Anda-Lucia Spânu
Experienced historian with a background in archaeology, a master’s degree in the Protection and Conservation of Heritage, PhD in the History of Culture and post-doctoral studies in Historical Sciences. Expertise in urban history, with special interest in European town-views/vedutas (prints, drawings, paintings, etc.), and collaborations with colleagues from many other European countries: member of European Association of Urban History, European Architectural History Network, Associazione Italiana di Storia Urbana, Committee member of Commission for the History of Towns in Romania and founding Member of Civitas Nostra Association – Society for the Study of Towns History.
− Expert evaluator on Heritage and Cultural Identity for UEFISCDI – Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (ID U-1700-034D-5885)
− Expert evaluator for Romanian Ministry of Culture Archaeological and historical-documentary goods / historical images of towns (ID EX 2016D288391)
− Expert evaluator for several European institutions, such as Czech Science Foundation, Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia, Western Balkans Mobility Scheme.
− Expert evaluator on Heritage and Cultural Identity for UEFISCDI – Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (ID U-1700-034D-5885)
− Expert evaluator for Romanian Ministry of Culture Archaeological and historical-documentary goods / historical images of towns (ID EX 2016D288391)
− Expert evaluator for several European institutions, such as Czech Science Foundation, Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia, Western Balkans Mobility Scheme.
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Books by Anda-Lucia Spânu
media accelerations of contemporary architecture put in evidence deficiencies in protection laws in Italy and abroad.
The work suggests the need to establish a system of shared criteria for updating the Italian normative. A study that compares and contrasts the development of the conservation laws and the current intervention strategies on an international scale, as a function of identity in flux.
Papers in Volumes by Anda-Lucia Spânu
Romania in their provisional state caused by street trade. Markets and
fairs that bring together peasants and townspeople, at the same time, in
the same place, being either the main square of a town or an anonymous
street. Children, men and women from different cultures, social strata,
professions and nationalities, represented in different situations and
poses, but all buying or selling something. Amedeo Preziosi was a
storyteller in pictures, his views being a funny but true mixture of people,
animals, methods of goods display and countless types of products to be
sold/bought, all represented with a specific architectural background. The
fair in the photos appears as a picturesque image of the yesteryear life
and gives us the opportunity to understand important aspects of life in
Sibiu and its surrounding villages. The anonymous peasants surprised by
the Fischer brothers on photographic paper seem to be waiting to tell us
their story, and to entice us into buying something from them.
media accelerations of contemporary architecture put in evidence deficiencies in protection laws in Italy and abroad.
The work suggests the need to establish a system of shared criteria for updating the Italian normative. A study that compares and contrasts the development of the conservation laws and the current intervention strategies on an international scale, as a function of identity in flux.
Romania in their provisional state caused by street trade. Markets and
fairs that bring together peasants and townspeople, at the same time, in
the same place, being either the main square of a town or an anonymous
street. Children, men and women from different cultures, social strata,
professions and nationalities, represented in different situations and
poses, but all buying or selling something. Amedeo Preziosi was a
storyteller in pictures, his views being a funny but true mixture of people,
animals, methods of goods display and countless types of products to be
sold/bought, all represented with a specific architectural background. The
fair in the photos appears as a picturesque image of the yesteryear life
and gives us the opportunity to understand important aspects of life in
Sibiu and its surrounding villages. The anonymous peasants surprised by
the Fischer brothers on photographic paper seem to be waiting to tell us
their story, and to entice us into buying something from them.
Representations of nowadays Romanian towns were made on all kinds of supports, but most of them were printed images published originally as illustrations inside books and which circulated as prints.
Many specialists have studied the “Printing Revolution”, as well as the importance of the production and the trade of books. It was already pointed out decades ago that printing and prints were important not only for art, but also for science and technology. Prints are among the most important tools of modern life and thought.
The oldest images of Romanian cities were the views of Oradea and Cluj, from Georg Brauns Civitates Orbis Terrarum, made by Georg (Joris) Hoefnagel, after Aegid van der Rye.
The town Cluj has 32 representations from the total of 1110 historical images of towns from nowadays Romania. We can say that 350 years of political, social, cultural and, especially, architectural evolution of the city can be reflected or even proven by this type historical documents. The partial or general urban views of Cluj, made between two “cultural revolutions” (printing and photography), can portray or its history.
