The Jean Mihail Palace was visited by many personalities, such as the kings Charles I and Ferdinand I of Romania or Ignacy Moscicki, former president of Polonia, together with his family and suite. In the summer of 1940, the treaty by which Romania gave up the Cadrilater region (Durostor and Caliacra counties, South of the Danube) to Bulgaria was signed here. In 1943, the palace was the headquarters for the 53th Soviet Army. The same year, Iosif Broz Tito, the future ruler of Yugoslavia, lived here, conducting the operations of liberating Belgrad.

Since 1954, the Jean Mihail Palace functioned as an art museum. The palace hosts a large number of invaluable works of art, from the medieval age to the contemporary period, both foreign and Romanian, paintings by great Romanian artists, such as Stefan Luchian (the same that was refused as a collaborator), Nicolae Grigorescu, Ion Andreescu, Ion Tuculescu, and different sculptures.

But the crown jewels of Craiova’s Art Museum are several works by the worldwide famous sculptor Constantin Brancusi (1876 – 1957). They date both from his early artistic periods, when he began to develop a mixture between the classical ways and those innovative ones, that have changed our perception upon art and reality.
Brancusi was very fond of Craiova because he spent his youth there. That time he was a poor young man, struggling for survival and he was fortunate enough to be aided in his efforts by a couple of local businessmen. They helped him follow the courses of the School of Arts and Crafts from Craiova, which opened the gates of his bright destiny. Brancusi himself never forgot the help he got in Craiova and declared, later in his life, that, there, he was born a second time.

The first of Brancusi’s works that can be admired in the Art Museum is The Bust of the Roman Emperor Vitellius, created in November 1898, while he was a first year student at the National Fine Arts School in Bucharest. For this work (made in gypsum), Brancusi received, from the school’s board, an Honourable Mention. The sculpture is classic in style and impeccable in execution. Through this work, Brancusi proved that, before developing his unique art, he could be as skilled as the ancient masters.

Torso was made in 1909, in white marble. As the sculpture is accurate from an anatomical point of view, one can sense the poetry that surrounds it. It is part of a woman’s leg, perfectly polished, perfectly proportioned and one cannot stop imagining how beautiful a person having such a torso would be. This technique, of suggesting a lot, while showing a little is one of the main traits of Brancusi’s art.

Mademoiselle Pogany is considered one of the most daring portraits of the XXth century. It is made of bronze and it was executed in 1950, as a replica of an earlier work, also created by Brancusi. It represents the face of a young girl, rendered in an stylized and mysterious manner. Her big eyes, the superb corrugated line of the hands fascinate through the serenity and innocence they transmit.

The Kiss is the masterpiece of the collection. It was executed in 1907 and it is made of limestone from the quarries of Marna. There are several replicas, also made by Brancusi, spread throughout the world, but The Kiss from Craiova is the first and the most important of them all. This sculpture was a reaction to Rodin’s Kiss and can be considered the quintessence of Brancusi’s artistic legacy. It represents a man and a woman (the differences are minimal, but suggestive enough) united in an everlasting kiss. Its shape is that of an M which stands for ”moarte” (the Romanian word for ”death”), underlining the fact that love can conquer everything. The kiss as a symbol of the return to unity, the return to innocence is also found in the architectural complex at Targu Jiu, which consists of The Gate of the Kiss, The Silence Table and The Infinite Column.

Author: Iulian Fira

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