Title: “The Avatars of Nourishment. Industry and Metaphysics” 

Author: Şerban Anghelescu 

How to cite this article: Anghelescu, Şerban. 2008. “The Avatars of Nourishment. Industry and Metaphysics”. 

Martor 13: 145‐152. 

Published by: Editura MARTOR  (MARTOR Publishing House), Muzeul Țăranului Român  (The 

Museum of the Romanian Peasant) 

URL:  http://martor.muzeultaranuluiroman.ro/archive/martor‐13‐2008/     

 Martor  (The Museum  of  the  Romanian  Peasant  Anthropology  Review)  is  a  peer‐reviewed  academic  journal established in 1996, with a focus on cultural and visual anthropology, ethnology, museum studies and the dialogue among  these  disciplines. Martor  review  is  published  by  the Museum  of  the  Romanian  Peasant.  Its  aim  is  to provide,  as widely  as  possible,  a  rich  content  at  the  highest  academic  and  editorial  standards  for  scientific, educational and (in)formational goals. Any use aside from these purposes and without mentioning the source of the article(s) is prohibited and will be considered an infringement of copyright.    Martor (Revue d’Anthropologie du Musée du Paysan Roumain) est un journal académique en système peer‐review fondé  en  1996,  qui  se  concentre  sur  l’anthropologie  visuelle  et  culturelle,  l’ethnologie,  la muséologie  et  sur  le dialogue entre ces disciplines. La revue Martor est publiée par le Musée du Paysan Roumain. Son aspiration est de généraliser  l’accès vers un riche contenu au plus haut niveau du point de vue académique et éditorial pour des objectifs  scientifiques,  éducatifs  et  informationnels. Toute utilisation  au‐delà de  ces  buts  et  sans mentionner  la source des articles est interdite et sera considérée une violation des droits de l’auteur.  

 

 

 

 

 

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Ideally and symbolically, the European col-lector of the 16th and 17th centuries was theowner of the universe compressed into the cup-boards of curiosity cabinets: „The ambition toinclude a whole national territory in the collec-tion, as well as the escape into the exotic realmby going beyond the boundaries generally con-firm the desire to encompass the whole worldspatially, horizontally. This is why the curiositycabinet’s vertical hierarchy with its three succes-sive stages – from Naturalia to Artificialia andup to Scientifica – was intersected with a hori-zontal plateau that tended to embrace the wholeglobe. To a certain extent, the curiosity cabinetswere concurrently a microcosmos and a blur oftime“ (Horst Bredekamp: 2007, 37).

Constantin (Dinicu) Golescu, an enlightenedboyar, was fascinated to discover in his travels(1824, 1825, 1826) the Viennese and Hungarianmuseums. He was not aware of any system forclassifying the collections, such as the one for-mulated by Samuel Quiccheberg in Inscriptionesvel tituli theatrum amplissimi (1565) and put touse by the Habsburg cabinets in Ambras andPrague (Bredekamp: 2007, 32-37). Nevertheless,while visiting the museums of Pesta, he wrotedown the exhaustive „capture“ of objects: „Allkinds of metal[s], and the soil they have been ex-tracted from, as well as skins of all species of

animals all over Hungary, both those living onearth and underground, those that fly and thosethat live in the sea, some preserved in spirits,others so beautifully stuffed that they cannot bedistinguished from those alive.“ (s.n.) Thespecies and the great variety of beings and thingsscattered in space and time are „captured“, theygo into the captivity of a totalitarian fiction em-bodied by the museum and come close to eachother by eliminate real huge distances.

