English version of the exhibition's labels and posters.
May 2023 – 2024, MNIT headquarters
The exhibition opened on Friday, at the headquarters of the National History Museum of Transylvania.
Visitors will have the opportunity to get to know the craftsmanship of the ceramic workshops in Etruria and Magna Grecia (southern Italy), from the 5th - 4th centuries BC. Chr., through exceptional exhibits. The vessels arrived in our country largely as a result of donations made by passionate collectors of the 19th and early 20th centuries, when such purchases were a real fashion. Pieces were later donated to museums.
The National History Museum of Transylvania has in its heritage vessels with red figures produced in Etruria and Magna Graecia, in the 5th - 3rd centuries BC. Chr. These, together with the red-figure vessels in the heritage of the National Museum of Antiquities, the Bucharest Municipal Museum, the National Museum of the History of Romania, the Argeş County Museum, the Moldova Museum Complex, the Museum of the Country of Crișurilor and the Museum of Oltenia, make for a journey exhibition in the schools of red-figure vessels from Etruria and Magna Graecia from the 5th - 4th centuries BC. Chr. and the context in which they were used.
The journey begins in Athens, where the craft of red-figure vessel painting was discovered sometime around 530/520 BC. Chr. Attic red-figure vessels will have significant exports to Etruria and Magna Graecia, and from the middle of the XNUMXth century, in these regions, local craftsmen begin to produce red-figure vessels after the Athenian model.
The vessels to be displayed were mainly used in a funerary context, being part of the props of the deceased or being brought as offerings to the grave. As a surprise, the journey we propose is an adaptation of a painted tomb from that period, more precisely the one known as the Tomb of the Ruvo Dancers. The ballerinas from Choreography and Dramatic Art High School "Octavian Stroia" from Cluj-Napoca.
The exhibition journey concludes with timeless echoes of Greek art, illustrated by contemporary ceramic vessels with shapes and decorations inspired by ancient Greek pottery. Thus, in the last room of the exhibition space, vessels produced by the students of the Professional School of Stone and Clay Industry from Odorheiu Secuiesc, established in 1873, and some pieces in the MNIT heritage, most likely produced in the XNUMXth century, purchased by different collectors of in the antique markets.
Work team:
Content:
- Mariana-Cristina Popescu - curator.
- Melinda Mitu- curator.
- Gabriela Gheorghiu – collaborator.
- Diana Bindea - conservative.
- Ana Gologan – conservative.
- Ioana Cova, Beatrix Mago, Cornelia Rotariu: restorers.
Construction:
- Károly Török, Anca Bâlc, Dana Gheorghe-Şerban – design.
- Florin Runcan, Alexandru Runcan – installations.
Communication:
- Geanina Simion – marketing, promotion.
- Monica Bodea, Sanda Man – museum education.
External collaborators: Sorin Târt, TD Studio – design; Cristian Rusu, Cluj-Napoca National Theater – scenographer.
We also enjoyed the support of: the National Archives of Romania, the Cluj County Service, the Art Museum, Cluj-Napoca, the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Bucharest, the Babeș-Bolyai University, the Faculty of Geography, Cluj-Napoca, the Technical University, Cluj-Napoca, the Romanian Academy, the Cabinet of Stamps, Bucharest, and the Romanian National Opera, Cluj-Napoca.
