Modernizing themes from
Romanian folklore and
Byzantine art, from 1903 Smigelschi focused his effort mainly on
Christian art and modelli, including initial work for decorating
Blaj Cathedral. He was among those commissioned to paint
Sibiu Orthodox Cathedral, which required him to study religious art in the neighboring
Kingdom of Romania. Smigelschi's "new vision" combined elements of Symbolism into the Orthodox tradition—a synthesis also found in his murals for smaller churches throughout Transylvania, and in his work on
icons. His contribution was relatively ignored in Romania, but well-liked in Transylvania and
Transleithania at large, earning Smigelschi the
Vilmos Fraknói prize in 1907. After living as an expatriate in
Rome, he died of a heart disease while he was preparing to focus his work on Hungarian churches.
Biography
Background and early life
The artist's father, Mihail Śmigielski, came from
Partitioned Poland. According to historian
Nicolae Iorga, the family descended from chorąży (standard-bearers) to the
Polish king.[1] Another writer suggests a
Ruthenian background; Mihail was an
Eastern-rite Catholic, and the
Austrian Partition of Poland was home to numerous
Ruthenian Greek-Catholics. However, he does allow for the possibility that the elder Smigelschi adopted the faith after arriving in Transylvania.[1] Octavian Smigelschi's own ethnic identity has been subject to some debate, with both Polish and Hungarian suggested, but he considered himself as Romanian,[2] and was described by Transylvanians as the region's "only Romanian painter."[3]
Mihail was a member of the szlachta noble class who fled Poland following the
1848 Revolution and arrived in the
Principality of Transylvania in 1850.[4] Initially settling in
Bungard, he married Ana Sebastian, an
Aromanian from
Macedonia and also a Greek-Catholic.[5] Later, he moved to Nagyludas in
Szeben County, now
Ludoș,
Sibiu County, to work as a notary. He became involved with the cultural life of Romanian communities, and was noted for his participation in a choir which performed at
Tălmaciu in February 1887.[6] At Nagyludas, Mihail fathered four sons. One of them, Victor, obtained a Theology doctorate from the
University of Vienna, teaching the subject and serving as a
canon in
Blaj. Another, Vasile, became an architect and was influenced by
Romanian nationalism.[7] Mihail's other son, Cornel Smigelschi, died in 1892, an event which inspired Octavian to paint a number of portraits from memory, and also to produce a series of drawings and canvasses of
Abaddon.[8] Cornel is depicted in the 1892 "Young Man Reading".[9]
Octavian Smigelschi began school in his native village, and in 1880 enrolled at the
state Hungarian high school in
Sibiu. There, he became close friends with
Fritz Schullerus, and the two took art classes from
Carl Dörschlag, a German immigrant. Following graduation in 1884, he obtained a public scholarship to study at the
Drawing School and Art Teachers' College in
Budapest, headed by
Bertalan Székely, together with Schullerus.[10] At this early stage of his career, he absorbed direct influences from Székely,
Károly Ferenczy, and
Pál Szinyei Merse.[11] During summer 1886, while on vacation, he dedicated himself to drawing the rural landscapes of Szeben County, which produced a long series of drawings and watercolors, all showing echoes from the
Barbizon school, and, possibly, Smigelschi's familiarity with the artistic guidelines set by
John Ruskin.[12] Smigelschi completed his studies in 1889.[13] The following year, he applied for a scholarship in Romania, explaining that Hungary was stifling his creativity.[14] He was finally integrated by the Hungarian education system, and named art teacher in the
Upper Hungarian (
Slovak) town of
Banská Štiavnica.[15]
In 1890, Smigelschi held his first exhibition in Sibiu, alongside Schullerus and another
Transylvanian Saxon colleague.[16] In 1891[17] or 1892,[16] he was hired to teach art at the state high school in
Elisabetopol. His ambition at the time was to replicate in Romanian Transylvanian art what
Mihály Munkácsy had done for
Hungarian art, in introducing the peasant as a central character and using the events of his life to create a national iconography.[18] Smigelschi held his teaching position until 1911, when he retired in order to focus on painting, although from 1905, when he moved to Sibiu, he was on a leave of absence for the same reason.[16] During that interval, he began painting