The Renaissance demons of taxonomy anduniversality have made their presence felt againin the organization of universal exhibitions.Only the old hierarchy has disappeared. The1900 Universal Exhibition held in Paris dis-played 18 groups and 121 classes to the partici-pants. Here are the 18 groups whose value orchronological scale can hardly be recognised: I.Éducation. Enseignement; II. Oeuvres d’art; III.Instruments et procédés des lettres, sciences etarts; IV. Matériel et procédés généraux de la mé-canique; V. Électricité; VI. Génie civil. Moyens detransport; VII. Agriculture; VIII. Horticulture. Ar-boriculture; IX. Forêts. Chasse. Pêche. Cueil-lettes; X. Aliments; XI. Mines. Métallurgie; XII.Décoration et mobilier des édifices publics et deshabitations; XIII. Fils. Tissus. Vêtements; XIV. In-dustrie chimique; XV. Industries diverses; XVI.Économie sociale. Hygiène, assistance publique;

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The Avatars of Nourishment. Industry and Metaphysics

{erban Anghelescu

XVII. Colonisation; XVIII. Armée de terre et demer.

Raportul general asupra part icip`reiRomâniei la Expozi]ia Universal` din Paris (Ge-neral Report on Romania’s Participation in theParis Universal Exhibition) drafted by Commis-sary General D.C. Oll`nescu could have confineditself to an accurate record of expenses, displaysand awards but in fact it is a remarkable de-scription of Romania from which we provide youan anecdotal quotation. There were 464 engines,1,009 carriages lit by rapeseed oil, they manu-factured ordinary and perfumed soap, shoepolish, ointments and pomade, we had four2480 hp paper and cardboard factories and aruling capital of 2,350,000 francs, the „Filaret“Matches Factory in Bucharest – spread on 7 ha,its output amounting to 5,675,332,000 matchesper year. In the Romanian tobacco pavilionbased on Quay d’Orsay „the back wall wascovered by a painting of the country’s coat-of-

arms, all made of matches whose heads weredipped in colours specif ic to the topic“(Oll`nescu: 1901, 399). In 1824, Dinicu Golescuadmired in Vienna such a great wonder that itcould not be depicted in words: „Even theAustrian symbol, a two-headed gryphon, couldbe seen on a large room ceiling, looking as if itwere painted; it was made of such artfully ar-ranged arms that, if somebody had looked up,they would have believed that it was painted;and, to the best of my knowledge, the wingfeathers were made of swords whereas the chestfeathers were made of smaller knives. I am fullyaware of my hopeless endeavour to describe it,for the reader will not be satisfied with myaccount and will be unable to think how thiscomposition of arms could stand for a paintedgryphon; this is why I said that he who will notsee this wonder is worth being punished.“(Dinicu Golescu: 1963, 66-67)

146 {erban Anghelescu

The Commissary General constructed theimage of a country from lists and figures.Universal exhibitions stage civilisation as ameasurable, perfectible, saleable production. If Iam not wrong, the author of the report yields to„poetic“ enthusiasm twice. The wall carpets, therugs, the pillow sheets, the curtains are soft,transparent, thin, the legs are lovely stretched onthe carpet, the head rests on the silk thread-woven cushion, the eyes rejoice at the gentlesunbeams that stream through the silk curtains.Statistics and the pace of production are inter-rupted by a voluptous rest. „It’s such a sweetsight“ (Oll`nescu: 1901, 363).

The agricultural section of a completelyagrarian country had to have an unparalleled vi-sual impact: „First of all, exhibitions are meantto please the eyes. Thus, agriculture can hardlyvie with the grand creation of art and industry.Except for animals, agricultural products become

important only due to their amount, for oncethey are considered in particular, they areusually insignificant and with no external charm.This is why it is very difficult to present the pu-blic – in an exhibition – the agricultural sectorof a country in order to heighten the non-con-naisseurs’ interest and to convince them of itseconomic importance.

Failing to present agricultural products atgreat international exhibitions would actually bea big gap in the production process of a countryand, unlike the other sectors of industry, itsvalue would be severely compromised. This iswhy, the detailed explanations recorded here didnot make me hesitate to capture at the scene theinfluence exerted by the exhibition of our cere-als on the crowd. The exhibits themselves couldnot possibly offer these explanations.

