Engravings made in the 17th-19th centuries, which show scenes of everyday life as a reflection of the diversity of life and reality, were exhibited at the National Museum of Arts on the occasion of the 2022 European Heritage Days, IPN reports.

The collection of universal graphic works is the largest of the artistic heritage of the Museum and includes over 15,000 works dating from the 16th-20th centuries. “The graphic works form part of the category of the most sensitive museum objects in terms of influence of external factors. For this exhibition, we started to prepare at the beginning of this year through the project #operadeweekend whose goal was to develop the graphical heritage. The displaying of the works during a longer period of time can affect their state of conservation. By this exhibition, we displayed what we had most valuable so as to ensure the sustainability of the heritage,” said the director of the National Museum of Arts of Moldova Tudor Zbârnea.

Among the most frequent subjects treated in the exhibited works are scenes referring to taverns, hunting, markets, the interior. “The artists from the Netherlands were the first to take everyday life to the forefront, raising it to the rank of art. Owing to this, in the 17th century, the genre scene engraving became an autochthonous genre. This thing, according to art historians, is due to the fact that the Dutch painters in the given period were in a favorable situation: the population of this rich country consisted of art lovers, besides rich traders, representatives of the petite bourgeoisie, and they were fond of works of art and the genre works were among their favorite ones. The Netherlands dominated this genre until the 18th century,” said Tamara Diaconescu, head of the Ministry’s Graphic Section.

 The exhibition will continue until November 6.