86. Calinic Miclescu, Metropolitan Bishop of Ungro-Wallachia [1879]

Being open to various art forms - easel painting, lithography, or photography - artist Carol Popp de Szathmari witnessed the most important events of his times. His interest in history, mankind and nature, as well as his shrewd observation spirit, would convert Szathmari into a remarkable painter and photographer of reality. A passionate traveller and always animated by a romantic spirit, the artist would cross, in his pilgrimages, countries like Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Persia, all the way to the Kingdom of Romania. He would settle in Bucharest around 1843 and would soon become a close friend of the Royal Court. He would work for the Bibescu/Știrbei monarch brothers, he would become a painter and photographer for Cuza, and, after 1866, he would become one of the closest people to the Royal House, as an official artist. The year 1886 marked the beginning of Prince Carol’s reign in Romania, and he would keep Szathmari at his service, marking the start of an important relationship. One of the most important portraits executed during the following period is the "Portrait of Metropolitan Bishop Calinic Miclescu". Calinic Miclescu was the Metropolitan Bishop of Moldavia (1865-1875), Metropolitan Bishop of Ungro-Wallachia (1875-1886), and Prime Metropolitan Bishop of Romania (1875-1886). He took part in the Ad-hoc Council of Moldavia (7th of October 1857). He was appointed Metropolitan Bishop of Moldavia on the 10th of May 1865. After Metropolitan Bishop Nifon Rusailă's passing, he was elected Metropolitan Bishop of Ugro-Wallachia, and, implicitly, Prime Metropolitan Bishop of Romania (31st of May 1875). During his priesthood within these metropolitan churches, he was an advocate for organizing courses at the Bucharest Faculty of Theology (1881), founding the Sacred Books Publishing House (1882), the first unction in Romania (1882) and the recognition of the autonomous status of the Romanian Orthodox Church (1885).

References

PĂCURARIU, Mircea, "Dicționarul Teologilor Români", Andreiana Publishing House, Sibiu, 2004.

Dimensions

width 86 cm, height 125 cm, custom 125 × 86 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed and dated bottom right, with red, "Szathmari, 1879"

Research information

A version of the artwork, dated 1878, is reproduced in the catalogue of the exhibition "Carol Popp de Szatmary", Cotroceni National Museum, Bucharest, 2012, at p. 68-69, from the collection of the Bucharest Municipality Museum.

Dating

1879

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