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MichelaPassini
suchasIonCantacuzino,NicolaeIorgaandEmil
Racovita.TheofficewassetupinCantacuzino’sin-
stituteformicrobiology,andawholestoreyofthe
buildingofanotherFrenchassociation,theUnion
desFrançais,wasrequisitionedforwhatwasgoing
tobecalledInstitutfrançaisdeHautesEtudesen
Roumanie(“Institutulfrancezdeînaltestudiiîn
Romania”).
TheoriginalmemorandumthatFocillonsub-
mittedto“TheheadoftheServicedesOeuvres
Françaisàl’étranger,esq”
.isarguablythemostin-
terestingdocumentconcerningthefoundationof
theFrenchinstituteinBucharest.Here,Focillon
drawsacomparisonbetweenRomaniaafterWorld
WarIandFranceafterAlsacewasreannexed.Heis
thinkingofClujuniversityinparticular,for,since
1918,theformerlyHungariancitybelongedto
Romania.Hecallsit“theforefrontofamilitant
Romanianculture”
,andtoitsadvantageheinvokes
theinfluenceofFrance,exerted“intheformofcol-
laboration”
.Focillon,inparticular,maintainedthat
thecreationofaFrenchinstitutewasgoingtobe
aprovidentialbulwarkagainstthethreatsofthe
“oldgeographicattractionemanatingfromViena
andtheuniversitiesofCentralEurope”
.Another
interestingpointforoutsubjectmatter,Focillon
triestosupporthisplanbystressingtheneedfor
aclosercollaborationwithRomanianscholars,to
encouragethedevelopmentofgenuinelyFrench
methodologiesinRomania.“Extendingtheteach-
ingofFrench,establishingFrenchchairsandlec-
turesintheuniversitiesandencouragingthebirth
ofcirclesforfriendsofFrenchcultureunderour
informalpatronagewereexcellentchoices.Itwas
certainlynotuselesstodispatchFrenchlecturersto
themajorcities.Thebestcourseofaction,however,
wouldbeworkingundertheeyesoftheRomani-
ansonresearchesofFrenchmethod,andentrusting
theseresearchestoRomaniaitself”14.
“Methodologicalimperialism”wouldbeafit-
tingandbynomeansexcessivedefinitionforthis
endeavour.
Thisexampleisarguablythemostconstructive
ofthethree.ThestudiesIoanaVlasiudevotedto
Focillon’sfriendshipwithGeorgeOprescu15show
howdeepwastheinfluenceoftheFrencharthis-
torianonthemakingofOprescu’soutput.Accord-
ingtoVlasiu,Focillonplayedacrucialroleevenin
Oprescu’sdecisiontobecomeanarthistorian.This
isparticularlysignificant,ifwekeepinmindthat
Oprescu,inturn,playedamajorroleinthefounda-
tionofaRomanianschoolofarthistory.
Thequestion,therefore,is:grantedthatFocil-
lonwasamediator,whatwashemediatingexactly?
Whatmodelsdidhispresenceandteachingmake
availabletoRomanianarthistorians?Toquotehis
ownwords,whatwerethese“researchesofFrench
method”hewantedtoimplantinRomania?
WhenheconceivedtheideaofaFrenchinsti-
tuteinBucharest,Focillonhadjustbeenappointed
totheSorbonne,andwasbeginningtoworkon
RomanesquesculptureontheonehandandXIX
Frenchpaintingontheother,whilelayingthefoun-
dationoftheformalistmethodhewouldintroduce
in1934inLifeoftheforms.
Whataretheelementsthatgetthroughto
Oprescu?Amongthelatter’sworks,thosethatare
mostindebtedtohisfrequentandessentialex-
changeswithFocillonbetrayaformalisticframeof
workandaninterestforissuesofmasspsychology,
therelationshipofart,civilizationandsociety,and
ameditationon“longterm”historicalphenomena,
thatFocillonhimselfhadrecentlylearnedfromthe
historianofthe“Annales”
,withwhomhewasbe-
ginningtocollaborate.Thistransmissionofthemes
andmodelsisparticularlyevidentintheworksthat
FocillonandOprescudevotealmostsimultaneous-
lytopopularart.
In1928,bothOprescuandFocillontookpart
intheCongressonpopularartpromotedbythe
InternationalCommitteeonIntellectualCoopera-
tion(calledintobeingbytheLeagueofNations)16.
Focillonevenpennedtheprefacetotheacts,pub-
lishedin1932:itishismostambitioustextabout
theissueofso-calledpopulararts.In1929,Opres-
cupublishedhisvolumeonRomanianpopularart,
firstinEnglishandlater,in1937,inFrench.His
prefacetothelattereditionquotedalmostverba-
timfromFocillon’sreflectionsonpopularart.Fo-
cillon,ontheotherhand,wasthededicateeofthe
book-anexplicitadmittanceofanintellectual
dependence.“Howtoanalysetheartisticlegacy
ofourforefathersissomethingwelearnedinyour
books,andfromthispointofviewwewereallyour
pupils”17.
14QuotedinGodin(1998:13).
15Vlasiu(2004:231-240)andVlasiu(2002:139-145).
16VV.AA.(1928).
17Oprescu(1937:4).