This exhibition could undoubtedly have beenlimited to the presentation of a few types or

148 {erban Anghelescu

samples of cereals meant to prove a particulardegree of superiority. However, apart from that,I also insisted on giving a deep-seated view ofour entire methodically classified agricultural ac-tivity that is easy to examine and appreciate – asit actually was. Arranged in the area of the mili-tary school’s machine gallery, our agriculturalsection was not only diverse, but also originallydesigned:

Made from Romanian white fir wood, a con-struction with pyrographed national ornamentswas erected on an area of 180sqm. It was madein the workshops of the Bucharest military arse-nal. Together with the gates, the attic, and theshingled eaves, it symbolised the surroundedyard of a well-to-do peasant who used to put allkinds of grains, dry vegetables and seeds har-vested from his fertile fields on small or highshelves, function of their quality and category.Piles and rows of red, yellow and white corncobsdecorated the entire house, hanging in all cor-ners under twisted rows of red hemp; the wheat,barley, oat, flax, and millet sheaves proudlyraised their moustache-like ears in all cornerswhereas the wealth of multicoloured wheat, hardwheat, Algerian wheat, Banat wheat with its ripeand swollen kernels delighted the avid eyes ofthe viewers through the glass bottles of all kindsand sizes; the bunch of Cinquantin red corn, pig-noletto, horsetooth-like and Moldavian corn

were each and all shining brighter then gold; thesame with the full-grained black rapeseed, white-coloured two-row barley and golden or grey oat!

Pots of white, bluish-grey, red, flat, round oroblong beans, of green and yellow peas, of flax,hemp seeds, poppy seeds, white and black mus-tard seeds, of white, green and black-grainedresin, of millet, buckwheat and sunflower seedswere lined up out there. If you turned around,you could see flocks of wool of all sorts andcolours, washed and unwashed, combed orscissored. A great white and frayed bunch ofcotton that was sown and sprouted in Isaccea liesnext to them lies as living proof that this planttypical of warm lands might grow and be culti-vated under the scorching sun of our Dobrogea.

Here are white and orange honey combs,crystal-clear and shining honey stored in bottles.Here is beehive wax and the queens deftly madeby the Lipovenians from Balabanca and Gala]i.Light as a feather, the white, delicate cocoons de-liberately rise in clusters, leaving an aristocraticmark on the corner where the well-to-do peasanthung them as a token of respect for his house ofplenty which is already familiar to us.

There were 328 (individual and collective) ex-hibitors in Class 39 (agricultural food supplies ofvegetal origin) where our appointed Delegatewas D. George Nicoleanu, the Head of the De-partment of Agriculture. The international jury

150 {erban Anghelescu

rewarded them as follows: 5 great awards, 85gold medals, 76 silver medals, 136 bronzemedals and 9 honourable mentions. The sumtotal of 311 awards represents 94%.“ (Ol`nescu:1901, 228-229)

Unfortunately, no visitor to the exhibitioncould have understood the verbal show inventedby the author of the text who is the only privi-leged viewer. The eye sees everything by meansof words. The sonorous Romanian language, therhythm of enumerations, the contrasting formsand colours of the grains and seeds, and theshining honey strictly depend on the materialityof the verb.

The food was exhibited in a separate agricul-tural section, but also in a hunting and fishingone. Group X contained 8 classes: 55. Materialsand procedures used in the food industry; 56.Bakery products and their derivatives; 57.Bakeries and pie shop products; 58. Meat, fish,vegetable and fruit cans; 59. Sugars and confec-tionery, spices and appetizers; 60. Wines andbrandies; 61. Syrups and liquors: various spirits,industrial alcohols; 62. Various drinks. Allthrough 1900, the six Romanian can factoriesprepared pepper, artichoke, okras, grain, peas,beans, marrows, parsley, tomatoes, asparagus,tarragon, sour cherries, plums, apricots, peaches,bullaces, raspberry, gooseberries, great sturgeon,common sturgeon, dried herring, Danubemackerel, herring, pork, beef, veal. The sugar

