NATIONAL IDENTITY THROUGH WOMEN REPRESENTATION IN N. GRIGORESCU’S PAINTINGS
NATIONAL IDENTITY THROUGH WOMEN REPRESENTATION IN N. GRIGORESCU’S PAINTINGS

Summary/Abstract: Our contribution pays a tribute to the great painter, N. Grigorescu, who dedicated many of his paintings to Romanian country people. We approach, from the point of view of visual semiotics, a portrait of a young woman (“Rudareasa”) and we develop a quite minute analysis. This includes: the circumstances which generated the work (time, space, place), the type of painting, contiguity with others painters’ portraits (according to different cultural currents and painting schools), the analysis of all kinds of dichotomies (passive-dynamics, focusing-anamorphose), chromatic presentation, vanishing point, visual axes, the antinomy light-shadow, symbolic implications, etc. We comment upon the explicit message, but we are also interested on meanings related to mythology, history, Bible, literature, music, as we conceive the painting as an open work of art. We lay emphasis on the national characteristics of this woman, on the authentic Romanian marks which help any beholder to get acquainted with this people. We assign a part of the contribution to draw a parallel with women of other nationalities imaged in portraits of the same period.

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