Historians should be interested in studying historical images of towns because they offer a widespread range of information, completing or substituting other sources. However, the involvement of such images into historical research is not without risks. The aim of artists and printers was not necessarily the faithful reproduction of a particular town or some street corner. Their main focus was dictated by the wishes of their clients or patrons, without taking into consideration what would be of interest for historians in the centuries that were to follow. Therefore, the image should be placed in its social, cultural and, why not, political context, because we should always bear in mind the propagandistic role of images.
The books with town views, accompanied by more or less text, were a phenomenon in 16th and 17th centuries Europe. By the end of the 18th century, when voyages became fashionable, book illustration evolved and travel diaries and (hi)stories also, almost all accompanied by urban representations. Was a time when artists were “tourists” at choice or for money, especially to exotic regions, immortalising what they saw, thus offering an image of the exterior world to those who were not able or not willing to travel. Their stories were told/written/printed after experiencing the journey and towns were seen through eyes of tourists/travellers.
This paper aims to draw attention to the cultural, educational and historiographical role of historical images of towns, studying their role as a medium for transmitting knowledge; from teacher to pupil, from father to son, from author to reader, from artist to viewer.
In my investigation, I will deal with concepts and research methods which I consider valid for European towns, broadly speaking, emphasizing on aspects related to historical images of towns from nowadays Romania.
history demonstrated the importance of the representations of cities not only for their aesthetic and artistic values, but also in terms of historical information. For centuries, images of Romanian cities have been made on a wide range of
supports, but the vast majority of them were printed images. They were marked by the spirit of the time they belonged to, by the artistic styles and by the purposes they served. This paper deals with a type of images that have circulated widely, being used by several editors, to illustrate works that dealt with the events of the day. The same views were used either in their original form with modified text or reproduced, with some retouches or changed dimensions.
During the entire 16th century Europe’s policy was marked by the struggle for supremacy between the Ottoman and the Habsburg Empire. The representations concerning these spaces were influenced by the events, but also contributed to their occurrence. With the aid of maps and images, descriptions and histories, Europeans could imagine the Ottoman world and vice versa.
Analysing the drawings and travel books, one can find out the existence of a stereotype regarding the Ottoman town, stereotype which was formed due to the effort of coping with the conditions of a foreign country. This is also case of the towns from nowadays Romania, then part of the Ottoman world.
When Western artists represented Timisoara, they used a cultural symbol of the Islamic world, namely the Crescent, symbol of the Ottoman Empire.
In the Ottoman world the first images appear in portulans and in the luxury copies of the Kitab-i Bahriye, the atlas of Piri Reis. But the main topographical illustrations, truly urban views are associated with the works of the person who became known as Matrakçi Nasuh.
There also exists another very interesting representation of Timisoara, in which the two styles are mingled. Wathay Ferenc, a Hungarian who used the style characteristic of Oriental miniature, produced the image.
Located, both politically and geographically, at the intersection of the two great powers, the Romanian Principalities represented, for several centuries, the field where from a political point of view the west and the east encountered.
In the late sixteenth century and in the seventeenth century, developments in the Ottoman Empire, which manifests its expansion in these areas, give the opportunity of representation of some Romanian towns as background for siege or battle scenes.
Much information that a researcher or a simple viewer can find in historical images of towns is about the ethnological aspects of urban life.
As an announcement of the emergence of photography, artists of the nineteenth century have captured in their faces images faces, vestments, professions, activities and events.
Mostly, urban ethnology items are to be found in representations of trade fairs, but also in representations of special events, such as weddings, or representations of banal everyday activities, as laundry washing at the river. Of course, were not forgotten by the artists the main activities of those who fed the towns: livestock and poultry farming or agricultural labor.
Luigi Mayer is the first artist who faithfully represented fragments of daily life in rural and urban Romania. In all his views he paid great attention not only to architectural elements of the represented buildings, but also to the local occupations,clothes and details characteristic to the inhabitants and the places he went through. The artist depicted scenes of daily life of ordinary people, as well as of the representatives of the ruling classes.
drawer, he is known as the author of views made while working for the British ambassador at Constantinople. He paid attention to architectural
elements, local occupations, clothes and details about inhabitants and the places he went through. In his pictures one can find information about political, economic, social, cultural and religious life of locals.
Out of the 1110 views of the towns from present day Romania, Sibiu has 107 representations. Most of these, painted, drawn, engraved or printed, are to be found in the Collections of the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu. A complex combination of landscape, topographic view and gender scene, the twelve historical images general views of Sibiu selected for this paper can reveal or even reconstruct parts of its history. It can be said that the political, social, cultural and especially architectural evolution of the town can be reflected or even proven by these historical documents.
range of supports, but the vast majority of them were printed images.
