TRIFA RALUCA MARIA_Modernism in Romanian Architecture_ the Case of Duiliu Marcu

TRIFA Raluca-Maria_UAUIM_2011-2012

Modernism in Romanian Architecture: the case of Duiliu

Marcu

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Modernism in Romanian Architecture: the case of Duiliu Marcu

(abstract)

The aesthetic, social and political changes in post-WWI Europe had an echo in the Romanian society, even if modernist ideas were not implemented directly. The principles of early twentieth century avant-garde have been tailored to the new national state necessities, thus resulting the peculiar character of Romanian Modernism, visible in the fine arts, literature, architecture, politics, etc.

In this essay I intend to establish how the European ideas promoted by the avant-garde artists and politicians at the beginig of the last century have been taken by Romanian society, through the political, social and economical context of the era and their influence on Romanian interwar architecture, especially on Duiliu Marcu’s work.

(context)

The new modern principles present in Europe in the early twentieth century were adopted by the Romanian cultural elite and implemented in a personal manner in every aspect of artistic and political life.

As Eugen Lovinescu1 (inspired by the ideas of french sociologist Gabriel Tarde concerning the Law of Imitation) claims, the Romanian modern culture begings at the first contacts with the innovative ideas and forms penetrating from the Western Civilisation. Lovinescu’s Syncronism Theory stipulates that the imitation of a superior culture (such as the European one) is made in two steps: first, it simulates, borrows forms from the more developed culture, in order to create an original model, that takes into account the Romanian culture specificity. We can agree with this theory, since the Modernism movement in Romania initially imported the artistic forms of expression imposed by European Modernism, only to adapt them later to its national character, giving birth to a series of cultural achievements that occasionally rivaled those of Western Europe:

"Romanian Modernism is obviously different than the european one. Modern movement and avant-garde archetypes were not adopted without a critical atitude, but idiosincretic, thus giving modern interwar architecture in Romania its distinctive character”. (Machedon and Scoffham, 1999:55)

In Romania, the Modernist movement didn’t expresse an exclusively artistic or political expression, as it did in other European countries. Rather, the indigenous avant-garde was a moderated one, combining both aspects in a temperate manner.

1 romanian literary critic and novelist

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(politics)

Prior to WWI, the main goal of Romania was the assertion of the National Style, the tendency to recognize the particular values of Romanian people and its identity - both cultural and political, encouraged by the possibility of territorial unification. After the Great Union (December 1, 1918), this ideal was realized, causing the new generaton of intellectuals, unsatisfied with the values previously produced, to connect strongly to the European Modernist movement, which offered an alternative2. The principles set out by European modernists have been implemented in both politics and art.

Thus, the political regime, organized as Constitutional Monarchy, was facing the rise of the nationalist and anti-semitic parties, particularly the Iron Guard, founded by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, whose philosophy was based on the ultra-nationalist doctrine, also promoted by the Fascists. The idea of rebirth, in which the New Man creates a change, a new beginning for the Nation is implemented by the Leader, who tries to establish the palingenetic line between interwar Romanian society and the Dacio-Romanian race (like Mussolini, who sees Italy as the incarnation of the Roman Empire). The change is necessary, says Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, because:

"The type of man who lives nowadays in the Romanian political scene [...] i have already found in history : under his rule, nations died and states were destroyed." (Corneliu Zelea Codreanu)

Nevertheles, there are some specificities concerning the doctrine promoted by the Iron Guard, mainlly the religious structure of Codreanu’s ideology, inserted with strong elements of Orthodox Christianity:

"If Christian mysticism and its goal, ecstasy, is the contact of man with god through a leap from human nature to divine nature, national mysticism is nothing other than the contact of man and crowds with the soul of their race through the leap which these forces make from the world of personal and material interests into the outer world of race. Not through the mind, since this anyone can do, but by living with their soul" (Corneliu Zelea Codreanu)

This idea – of a new sacrality, able to re-establish the primordial state of humankind, is one of the modernists concepts evoked by Mircea Eliade, who expressed his support for the Iron Guard, several times during the late 1930s.

Although inspired by the ideologies promoted in Italy, Germany3 or Spain, the fascist phenomenon in Romania can be seen as a modern element in this country’s history, but is less agressive and has a mild influence on the artistic life.

2 „ modernism was [...] an excited acceptance of the belief that the old régimes of culture were over, and a deep despairing in the face of that fear; a mixture of convictions that the new forms were escapes from historicism and the pressures of time with convictions that they were precisely the living expressions of these things” (R.Griffin apud Malcolm Bradbury and James McFarlane) 3 About the Nazi, R Griffin says that: „Their regime’s relationship to modernism is thus one of vandalism, persecution, and ‘culture-cide’, a direct corollary in the arts of its eugenic politics and the genocidal campaigns they led to.”

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(arts)

In the realm of culture, after the National Unity of Romania, the new generation could freely manifest, experimenting in different areas of the avant-garde art forms. Different in meaning, the Romanian modern art has assimilated, into a continuous synchronization, the essential trends of the European Modernist movement.

