ARCHETYPES OF BEAUTY in European Art from the Collection of the Cluj-Napoca Art Museum

The Art Museum in Cluj-Napoca (MACN), a public institution of county interest operating under the authority of the Cluj County Council, is organizing from May 6 to June 14, 2026, the exhibition "Archetypes of Beauty in European Art from the Collection of the Cluj-Napoca Art Museum", featuring works from the museum's heritage.

Female and male beauty alike has been and continues to be a subject that fascinates both the artistic imagination and the profane gaze of everyday life. Throughout history, physical perfection has been considered a reflection of the spirit’s accomplishment; the theme of beauty archetypes has remained a preferred subject across all eras, from the fertile goddesses of the Neolithic to the androgynous ideal of the present day. 

Let us, however, turn our gaze toward the idealized beauty of the 17th century, which closely followed the ancient topos of uniting several perfect fragments into a single idealized body, recalling the story of Zeuxis, who painted Helen of Troy by combining the features of the five most beautiful women of Croton. The deliberate placement of these visual selections within magical groves and sumptuous settings was closely linked to the poetry and literature of the age. In this way, the delight went beyond pure visual pleasure, triggering other sensory whims and seeking a true synesthesia of the senses.

I have chosen this theme to highlight a selection from the museum's European art collection, which has been inaccessible to the public for nearly half a century. These paintings reflect a fragment of the cultural history of the community in Cluj and its kinship with its "older sisters" in the country: the impressive collections of the National Museum of Art in Bucharest, the Brukenthal Museum in Sibiu, and the National Museum of Art in Timișoara.

The selection aims to transport the viewer into the magical-mythological world of the Seicento (Varotari, Liberi, dal Sole), with subtle accents of the Settecento (Nazari) and Ottocento (Károly). While the image of feminine beauty captured in enchanted groves, private chambers, or in the company of mythological animals prevails, the exhibition also includes the idealized beauty of a young ephebe playing the lute, whose presence transcends visual pleasure to stir the viewer's auditory imagination.