Portrete ale Bredicenilor din Lugoj de Anton Rudolf Weinberger
Portraits of Brediceanu family members from Lugoj by Anton Rudolf Weinberger

Summary/Abstract: There are presented three special medal pieces representing members of the well-known Brediceanu family from Lugoj, kept in the medal collection of the National Museum of Banat in Timisoara (NMB), pieces made by Anton Rudolf Weinberger (Reşiţa, 1879 - Vienna, 1936), a medalist born in Banat, but which activated most of his life in Vienna. The paper is about a bronze medal and a bronze unifacies plaque, made in 1930, dedicated to the diplomat Caius Brediceanu (1879-1953), as well as a unique piece: a 1932 bronze unifacies plaque dedicated to his mother, Cornelia Brediceanu (1856-1951). Caius Brediceanu's medal was donated by himself to the museum from Timisoara in 1930, but in the case of the other two pieces the information about the year and the circumstances in which they entered the museum’s collection are missing. Starting from the three pieces, using different sources (including unpublished photographies, diaries and memories of some members of the Brediceanu family or their descendants), the biographies of Caius Brediceanu and Cornelia Brediceanu are presented. Recently, the historians started to speak again - after a few decades of silence - about the diplomat Caius Brediceanu, the plenipotentiary minister of Romania between 1928-1939 in Rio de Janeiro, the Vatican, Vienna and Helsinki. Instead, the biography of his mother, Cornelia Brediceanu (born Rădulescu), the wife of the lawyer and politician Coriolan Brediceanu (1850-1909), was only known to the close. Cultivated, talented pianist, she dedicated her entire life to her family in the house situated in the center of Lugoj, on Făgetului street no. 4 (today Victor Vlad Delamarina street). At the same time, there are presented biographical landmarks of other members of this famous family from Lugoj.The three medal pieces were made by A. R. Weinberger in Vienna during the period when Caius Brediceanu was the plenipotentiary minister of Romania there (1930-1936). Since A. R. Weinberger is a lesser-known medalist in Romania today, biographical data and pieces he has produced are presented, focusing on Romanian medals and plaques and especially on those related to Banat. From this perspective, the presentation of the pieces from the NMB collection and the evocation of the three personalities from Banat (of the engraver and his models), represents a necessary “restitution”.

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