claim for the

continuity

of

artistic

creation

in

the home-

land of the

Romanians,

we

still find

great

satisfaction

in

noting

anticipated

con-

frontations

of

styles

and forms.

As

for

political history,

the

hoards of buried

objects

which constitute the

greater part

of the exhibition

are

eloquent

of invasions

and

flights.

The earliest

section

is

assembled

to

set

off

chiefly

the neolithic

figurines

of

clay,

male

and

female,

evidence

of

a

plastic

style

of

astonishing

sensitivity,

owing

more to the

palaeolithic

tradition

of Central

Europe

than

to the

practice

of

costadial

cultures

in

the

Mediterranean

area (Fig.85). A bronze battle axe, various

ornaments and

a

dagger

of

gold,

speak

still

of

the

circumscribed world of

the

middle bronze

age;

but

in

the metalwork

of

Pre-Roman

Dacia

(fifth

to first

century B.C.) great

helmets and

goblets

of

repouss6

gold

and silver stand

for new

and dramatic relations.

Their

ornament

reflects the

lasting

direct influence of

the

Urartian bronze manufacture and

trade

dating

from the

eighth century.

In

figures

of

horsemen and

griffins,

deriving

ulti-

mately

from

the same

source,

one

detects

a

kinship

to the art of the

Illyrian

situlae

and

through

it

to the most archaic

stratum

of

Hellenic

art

(Fig.86).

It is uncertain how far this circle of

ideas was

reconciled

with the artistic

vision

and

political

impact

of

a

very

different

world,

that of the

Steppe

nomads,

represented by plaques designed

in abstract animal form which are

ascribed to the same

period.

To

say

that

Dacian metalwork

had

assimilated

Scythian,

Celtic,

Greek and Roman

influences

implies

at

once too little and

too much.

The

objects

are found near

together,

but the

styles

corresponding

to

the

various

ethnic entities fall

very

distinctly

apart.

The

human face

formed

on the

upper part

of a

greave

is in

the

purest

Celtic

sculptural style,

and

possibly

the finest piece of its kind.

There is

also,

not acclaimed

by

the

cataloguers,

a

strong

Achaemenid ele-

ment,

represented

for

example by

an

animal head

in the Craiova

Treasure,

where

it

accompanies plaques

of the

Scythian (or

rather

Sarmatian)

fashion.

A

phial

with

omphalos

decorated with a

formal

design

of

lotus

buds is also Achae-

menid,

of the most

casually

sophisticated

variety

of

that

art; and,

a wonder to

behold,

a

parcel-gilt

silver

rhyton,

be-

tokening

an

oriental

affinity

shared with

the classical

world,

displays figures,

standing,

seated,

absorbed and

staring

from a blank

ground,

in which

the

psychological

transformation

of

sub-an-

tique

art is

epitomized.

The Persian

influence

can

be traced into the

Sasanian

period,

in

the

great

gold

ewer of

the

Pietroasa

Treasure

of

the

fourth

century.

The

twelve-sided

gold

cup

in

the

same

treasure,

of

oriental

shape

(the

whole of

it is in

open-work

-

can

it

have

held

a

glass

liner?)

is

fitted with

garnet

studded

gold panthers fully in keeping with the

Migration style

-

a

phase

otherwise

represented

by

brooches

etc.

of

quite

normal

types.

The

Pietroasa dish

on

the

other

hand

is

a

suave

conglomeration

of

degenerate

classical

forms with

other

presumed

local

themes in

which

the effort

to

assimilate what is

disparate

is

the most

prominent

feature. It is

in

these

last

works

that

the

question

of

local

adap-

tation

of

foreign

style

in

the

early

period

may

best

be studied.

Such

an

object

as

the oval

ornament

of

the Surcea

Treasure,

which

depicts

a

horseman

with an

eagle

alighting

on his

head,

perhaps

to

confirm

the

hero s

victory,

could

also be

examined

for strictly local characteristics, but in

general

its

period

(first

century A.D.)

is

dominated

by powerful

stylistic

irrecon-

cilables

(Fig.87).

It

is

amusing

to

see a

helmet,

dated to

the fourth

century

B.C.

and said

to be of Celtic

La

Tene

affinity,

on

which

the

eagle,

attached as a

crest

(and

now

eked

out with

perspex

to

the

consternation of

the

naiver

visitor)

makes

a

presumption

of

the like

charism

of

god

to

hero.

Compared

with

what

has

been

des-

cribed the

medieval

period

is

sparsely

represented,

so

that

the

age

which

saw

the

unification

of

Walachia,

Transyl-

vania,

Moldavia

and the

Dobroudja

into

the territory of Romania leaves us

guessing

most of

all. What of

the

Early

Slav

cultures? What

of

the

foundations

of the

art

of

the Eastern

Church

in a

region

so

near

the

homeland of

the

Orthodox tradition?

We

are

still

among

treasures,

but

ecclesiastical,

unburied

ones. Most

striking

exhibits

are

large

book covers of

silver

gilt,

notable for

their

attenuation of

Orthodox

conventions in

favour of a

figural

style

reflecting

the

Gothic and

even

Renaissance

Italy

(Fig.88).

On an earlier

piece,

the

tabernacle from

the

Monastery

of

Bistrita,

is

a

franker

portrayal

of the

Crucifixion

han

one nor-

mally

looks for

in

Orthodox

art;

and the

belt buckle from the tomb of Prince

Vladislav

I

of

Wallachia

(i365-i377),

in

the form of a

turreted and

crocketed

shrine,

is

elaborate with

medieval in-

genuity

that

is

wholly

western.

The

exhibition,

with its

catalogue,

is

one

of

the best

presented

that it has

been

our fortune to see in the

British Museum

in recent

years.

Its

promoters,

Romanian

and

British,

are alike to be

congratulated.

Rarely

for the

historians have so

many

unfamiliar artistic vistas been

revealed

in

a

single

event.

WILLIAM

WATSON

235

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85.

Female

Figurine.

Late

Neolithic,

from

excavations at

Vinatori.

Polished

baked

clay;

height,

17.5

cm

(Exh.

British

Museum.)

86.

Goblet,

rom the

Agighiol

Treasure.

Fourth

century

B.C.

Silver;

height,

18

cm.

(Exh.

British

Museum.)

87.

Oval

Ornamentrom the Surcea

Treasure. First

century

B.C.

Silver;

height, 7

cm.

(Exh.

British

Museum.)

88. Book

Cover.

Late

fifteenth

century.

Silver

gilt,

with rock

crystal

studs,

35

by

23-5

cm.

(Exh.

British

Museum.)