One of the masterpieces of the Brukenthal Museum is leaving Sibiu for only the second time in 207 years, to be exhibited for the first time in Moldova. “It is necessary that other Romanians also enjoy”

The only work in Romania and in Eastern Europe made by the famous artist Titian / Tiziano Vecellio in the Brukenthal National Museum (MNB) has left Sibiu to be exhibited at the Regina Maria Municipal Museum in Iași. It is about “Ecce Homo”. It is the second time that the work will be exhibited in another city in Romania in 207 years since it has been at the MNB.

A masterpiece of European art, the work “Ecce Homo” is one of the most important paintings in Romania. Over time, the work was exhibited in several important museums in Europe. In Romania, in the 207 years of existence of the Brukenthal National Museum, it was exhibited only 2 times: in 2023 as part of the exclusive Brukenthal exhibition at Art Safari Bucharest and this year as part of the exhibition Titian. Ecce Homo from Iasi.

Also read: “Worked in 60 days for two years.” Masterpieces of the Brukenthal Museum, exhibited in Bucharest

According to MNB representatives, the valuable work, insured with one of the oldest and largest insurance companies in London, left Sibiu today. The transport of the work is carried out by Orbit International – Fine Art Transport, a company specialized in the transport of works of art and escorted by the Romanian Gendarmerie from Iași.

“Since assuming the mandate of manager, I have considered it necessary that a large part of the Brukenthal National Museum’s collection be promoted and exhibited in the country as well. The Brukenthal National Museum enjoys a large audience and a valuable collection; it is necessary, however, that other Romanians also enjoy. If in the past years it was difficult to achieve this, in recent years, through collaboration and friendship, we have also found the necessary funds and adequate space for pieces from the collection of the Brukenthal National Museum to be exhibited in several cities in Romania. Last year I organized a superb exhibition in Bucharest where I exclusively exhibited 5 masterpieces. This year, through the extraordinary relationship with the Regina Maria Municipal Museum in Iași and the Iași City Hall, we thought of exhibiting, for the first time in Moldova, an important masterpiece of European art. Thought for more than a year, the Titian exhibition. Ecce Homo will be opened at the Regina Maria Municipal Museum in Iasi on May 9, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. on the occasion of Europe Day and will remain open until June 5, 2024,” said Alexandru Constantin Chituţă, MNB manager.

The work “Ecce Homo” was made by the artist Tiziano Vecellio in the year 1560. This is the only work found in Romania and in Eastern Europe. Titian exploits a rare theme in 16th-century Italian painting, having been commissioned for the first time in 1543. The Brukenthal National Museum’s work is similar to the 1548 version in the Prado Museum in Madrid, to the 1560 version in the National Gallery of Ireland from Dublin and the one from 1564-1566 at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. There is also an unfinished work from the Ecce Homo series by Titian at the Saint Louis Missouri Art Museum, United States of America.

The MNB representatives recall the provenance of the painting “Ecce Homo” by Titian from the Brukenthal collection, but also the path that the work took in the last five centuries. Thus, over the 450 years since it was created, according to Mrs. Daniela Dâmboiu, the painting has passed through the following locations, collectors and events: Venice, most likely in the house of the sculptor and collector Allesandro Vittoria (somewhere after 1560/1565 until 1608) and in the art cabinet of the rich merchant Bartolomeo della Nave (1608-1638); England, where it was shipped from Venice until May 1638; London, the Chelsea mansion of James, 3rd Marquess and 1st Duke of Hamilton (1639-1649), which was the former royal residence of King Henry VIII of England and the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth I; Holland, sent there after Hamilton’s execution on March 9, 1649; Brussels, gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm housed in Coudenberg Palace (c. 1650/ 1651-1656); integrated into the world’s first catalog of an art collection, made by David Teniers II in 1660; Vienna, exhibited in the Stallburg gallery (1659-c. 1773/ 1776); sent by Brukenthal from Vienna to Sibiu between 1774-1777; housed in Sibiu – the capital of Transylvania province, in the private Brukenthal gallery (since 1783, on the second floor of the building facing the street), with an interruption of several years during the First World War, when it was sent for storage to Vienna, then to Budapest (winter 1914/1915-June 1919); restored in Sibiu or Vienna, when it was probably shortened at the bottom to about half of Christ’s right palm (1899); stolen from the museum in 1968 and found after 30 years, in 1998, in the USA; finally returned home, in 1998, to the European Art Gallery of the Brukenthal National Museum, being registered with a new inventory number.

Photo: Daniel Farcașiu-Brukenthal National Museum

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