The involvement of Romanian cultural elite in modernist projects4 can be seen as an embrace of the principles vehiculated trough Europe. The Modernist ideas entered the Romanian territory through the intellectuals educated in Paris, Wien or Rome, who once back in their homeland, use them in paintings, sculptures, buildings, music, poems or novels – giving art a new aesthetic expression.

Regarding the architecture, it evolved somewhat differently from fine arts, music or literature, in a balanced and moderate way. The demand for new types of buildings (railway stations, administrative and residential buildings, schools, entertainment and performance, industrial or commercial buildings, etc.), the assimilation of new materials and technologies, but also the need to express the modern ideas influenced Romanian architecture after the WWI.

The character of Romanian modernity lies mainly in breaking up with its past, replacing the old aesthetic with a new one, opposed to the traditional idealized culture, in which the Orthodox spirituality, hostile to the Western world, is a preeminent figure. However, Romanian Modernism is represented by the association - in different proportions - of traditional/vernacular architecture elements and the innovations encouraged by the Western civilisation. Although the increasingly nationalist orientation of the political context favored Stilul Neoromanesc5 - promoted by Ion Mincu, Grigore Cerchez or Petre Antonescu, the Modernist Style has found his applicability in a number of works of architecture intended to illustrate the glory of the New National State. Among the architects who joined this phenomenon in Romania were Marcel Iancu, Horia Creanga, G.M. Cantacuzino or Duiliu Marcu.

Concluding, the autochthonic Modernist movement was a programmatic one, emerged from the necessity of a new language, able to summarize the ideals of a new born nation. The perception and implementation of the innovative ideas brought by Modernism was made in a different way in Romanian, by adjusting them to its demands. This new artistic and political expression, that has the power to revolutionize the entire society, was implemented by the intellectual elite of the time in order to create a modern culture “that will ultimately transform not just art but humankind itself, or atleast a chosen segment of it” (R.Griffin).

4 Tristan Tzara and the Dadaist movement, Constantin Brancusi, symbolist painter and modernist architect Marcel Iancu, historian of religion, fiction writer and philosopher Mircea Eliade, composer George Enescu, etc. 5 Stilul Neoromanesc (Romanian Revival), architectural style that combinesc Byzantine elements and motives, traditional ethnographic models, Ottoman and even late Italian Renaissance themes

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(the architecture of Duiliu Marcu)

After the Great Union, Romania lived an exceptional cultural and economic growth, unaffected by the global economic crisis. The Romanian Capital is embarking on a unprecedented building campaign, supported directly by the State, who tries to create a image suitable for the New Nation. This is when Bucharest and other major cities change their appearance, by adding a series of representative buildings. The only architectural language favorable to this demarche is found in the new Modernist style, implemented in Western Europe. Therefore, an increasing number of Romanian architects abandon the National Style (Neoromanesc) in favour of the innovative Modernism.

During this period, the architect who built the majority of Bucharest official buildings is Duiliu Marcu (1885-1966) – the unofficial architect of the Romanian Royal House.

The Romanian architect studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, in Paris, where he recives his Diploma in 1913. Returned to his homeland, D. Marcu begins teaching at the Faculty of Architecture. During his life, the architect is appointed Chairman of the Board of Architecture at the Department of Public Works, Officer of the Legion of Honour and a member of the Romanian Academy6.

The work of Duiliu Marcu can be seen as a synthese of various trends imposed by Modernism, especially influenced by the italian Stile littorio, applied in a temperate way (contrary to the radical lines of Piacentini or Terragni) and mixed with romanian traditional architecture elements. Early in his career, Marcu's architecture was characterized by the presence of specific elements of National Style (Neoromanesc), which were gradually replaced by the modernist language. As himself declares, his architecture associates:

“two ideals, apparently divergent, but which can actually in fact be harmonized and likened: the Romanian ideal of Nationalism and the European ideal of internationalism” (Machedon and Scoffham, 1999:68)

An emblematic example illustrating the symbiosis between tradition and modernity in Romanian interwar architecture is the National Pavilion presented at the Universal Exhibition in Paris, 1937, designed by Duiliu Marcu (image 1): the main façade’s stripped classicism, suggesting a Triumphal Arch7 contrasts with the courtyard façade, that reproduces vernacular and traditional elements of romanian architecture: a "porch" with wooden pillars and arches, inspired by the orthodox monasteries. Also, the interior decoration reproduce in different scenes the national history, by evoking the beginning and the origin of the Romanian people.

The artistic convictions of the Romanian architect clarified; in consequence, the works executed in the coming years by Marcu can be classified as modern, with a predominantly constructivist and neo-classical character, that tends to mark the structural elements. The simplefied volumes were considered

6 Fezi, Bogdan Andrei – “Bucarest, le « petit Paris des Balkans ». L'architecte roumain Duiliu Marcu, diplômé de l'École des Beaux-Arts” 7 The façade of Timisoara’s Opera House (image 2,3), also designed by Marcu was the inspiration source for the main facade of the Pavilion, the architect applying the same architectural pattern in both cases

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by Marcu “more expressive” than the traditional forms, previously used by the architect. The modern style of Marcu’s architecture can be seen in a series of residential and industrial buildings, but also in some of the official constructions built in Bucharest after the WWI, such as the State Monopolies Palace (today- the Ministry of Economy and Finance headquarters), the Palace of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (the actual Government’s Victoria Palace), the Military Academy or the Palace of the Ministry of Transport.