icons, which he advertised as "the only ones befitting our canon".[3] Together with his brother Victor, Smigelschi also joined the Blaj chapter of
ASTRA Society, a Romanian nationalist association.[19]
As described by art historian Gheorghe Vida, Smighelschi's other work of the period is a transition from
Romanticism to
Symbolism, with frequent lapses into
Naturalism and
academic art. Specifically, he belongs to the branch of Symbolism cultivated by Dörschlag,
Hans von Marées,
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes,
Max Klinger, and
Béla Iványi-Grünwald.[20] Art historian Mihai Ispir views Dörschlag and Smigelschi as the two benchmarks of a transition from "the neoclassical 'ideal' to Symbolist 'idealism'".[21] Curators Sabin-Adrian Luca and Dana-Roxana Hrib describe Smigelschi's painting as bridging "temperate naturalism" and "influences from that branch of Symbolism which descends from
German romanticism".[9] As the 1890s went on, Smigelschi also became increasingly drawn to
Art Nouveau,[22] and was marginally affiliated with the
Baia Mare School of painting, which saw him crossing paths with
Ipolit Strâmbu.[23] Beginning in 1898, he undertook trips to
Munich,
Dresden,
Vienna, Budapest,
Florence,
Rome and
Ravenna, studying the local
Renaissance art.[24] He bunked with
Robert Wellman and
Arthur Coulin at
Cervara di Roma art colony.[25] Following this sojourn, Smigelschi expanded his Symbolist range. Initially, his paintings of Abaddon became more macabre; circa 1900, however, Smigelschi introduced a merrier derivation of Symbolism, exploring the motif of "wicked fairies", which has roots in
Romanian folklore.[26]
Reportedly, Smigelschi's interest in
Byzantine art first manifested itself in Italy, when he sketched after the monuments of Ravenna.[27] He was, however, opposed to the revival of
Byzantine mosaics by
Miksa Róth and others, describing the technique as "minute and menial", with the inevitable loss of artistic quality between the artistic design and the finished product.[28] He focused his neo-Byzantine attempts on more pictorial techniques. In 1903, he had contributed icons and
inconostases for twelve Transylvanian churches, including
German Lutheran ones in
Pretai and
Rumesdorf.[29] Also that year, he held his second exhibition in Blaj, featuring exclusively religious works, including modelli for painting
the Greek-Catholic cathedral. That October, his third exhibition took place in Sibiu, with 71 secular paintings and drawings.[30]
Among the displays was a 7 x 5 m carpet woven by peasant women from
Maramureș based on his indications.[31] It depicted an eagle rising above "
New Jerusalem", to a background displaying the
Romanian tricolor[32] (or, officially, the
Transylvanian colors).[33] The show drew universal acclaim due to the newness of his style and the combination of popular Romanian motifs and peasant folk art he employed. The fourth show occurred in December at the Decorative art Exhibit in Budapest, and was praised as well, including by
Octavian Goga in Luceafărul[31] and by
Károly Lyka in Magyar Iparművészet. The latter credited Smigelschi designs for Christian murals as an introduction into Byzantine and Orthodox art, but overall more lively than its canons. Lyka noted that the exhibit had been planned without giving Smigelschi due credit, but that "his name shan't remain unknown for too long."[34]
Meanwhile, the old
Romanian Orthodox cathedral in Sibiu had been demolished in 1902 and
a new building begun.[35] This project drew Smigelschi's attention, who asked "his lifelong friend", journalist
Valeriu Braniște, to intervene and help him obtain the commission. In his letter, he declared himself best positioned to promote an "utterly national-Romanian" art that would continue to interest foreigners.[36] A competition opened in November 1903, with fifteen Romanian, German and Hungarian participants.[37] A committee composed of
George Demetrescu Mirea,
Ion Mincu and
Friedrich Miess narrowed the field down to three finalists. In April 1904, Smigelschi was selected to execute the interior painting,[38] having outbid the original favorite,
Hans Bulhardt.[39] He was paid 32,000
crowns for the cupola, the
