Icon painted by Nicolae Grigorescu for “admission” to Agapia Monastery, up for auction! Extraordinary exhibition that tells the unknown story of the opera!

In the symbolic month of gifts for the soul, Artmark PreseNTs Christmas Auction – Sacred Artan event that occasioned, during the collection of the lots, an exciting discovery: the identification in a collection of an absolute rarity – the icon “The Mother of God with the Child”made by Nicolae Grigorescu during the time he worked for the Agapia Monastery.

Its documentary-artistic value is exceptional. “With her, it seems, he prepared for the test to obtain the contract for the painting of the Agapia Monastery church”, explains art historian Ioana Beldiman, who emphasizes the founding role of this period in the formation of the master. The icon, what it has in the event of the house A10 by Artmark the starting price of 18,000 euros, illustrates the exact moment when Grigorescu introduced into Romanian sacred art the freshness of living faces, the chromatic brightness and the human sensibility that would become defining for local modernity: “In a context where religious painting was deeply dominated by Byzantine canons or schematic academic models, the intervention of the young iconographer brings a genuine breath of renewal and plastic expressiveness”.

The image has been beautifully described since 1910 by Alexandru Vlahuță, the artist's friend and first monograph: “In the middle of a fiery light – a kind of golden bruise, which would be the color of eternity – the Mother of God sits in the clouds, with her right hand on the globe, with her left hand holding the baby Jesus, who, resting her elbow on the globe, raises her right hand as a sign of blessing. Both she and the child look into infinity… A prodigious song of colors. What can words say about the beauty of a song?”.

Alongside this central piece, the event brings together an important Transylvanian collection of icons on glass – with works by illustrious painters Petru from Topârcea, Constantin Boghină jr., Matei Tâmforea, Pavel Zamfir and Ioan Pop from Făgăraș – and marks a research first: the discovery of the first icon signed by Nicolae Antauthorship that will contribute to the reassignment of a series of icons previously considered generic as coming from the workshops of the Făgăraș-Rupea area. Collection of the deceased lawyer Constantin Vișinescu it is distinguished by rigor, coherence and rarity, having been formed over more than three decades, and can be considered a landmark of private Romanian sacred art, as it brings together some of the most representative icons on glass of the Transylvanian and Mountain schools of the 18th-19th centuries, carefully selected for authenticity, state of preservation and iconographic value. The pieces, which were mostly acquired directly from old families or small local collections, capture the diversity of icon makers – from the centers of Nicula and Făgăraș to mountain workshops – and include rare themes (for example: icon on the glacia with “The Last Supper”made by the painter Ioan Pop from Făgăraş, in the first half of the 19th century, a very rare work that enters the auction from 500 euros).

Also present in the selection of this auction are two collection pieces that belonged to the writer Ion Minulescu – wooden icon “Saints Constantine and Elena”made by the Romanian school in the first half of the 19th century, with tempera and gold leaf (from 300 euros) – and of the former politician Corneliu Vadim Tudor – the Greek triptych icon “The Mother of God with the Child, Saint George and Saint Demetrius”made in 1891 (from 700 euros).

All the selection dedicated to this Christmas auction which takes place on December 9, from 18.00, both at Cesianu-Racovița Palaceas well as online, on Artmark Live platformcan be found in the catalog published on the house's website, but also in the exhibition at the gallery in str. CA Rosetti no. 5. Daily (from Monday to Sunday), always with free entry (between 10.00-20.00).

Article supported by A10 by Artmark