factories used to display their manufacturingprocess that ranged from syrup to the refinedsugar loaf. Cap[a, Economu, Bella-Vista confec-tioneries displayed sweets, jams, preserved fruit,cakes, plated chocolate or the famous pistachioTurkish delight. The beverages were artisticallypresented, function of type, origin and quality.„Located in the machine gallery, near theSwedish stand, the entrance to the beveragestand designed at the Paris Exhibition wasshaped like a vine arbour with a great iron-cir-cled oak barrel on top of it. On both sides of thedoor were another two barrels with groups ofsmall and big bottles that continued to spreadeverywhere among garlands, trophies and pyra-mids blended with vine and grapes. A 10-meterlong and 1.50-meter wide double case lied on thelateral side. It contained bottled and labelledwhite and black wines ordered according to vine-yards and categories of exhibitors. The spiritswere classified by type and quality and arrangedon the racks and walls inside the stand. Threelarge oak-carved cupboards, which were ar-ranged near the left wall, contained the gas cylin-ders and the beer barrels of the Bragadiru,Luther and Oppler factories in Bucharest.“(Oll`nescu: 1901, 315) The fourty-six spirits fac-tories used yeast to fatten 25,000 cattle. Eachfactory had comfortable stables. Romania reallyfeeds us.

The Avatars of Nourishment. Industry and Metaphysics 151

The French architect Camille Formigé de-signed the Romanian pavilions and the buildingof the Romanian restaurant after he had drawnold churches and monasteries during his studiesabroad. This may be suggestive of the buildingof the restaurant which „symbolised our oldcountryside house by shape, division and colour.The porch columns were the perfect copy ofAntim Monastery’s columns whereas thecornices and the enamelled ornaments remindedof those in the church of Hârl`u and in thePrincely St. Nicholas Church of Ia[i. They pro-duced a wonderful effect!“ (Oll`nescu: 1901,56). The site was perfectly designed for con-veying the sacredness of nourishment. It enjoyedan extraordinary success: „The Restaurant wasthe first to be inaugurated in Bucharest on the1/13th of May. According to the contract, Mr.Ioan Doiciu, our Concessionaire, had built it onthe pillar of a first-class foundation. The finestRomanian and French cuisine, the mostexquisite national and foreign beverages, themost reputed fiddlers (P`dureanu and Ciolac),the fast, kind waiters who served without beingnoisy noise, the furniture in good taste that wasworthy of being admired, the attractive and joy-ful restaurant, the nice host ready to pleaseeveryone made it soon become the most elegant,the most visited and the most appreciated restau-rant presented at the exhibition.

Famous politicians, artists, bankers andtycoons as well as French and foreign celebritiesvisited us and came back again to taste ourdishes and to applaud the most thrilling songsperformed by our fiddlers“. (Ol`nescu: 1901, 37)

In the Romanian Peasant Museum nourish-ment is conceived and exhibited in its symbolicdimensions. Nourishment means to us a naturalpassage from daily life to metaphysics, nourish-ment means sacrifice, initiation, alms. The 1900Universal Exhibition is overwhelmingly industri-al and laic par excellence. Its exhibits lacked anydeep symbolism and intrinsic beauty, except forexceptional cases. Arranged in symmetric rowsthat were part of garlands and cable mouldingsor of cylinders, pyramids and spheres, things be-came beautiful by merging with figures viewedas aesthetic by nature. Wheat was not the symbolof Christ. It was multicoloured, hard or Algerian.It had glassy, floury and transient kernels. In1885, Gh. Dem. Teodorescu had published inPoezii populare române (Romanian Folk Verse)Colinda lui Christos (Christmas Carol) in whichthe crucified body gave birth to wheat, wine, andholy oil. His contemporaries looked anxiously inthe opposite direction: modernity. The ritual lifeof peasant things passed unnoticed even in TheEthnographic Museum of National, Decorative,and Industrial Art founded in 1906.

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BREDEKAMP, Horst: Nostalgia antichit`]ii [icultul ma[inilor. Istoria cabinetului de curi-ozit`]i [i viitorul istoriei artei (Nostalgia forAntiquity and the Cult of the Machines. TheHistory of the Curiosity Cabinets and the Fu-ture of Art History) Cluj: Editura Ideea, 2007.

DINICU, Golescu: Însemnare a c`l`toriei mele,Constantin Radovici din Gala]i f`cut` înanul (An Account of the Journey Taken in

1824, 1825, 1826 by me, ConstantinRadovici from Galati), Bucharest: EdituraTineretului, 1963.

OL~NESCU, Dimitrie C.: Raport general asupraparticip`rii României la Expozi]ia Universal`din Paris (1900) (General Report on Roma-nia’s Participation in the Paris UniversalExhibition), Bucharest: Editura Socec, 1901.

Bibliography