pendentives and the iconostasis.[40] At this time, he began to focus on traditional styles of painting, seeking to strike a balance between large-scale murals and the architectural surroundings which they were not supposed to overshadow. Accordingly, in 1904, Smigelschi crossed into the
Romanian Old Kingdom as well as the
Duchy of Bukovina in order to study the churches and monasteries where the Romanians' spiritual heritage is expressed,[41] familiarizing himself with the Byzantine style that came to complement his knowledge of Renaissance painting. Reluctantly, Smigelschi also had to incorporate suggestions from the monk
Elie Miron Cristea. Cristea repeatedly asked him to abandon all influences from
Armenian art, which reportedly appeared in his original designs; in private notes, Smigelschi complained that Cristea was uneducated and unproductive.[42]
In this second creative period, Smigelschi nearly abandoned all other genres in favor of monumental work.[9] He analyzed old painted churches at
Tismana,
Cozia,
Bistrița,
Horezu,
Curtea de Argeș,
Bucharest,
Snagov,
Sinaia,
Iași,
Suceava,
Sucevița,
Dragomirna,
Putna,
Rădăuți,
Humor,
Voroneț and
Cernăuți.[43] His own work, in churches at
Șanț,
Rădești, Sibiu,
Ciacova and elsewhere, reflects attention to tradition but not a mere reproduction thereof. From Byzantine models he took the monumental size and decorative look; this was infused with the Renaissance and German schools, in particular
Arnold Böcklin, to create a neo-Byzantine style most evident in the Sibiu cathedral.[44] In a number of Transylvanian churches, particularly in the
Năsăud area, he painted icons and sometimes entire iconostases.[45] This period saw him transposing some of his Sibiu projects in smaller form, as he did at the Greek-Catholic Churches of Fabric (
Timișoara) and Rădești, and at Ciacova Orthodox Church.[46] Smigelschi also used his study of
Gavriil Uric's calligraphy in his
illuminated manuscript of the Gospel, completed for Bishop
Victor Mihaly de Apșa,[47] and in diplomas for Albina Society founders, which also carried his personal seal.[48]
After moving to Sibiu in 1905,[40] Smigelschi was able to complete his commission there by the time the new cathedral was dedicated in May 1906.[49] As a speaker of German and Hungarian, he fit easily into the city's artistic milieu,[22] though he intended his contribution to emphasize "Romanianism", at a time when Romanians were still a minority in Sibiu.[50] According to theologian Ioan Abrudan, the result is "liberated from Neoclassical naturalism", and mostly resembles work put out by the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the
Nazarene movement, being similarly indebted to
Fra Angelico and
Sandro Botticelli.[51]
Features of his cathedral work, which he himself published as prints in Luceafărul,[52] include
Christ Pantocrator in the cupola, the
Four Evangelists on the pendentives and the painted iconostasis. Mostly done in
casein paint,[53] it was retouched by Coulin.[54] The Sibiu project extended notions of a purely Romanian art to cover all details of the creative process. As attested by Braniște, Smigelschi was only interested in depicting the saintly figures as ideal Romanians, and purposefully avoided showing Christ as a "
Jewish type".[55] Romanian folk motifs are used in the clothing worn by the
Three Magi,
the shepherds and
the child angels with the star, while the
Nativity of Jesus is transposed to a Romanian setting.[56] Various authors suggest that the Magi are each inspired by a ruler of the Romanian provinces (
Moldavia,
Wallachia and Transylvania):
Alexander the Good is taken from Sucevița,
Neagoe Basarab from Curtea de Argeș and
Matthias Corvinus from a period engraving.[57]
Immediately after completion, the Sibiu murals were reviewed by a specialists' commission headed by
Arthur Verona, who provided a lukewarm reception.[58] According to Iorga, Smigelschi persisted in his goal to paint a church of his own in Romania-proper, and presented his designs during the 1906 national exhibit in Bucharest, "the Capital of his People". He was sidelined in favor of "others, better seen and better connected".[59] However, the icons he presented at the exhibit did earn Smigelschi a state prize, worth 250
lei;[60] his Blaj carpet was also put on display for the occasion.[61] Another portrait of Neagoe Basarab was included by Smigelschi in a 1906 mobile
triptych, alongside a heroic scene from the