The oldest images of Romanian cities were the views of Oradea and Cluj, from Georg Brauns Civitates Orbis Terrarum, made by Georg (or Joris) Hoefnagel, artist born in
Antwerp. The work itself is strongly related with this famous centre, trough Abraham Ortelius’s Theatrum orbis terrarium, printed there. While Civitates and Hoefnagel’s activity
is well known, Gaspar Boutats, Jacob Harrewijn and Jacob Peeters, who as well represented cities from nowadays Romania, are almost unknown to Romanian historiography. Their images seem to be “head series” for a type of representations that circulated for two centuries.
This paper intends to study these images, together with the books in which they have been printed. Both images and books were created in the 17th century Antwerp.
This paper aims to take into account only those images which represent towns, emphasizing on the approach used in their research work.
Compared to other European countries, with their traditions in studying the representations of towns – we have to mention the conferences of The International Commission for the History of Towns (Imago Urbis, Bologne, 2001; Image and Perception of Town, Vienna, 2003) – we do not pay great attention to the historic images of towns, this kind of representations being studied superficial. As a result, the Romanian historiography does not have a synthesis of the problem, there are only papers which are approaching partially the subject, thematically, chronologically or geographically.
Such images circulated widely, being used by several publishers to illustrate historical or scientific books. The townviews (and others images) were overtaken either in their original form or with minor changes in text, details or dimensions.
Town representations help us to imagine the experience of urban life at different stages in history. From the end of the 15th century, towns from present Romania are recorded in drawings, etchings, paintings and prints. All of them are very useful sources for social and cultural history.
By including the historical images repertoire analysis of cities from today’s Romania in the scientific circuit, by publication, it could become a starting point for documentation activity of the researchers in urban history of the Romanian space.
Prints were made and purchased for a wide variety of reasons, but mostly by collectors. The production of prints suggests that the collectors’ interest in prints ranges from aesthetic to documentary. By the middle of the 17th century, print collecting had become a widespread activity all across Europe. Landscapes and town views were two of the preferred subject matter of these prints. Romanian cities have this kind of representations, too. Their research could open new paths to Romanian urban historiography.
Luigi Mayer (1755-1803), an Italian artist born in Germany who lived for many years in Rome, was one of the artists from the 18th Century which ventured to the East. He is a pre�Orientalist painter, known as the author of very precise views of the Middle East. For almost two decades (1776-1794) he was the official painter of Sir Rober Ainslie, the british ambassador at Constantinople. In the long return journey from Constantinople to London, undertaken on land because of the war with France, Luigi Mayer had the opportunity to capture on paper some pictures of our lands.
The artist pays great attention not only to architectural elements of buildings, but local occupations, clothes and characteristic details of the places he went through. In his pictures one can find information about political, economic, social and religious life. They depict scenes of daily life of ordinary people, as well as of the ruling classes representatives.
Until the end of nineteenth century Eastern and Western Europe interacted more, influencing each other. Eastern Europe has been disconnected by this cultural process from the Second World War to the Fall of Berlin Wall. During this period cultural exchanges were stopped and a new urban imagery of eastern cities has been created in/for the west. Today urban iconography of East European cities spread in museums and collections worldwide is waiting to be reconnected with the most recent international studies.
This session welcomes proposals of case studies or specific topics of images of towns and landscapes that contributed to the knowledge of Eastern Europe from the 16th century to the dawn of photography. Some other questions that should join the session are: which is the role of urban iconography in globalization process? Is it possible to trace modern cities views for building 20th-century narrative histories? What are the cultural implications and the geographical connections within the images of cities and landscapes that are reshaping Eastern Europe? Can museums of the cities be considered as creators of glocal urban narratives?
The historical survey and preservation strategies of modern architecture are being gradually associated with sustainability, while twentieth-century buildings are becoming an integral part of multiple strategies for the development of urban landscapes. Today, new critical perspectives and protection policies contribute to the deployment of projects related to the study, classification, listing, conservation and promotion of modern architecture.
These issues are confronted in Time Frames: Conservation Policies for Twentieth-Century Architectural Heritage (Routledge, 2017) by exploring the policies used to designate buildings as heritage sites worldwide. The editors of the book focus on the so-called ‘time rule’ which elapses between a building’s construction and its protection, if it exists. What emerges is a variable definition of what is “contemporary”, ie architecture which has not yet become “historic”.