2024. April 26. Friday
Temesvár Fine Art Museum - Timişoara
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Address: 300085, Timişoara P-ţa Unirii nr. 1
Phone number: (256) 491-592
E-mail: muzeuldeartatm@clicknet.ro
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 10-18
The "European Paintings" permanent exhibition is closed at the moment due to resurrection! |
Ormós Zsigmond (1813-1894), the founder of Banat Museum, started buying the objects of art after 1857, when, because of political persecutions, he sold his fortune inherited from his uncle and autoexiled to Italy. He studied the history of Italian art in the 14-19th centuries, he visitied museums, libraries, archeological excavations and the studios of the artists in this country and in the West of Europe, he took part in public auctions of objects of art. A few works bought first were sent to the museum in Budapest, then he tried making up a personal collection following mainly the picture of Venice, come out of the studios of the famous masters' disciples.
The antiquarian's advice and his moderation guided him towards the collections already known, registred and studied. The rich archival material, resulted from his epistolary activity, reveals his continuous interest in looking for some pieces which might complete his museum. His letters were adressed to antiquarians from Vienna (ecpecially to the Egger brothers), to the shop owned by Joseph Anmüller from München or to contemporary artists, good friends of him (from München, Budapest, Nagyvárad, Versec) and they were ashing for information regarding the objects of art for sale, found in contemporary exhibitions or taken to actions after the death of some artists or collectors. His endeavour of collecting the works of the great masters was doubled by the intention of publishing a dictionary of the artists from this regions. Even if his many notes are a proof of it, this plan remained unfinished because of his sudden sickness.
In order to constitute the collections, their initiator had to own considerable material resources. This fact explains their apparition in the houses or castles of the richer personalities (noble, rich bourgeoisie, bishops, lawyers, doctors, artists etc.). Most of the castles' inventories can't be recovered anymore, even if we have got some separate pieces, considered to be part of a known unit, it is very difficult to establish their obvious origin or affiliation.
The castles' and mansions' inventaries were plundered not only after the First World War, but also (more seriously) in the years following the second world conflagration. The pieces destroyed - or recovered by means of a long restauration - don't reflect the great whole which they were taken our of. We can talk only about the documentary information guiding us through the richness of the Nákó family's castle in Nagyszentmiklós or in the rooms of the castles in Beodra and Bánlak, once residences of the Karátsonyi counts. Some pieces of furniture, a few miniatures and paintings entered our museum 10 years after the end of the Second World War. They are the proof of very rich, diverse collections sheltered once in the two castles. Grouped in categories one could also find: pictures, miniatures, armours and old arms, books, oriental carpets, furnitures, sculpture and etnographic objects.
From the beginning of its activity in Temesvár (Timişoara,Temeswar), the specialty institution, the museum, founded in 1872, had highlighted, among its many objectives, the support and promotion of art characterising the region in which it emerged.
In its pinacotheca, besides the acquisition and presentation of the work of art brought from abroad - especially from Italy, Western Europe and Hungary - the museum intended to include the artistic creations executed in the areas of Banat region, both to support their authors and promote the artistic values leaving the local studios. These ideas guided the founder of the Banat Museum, Ormós Zsigmond, in the second half of the 19th century; these principles also influenced the activity of directors such as Berkeszi István (1853-1922), Ioachim Miloia (1897-1940) and Aurel Ciupe (1900-1988), the managers of the museum, who succeeded him in the management of the institution in the first half of the 20th century.
In time, the art collections in Banat had been constituted on the basis of these principles. Given the modest sums of money, the museum aimed to buy valuable artistic items directly from exhibitions, artists and their families, from the owners willing to sell or donate them.
The antiquarian's advice and his moderation guided him towards the collections already known, registred and studied. The rich archival material, resulted from his epistolary activity, reveals his continuous interest in looking for some pieces which might complete his museum. His letters were adressed to antiquarians from Vienna (ecpecially to the Egger brothers), to the shop owned by Joseph Anmüller from München or to contemporary artists, good friends of him (from München, Budapest, Nagyvárad, Versec) and they were ashing for information regarding the objects of art for sale, found in contemporary exhibitions or taken to actions after the death of some artists or collectors. His endeavour of collecting the works of the great masters was doubled by the intention of publishing a dictionary of the artists from this regions. Even if his many notes are a proof of it, this plan remained unfinished because of his sudden sickness.
In order to constitute the collections, their initiator had to own considerable material resources. This fact explains their apparition in the houses or castles of the richer personalities (noble, rich bourgeoisie, bishops, lawyers, doctors, artists etc.). Most of the castles' inventories can't be recovered anymore, even if we have got some separate pieces, considered to be part of a known unit, it is very difficult to establish their obvious origin or affiliation.
The castles' and mansions' inventaries were plundered not only after the First World War, but also (more seriously) in the years following the second world conflagration. The pieces destroyed - or recovered by means of a long restauration - don't reflect the great whole which they were taken our of. We can talk only about the documentary information guiding us through the richness of the Nákó family's castle in Nagyszentmiklós or in the rooms of the castles in Beodra and Bánlak, once residences of the Karátsonyi counts. Some pieces of furniture, a few miniatures and paintings entered our museum 10 years after the end of the Second World War. They are the proof of very rich, diverse collections sheltered once in the two castles. Grouped in categories one could also find: pictures, miniatures, armours and old arms, books, oriental carpets, furnitures, sculpture and etnographic objects.
From the beginning of its activity in Temesvár (Timişoara,Temeswar), the specialty institution, the museum, founded in 1872, had highlighted, among its many objectives, the support and promotion of art characterising the region in which it emerged.
In its pinacotheca, besides the acquisition and presentation of the work of art brought from abroad - especially from Italy, Western Europe and Hungary - the museum intended to include the artistic creations executed in the areas of Banat region, both to support their authors and promote the artistic values leaving the local studios. These ideas guided the founder of the Banat Museum, Ormós Zsigmond, in the second half of the 19th century; these principles also influenced the activity of directors such as Berkeszi István (1853-1922), Ioachim Miloia (1897-1940) and Aurel Ciupe (1900-1988), the managers of the museum, who succeeded him in the management of the institution in the first half of the 20th century.
In time, the art collections in Banat had been constituted on the basis of these principles. Given the modest sums of money, the museum aimed to buy valuable artistic items directly from exhibitions, artists and their families, from the owners willing to sell or donate them.