The State Monopolies Palace (image 4,5), designed in 1936, is an outstanding example of Romanian Modernism, in which Marcu utilize elements of the new architectural language, such as the horizontal elements of the façade, the colonnade recalling Le Corbusier’s pilotis, in a balanced composition, related to the classical style. The choice of structure (reinforced concrete), the facilities and the materials accentuate the modernity of this building.

In the case of Victoria Palace (image 6), designed in 1937, the monumentality of the building and the neo-classical grammar used by Duiliu Marcu is explained by the official function and the cultural-political context of the moment. The representative character of the Palace pushes Duiliu Marcu to select carefully the materials: he uses Carrara marble for the facade and several types of Italian marble to decorate the interiors and oak, walnut or rosewood – for the floors and walls. The architect uses the most modern facilities of the time: elevators, lifts, mechanical ventilation, fire alarms, microphones, radio, systems against the propagation of noise through the pipes8.

The example that confirms the adhesion of Duiliu Marcu’s work to the European architecture Modernist movement is the Military Academy (image 7), designed in 1937. The building’s façade looks very similar to the Marcello Piacentini’s “La Sapienza” University (image 8), in Rome, built in 1932, under the command of Mussolini. The ensemble, erected on a higher zone, stands out for himself at a urban scale, without requiring other formal “cheat”. The symmetry of the volumes, harmoniously linked, creates a high quality architecture, characterized by straight lines, flat surfaces, without ornaments.

Projects designed by Marcu can be seen in other parts of Romania, mainlly in Sinaia, the city that became the “summer capital” of the country. Here, along with other residential buildings, the architect designs the new Royal Train Station (foto 9), a massive building, with imposing arches covered in stone. This is the most important construction created by Duiliu Marcu in Sinaia.

The buildings designed by Duiliu Marcu demonstrates the influence of European Modernism in Romanian architecture and urbanism, in terms of formal and functional language, layout, structure, facilities or in the use of materials. His work, characterized by a temperate aesthetic elegance, with strong classical elements insipired by italian fascist architecture is softened with Art Deco items and the use of National Romanian style (Neoromanesc).

(conclusions)

The Modernist movement produced at the beginning of the twentieth century a revolution in art and architecture, but also in the political organization 8 Fezi, Bogdan Andrei– “Bucarest, le « petit Paris des Balkans ». L'architecte roumain Duiliu Marcu, diplômé de l'École des Beaux-Arts”

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of the European countries. The echo of this phenomenon was felt by the Romanian cultural elites, who tried to implement the Western ideas in order to produce a new socio-political culture, able to respond to the needs of the new born nation.

The Modernist concepts have been adapted to the necessities of the Romanian people, resulting its peculiar character, both in art and politics.

The fascist movement in Romania was temperate by the Monarchy and only after 1937 the Iron Guard could imposed its philosophy in a more substantial way. Although the ultra-nationalist political regime favored the National Style, it had a minor influence on the artistic life, charmed by the modern forms.

The association of traditional architecture elements and the innovations of the artistic avant-garde gave Romanian Modernism a distinctive character, that can be seen primarly in the architecture exercised durig this period (the case of Duiliu Marcu).

Even if the Modernism of the Romanian art is more subtle than the one practiced in Europe, the amalgam of different elements (national and international) generated a series of cultural achievements worthy of being recorded in the universal history of architecture.

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Image 1: Romania National Pavilion at the Universal Exhibition in Paris, 1937

Image 2,3: Timisoara Opera House, before and after Duiliu Marcu’s intervention

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Image 4,5: The State Monopolies Palace

Image 6: Victoria Palace

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Image 7: the Military Academy

Image 8: Marcello Piacentini’s “La Sapienza” University, Rome

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Image 9: Sinaia Royal Train Station

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(bibliography)

Cazacu Matei – “Interbellum Romania”, Noi Media Print, 2006

Fezi Bogdan Andrei – “Bucarest, le « petit Paris des Balkans ». L'architecte roumain Duiliu Marcu, diplômé de l'École des Beaux-Arts”, Livraisons d'histoire de l'architecture, 2004

Griffin Roger – “Modernism and Fascism: : The Sense of a Beginning under Mussolini and Hitler”, Palgrave Macmillan

Machedon Luminita, Scoffham Ernie - „Romanian Modernism – The Architecture of Bucharest 1920–1940”, MIT Press

http://artboom.ro/wiki/arhitectura/eseuri/arhitectura-interbelica-si-chestiunea-identitatii-colective

http://atelier.liternet.ro/articol/10835/Augustin-Ioan/Romania-si-discursul-arhitectural-modern.html

http://thompkins_cariou.tripod.com/id15.html