The Enfilade of Frames Exhibition at the National History Museum of Transylvania

Abstract

By inaugurating the medieval lapidarium, the National History Museum of Transylvania ends a several decades-long wait, during which we have been deprived of one of Cluj’s most admirable exhibitions. A special space of the museum is being reborn, arranged more than a century ago, when the mise en scene with the Renaissance frames enriching the space created by the enfilade rooms was a stroke of genius of the respective era. The rhythm of the doors, gates, and windows adorned with various decorations and inscriptions recreated the varnished world of Renaissance Cluj at a tangible distance. The artistic and visual experience in this lapidarium remained for each visitor unique and memorable in the general context of the museum. The new exhibition maintains the axiality of the old one, yet the thematic grouping of the pieces is much better thought out and presented. Even though in the case of the museum in Cluj, the architectural elements have had a prominent role, and continue to do so, we cannot help but notice that in museums throughout Europe, the lapidarium represents a marginal, tolerated space. In many cases, the masonry recovered from demolished or restored edifices lays among corridor entrances and sometimes in stuffed courtyards, exposed to the elements. We come across them not only in the context of museums but also within castles and churches across Europe. They rarely get the privilege of being relocated in special deposits or, at best, being exhibited. Even when they do become part of an exhibition, they take a supporting act in relation to the more traditional museum pieces.