Drawings in Antiquarian Research: Historical Architecture of Romania in the 19th-Century Arts

Abstract

This article explores the documentary-artistic value of historical architecture in the works of a few artists working in Romania after the mid19th century, against the dream of ՙneutral’ depiction or scientific objectivity in rendering historical vestiges and architectural monuments through art. For any antiquarian interests in the drawing of architecture as an art subject in the second half of the 19th century, in the Romanian case the searches are limited to very specific artists, trained in Western or Central-European academies of art, usually not ethnic Romanians in this interval, who worked in the Romanian Principalities (then, Romania) occasionally or permanently, and in most relevant cases were commissioned by the State institutions or directly by the future King to produce such art. How we could use their art works in the field of historical and architectural studies and what are their limits, will make the object of this article.

Keywords

• 19th-century art
• romanian architecture
• medieval / premodern monuments
• antiquarianism
• archaeological drawing
• restoration
• detail