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Visiting hours:
The National Museum of Art of Romania, the Theodor Pallady Museum and the K. H. Zambaccian Museum can be visited: Wednesday-Friday 10am-6pm
Saturday-Sunday 11am-7pm, Monday and Tuesday closed. Free entry on the first Wednesday of the month.
The Art Collections Museum: Monday, Tuesday and Friday, 10am-6pm, Saturday and Sunday 11am-7pm, closed Wednesday and Thursday. Free entry on the first Friday of the month.
Last entrance: 1 hour before closing for The National Museum of Art of Romania and the Art Collections Museum and 30 minutes for the Theodor Pallady Museum, the K. H. Zambaccian Museum and the temporary exhibitions.
For guided tours, please make a reservation at educatie@art.museum.ro at least 7 days in advance.
Wednesday, February 19, 2025, the National Gallery (Romanian Modern Art Gallery and Romanian Medieval Art Gallery) will be open to visitors from 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM on the occasion of Brâncuși Day.

The National Museum of Art of Romania
Licinio – The Return of the Prodigal Son
Artwork description
Bernardino Licinio
(1489-1565)
Italian school
Oil on canvas
186 x 236 cm
Artwork location
European Art Gallery, 1st floor, room 2

The Return of the Prodigal Son illustrates a parable in Luke’s Gospel (15:11-32). Using the meeting between father and son in the foreground as a pretext, Licinio provides us with a vivid rendition of life in the Venetian aristocratic millieu around the middle of the 16th century. The villa sits in a lush surrounding landscape, which pushes the background up to a very high horizon.

The Return of the Prodigal Son Fashionably dressed courtiers, a weird flamingo bird striding the patio, a Nubian page closely watching the scene, servants trumpeting the good news from the villa terrace are just as many clues as to the high social status enjoyed by the family depicted.

Details of this ample narrative take up the entire picture plane, supported by powerful colour contrasts of red and green. Note also the blue employed by Licinio: this was one of the most expensive colours of the day, as it was manufactured from lapislazuli, a semi-precious stone brought by Venetian ships from the Middle East.

See more works in the European Art Gallery

Romanian Medieval Art Gallery

Romanian Medieval Art Gallery

Over 900 icons, mural paintings, embroideries, manuscripts, silverware, woodcarvings, many of them unique, amply survey Romanian art from the 14th – to the early 19th century. Items on display showcase developments in Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania, reflecting the intricate manner in which a traditional Byzantine layer blended in Oriental as well as Western influences to generate original local art forms.

The Stories of the Cross: Miniature Sculpture of Byzantine Tradition

The Stories of the Cross: Miniature Sculpture of Byzantine Tradition

Curator: Lucreția Pătrășcanu

Theodor Pallady Museum

Theodor Pallady Museum

The museum brings centre stage a core selection of paintings by Theodor Pallady. Together with over 800 prints and drawings from the artist’s Parisian years, these are part of the Serafina and Gheorghe Răut collection, donated to the Romanian state at the end of the 1960s. The collection also comprises French, Dutch, English and Spanish paintings, European furniture and sculpture and a host of various objets d’art which speak eloquently about the manner in which Romanian inter-war intellectuals tried to emulate general trends.

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