Siege of Plevna and a panel showing sowers stricken by the vision of a better world.[62] The work was an unsuccessful competitor in a Bucharest art show, accidentally rediscovered in 1908 by collector Francisc Hossu-Longin, but since lost. It enjoyed an episodic fame as a symbol of Romanian nationalist aspirations, after it was printed into a set of postcards commissioned by Iorga and Hossu-Longin.[63] Accumulating influences from
Bertalan Székely and direct borrowings from folk art, it was also controversial for including highly realistic elements done from life—including a possible depiction of Smighelschi's wife as
Despina Doamna.[64] The triptych also featured a slogan authored by Iorga and Goga.[65]
In 1907, along with painting at Ciacova, Smigelschi donated funds to the families of those killed during
the peasants' revolt.[66] The following year, Smigelschi won a competition for the
Vilmos Fraknói prize, guaranteeing him 3,000 crowns annually, a studio and a residence in Fraknói's Rome house.[67] In September, he also organized an exhibit at the
Budapest Kunsthalle—side by side with
Ignác Roskovics' works, and drawing favorable mentions from Hungarian critics (including Miklós Rózsa of A Hét newspaper).[68] In 1909, Smigelschi painted the Greek-Catholic church in Rădești. During this time, he began to show symptoms of heart disease that grew progressively worse. He received an order for painting the altar in a Rákóczi chapel in Hungary, which remained unfilled, while painting for the Blaj cathedral and the remainder of the Sibiu cathedral was left in the planning stages.[69]
In his final years, Smigelschi returned to modelli and created a series of
mannequins, possibly intending to extend into sculpture. As noted by historian Nicolae Sabău, no buyer encouraged his work in the field.[70] He also intended to execute a triptych for the 1911
International Exhibition of Art in Rome, but this remained undone due to a heart attack.[69] He was expected to continue working at Sibiu Cathedral, but church authorities began looking elsewhere after hearing news of his affliction.[71] In August 1911, he was attested at living in Rome; his paintings were noticeably absent from the ASTRA Jubilee exhibit at Blaj, which took place that month.[72] In 1912, with his disease worsening, he left for treatment at
Bad Nauheim. Smigelschi then traveled to Budapest, where he took part in a contest for painting a chapel in
Košice. He died in Budapest in November 1912.[69] His brother Victor claimed the remains and had them buried in Blaj.[73]
Iorga, in his obituary piece, claimed that both Catholics and Orthodox Transylvanians felt "undying sorrow, [sensing] that a century may pass and another painter like him [...] may still not be born." The deceased, he argued, had instilled a "new vision of the world".[74] Likewise,
Octavian Codru Tăslăuanu of Luceafărul writes that Smigelschi's "innovation created a school", although withholding judgment on "whether the innovation was for the better".[52] However, as asserted by Ispir, Smigelschi's neo-Byzantine approach was a "perishable tear into the threads of tradition". It replaced the "post-Byzantine customs" of traditional church art with a more academic and "
historicist" school.[75] Among Smigelschi's imitators in the 1910s was Antonino Zeiler. An Italian immigrant from the
Austrian Littoral who had worked with him at Caciova and
Uifalău,[76] Zeiler was in turn the art teacher of Mărioara Maior—both of them showcased at the ASTRA Jubilee.[77] Another disciple was Virgil Simionescu, who completed murals for the Orthodox Church of
Orșova in 1926.[78]
Retrospective exhibitions before
World War I include an October 1913 show at the Budapest Kunsthalle, also honoring Coulin and
Bertalan Bartolomaus Papp; his paintings and drawings were arranged by his widow, who answered repeated pleas from the Hungarian Art Society.[79] A review in Vasárnapi Ujság expressed regret that Smigelschi's large-scale decorative art had been doomed from the start by the popularity of
Impressionism and the declining interest of public art bodies: "his individuality remained fluctuating, hesitant, because he was not given the space where he could have blossomed."[80] The following month, Victor Smigelschi published a Românul article critical of Romanian authorities, noting that his brother had been bypassed in the contest for decorating
Galați Orthodox Cathedral.[81] In early 1914, however, Romanian official critic
Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș spoke at ASTRA to criticize Smigelschi's use of textile motifs in his Sibiu murals. A note in Luceafărul acknowledged his claim and how it managed to persuade "even those who were previously supportive of Smigelschi's system".[82]
Most of Smigelschi's works were bought and preserved by the
ASTRA Museum, then transferred to
Brukenthal.[83] According to scholar
Virgil Vătășianu, the sketches are the artist's most important contributions, and as such the most important artworks produced by a Transylvanian Romanian in the pre-1914 era.[84] The
Transylvanian union with Romania in 1918–1920 integrated Smigelschi's work into a more general project to develop a style of monumental painting that would bridge traditionalism and modern sensibilities. As noted by Abrudan, Smigelschi's example was followed by artists with more or less compatible tastes:
Anastase Demian,
Costin Petrescu,
Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck, and
Olga Greceanu.[85] Of this group, Demian was actually involved in a lengthy process to restore and complete the murals at Sibiu Cathedral: after signing a contract in 1936, he was allowed to work on the project only in 1960–1962.[86] His work upset church authorities, who asked
Iosif Keber to take over and complete the project.[87]
Overall, Smigelschi's work remains relatively unknown in Romania. Museologist Alexandru Chituță argues that this is because the
communist regime of 1948–1989 had outlawed his Greek-Catholic Church, making references to him uncomfortable; and also because critics and historians were generally not based in the region were Smigelschi was most prolific.[17] The other Smigelschis continued to be active in Romania, following the Transylvanian union. Smigelschi's son, Victor, was an architect noted for designing Blaj's Palace of Culture in 1930[88] and
Satu Mare's old administrative palace (the "most important civil architecture building in interwar Transylvania") in 1935;[89] he also contributed the Romanian pavilion at
EXPO Paris 1937.[90] He married the Italian Maria Anna Giuseppina Trinchieri; their progeny includes two daughters, both of whom are noted artists: ceramist Ioana Șetran and printmaker Ana-Maria Smigelschi.[91]
^"Consemnarea membrilor 'Asociațiunii pentru literatura română și cultura poporului român'. Starea dela 1 Iulie 1903", in Analele Asociațiunii pentru Literatura Română și Cultura Poporului Român, Issue IV, July 1903, p. 70
^Szilveszter Terdik, "A templom művészete vagy a művészet temploma. Az 1908-as egyházművészeti kiállítás és recepciója", in Pannonhalmi Szemle, Vol. 12, 2004, pp. 95–96, 103. See also Gogâlea, p. 22
^Oliver Velescu, "Ușile unui iconostas bănățean de la începutul secolului al XIX-lea. Istorie, descriere și câteva considerente privitoare la arta bănățeană", in Buletinul Comisiei Naționale a Monumentelor, Ansamblurilor și Siturilor Istorice, Vol. V, Issues 1–2, 1995, p. 13
^A. Lupeanu, "Pânzele pictorului Smigelschi.—Expoziția din Budapesta", in Unirea, Issue 99/1913, pp. 4–5. See also "Művészet és zene. 1913", in Kincses Kalendáriom 1915-re, p. 180
^F. Z., "A Műcsarnok kiállítása", in Vasárnapi Ujság, Issue 41/1913, p. 814
^"Smigelschi și România", in Unirea, Issue 119/1913, p. 5
^Claudiu Porumbăcean, "O dată de referință din istoria Sătmarului - 13 decembrie 1936" p. 9
^Luminița Machedon, Romanian Modernism: The Architecture of Bucharest, 1920–1940, in Mărturii Culturale, Vol. I, Issue 4, October–December 2016, pp. 301–303. Cambridge:
MIT Press, 1999.
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Ioan Abrudan,
"Un posibil model artistic neo-bizantin: decorul Catedralei din Sibiu (1904–1906)", in Revista Teologică, Vol. XVI, Issue 2, April–June 2006, pp. 56–75.
"Catedrala Mitropolitană din Sibiu, acum 50 de ani", in Transilvania, Issue 1/2017, pp. 19–29.
Alexandru Constantin Chituță, "Octavian Smigelschi — inițiatorul picturii monumentale și naționale bisericești", in Transilvania, Issue 1/2017, pp. 30–49.
(in Romanian) Dorin Gogâlea,
"Octavian Smigelschi", Seria Personalia, Issue 1, Sibiu: Biblioteca Județeană ASTRA, 2006.
"Tripticul Național 1906", in Acta Muzei Napocensis, Vol. II, Issues 41–42, 2007, pp. 255–273.
"On the Creation of Painter Octavian Smigelschi. Toward a Reassessment of Landscape", in Acta Mvsei Napocensis. Historica, Vol. 51, Part II, 2014, pp. 191–215.