Pietro da Cortona
Self-Portrait
Birth name	Pietro Berrettini
Born	(1596-11-01)November 1, 1596 Cortona
Died	May 16, 1669(1669-05-16) (aged 72) Rome, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Field	Painting and Architecture
Movement	Baroque

Pietro da Cortona, also called Pietro Berrettini, born Pietro Berrettini da Cortona,^[1] (1 November 1596/7^[2] – 16 May 1669) was the leading Italian Baroque painter of his time and, along with his contemporaries and rivals Gianlorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important designer of interior decorations.

Cortona worked mainly in Rome and Florence. He is best known for his frescoed ceilings such as the vault of the salone or main salon of the Palazzo Barberini in Rome and carried out extensive painting and decorative schemes for the Medici family in Florence and for the Oratorian fathers at the church of Santa Maria in Vallicella in Rome. He also painted numerous canvases. Only a limited number of his architectural projects were built but nonetheless they are as distinctive and as inventive as those of his rivals.

Despite the high regard he was held in during his lifetime, his present fame does not match the esteem bestowed on Caravaggio, Bernini, and Borromini.

Biography[link]

Early career[link]

Berrettini was born into a family of artisans and masons,^[3] in Cortona, then a town in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. He trained in painting in Florence under Andrea Commodi, but soon he departed for Rome at around 1612/3, where he joined the studio of Baccio Ciarpi. He was involved in fresco decorations at the Palazzo Mattei in 1622-3 under the direction of Agostino Ciampelli and Cardinal Orsini had commissioned from him an Adoration of the Shepherds (c. 1626) for San Salvatore in Lauro.

Marcello Sacchetti by Cortona (1627)

In Rome, he had encouragement from many prominent patrons. According to Cortona's biographers^[4] his gifted copy of Raphael's Galatea fresco^[5] brought him to the attention of Marcello Sacchetti, papal treasurer during the Barberini papacy. Such contacts helped him gain an early major commission in Rome (1624–1626), a fresco decoration in the church of Santa Bibiana that was being renovated under the direction of Bernini. In 1626, the Sacchetti family engaged Cortona to paint three large canvases of The Sacrifice of Polyxena, The Triumph of Bacchus, and The Rape of the Sabines (the latter, c. 1629),^[6] and to paint a series of frescoes in the Villa Sacchetti at Castelfusano, near Ostia, using a team that included the young Andrea Sacchi. In the Sacchetti orbit, he met Pope Urban VIII and Cardinal Francesco Barberini, the papal nephew, and their patronage of Cortona provided him with ample scope to demonstrate his abilities as a painter of frescoes and canvases.

Grand Salon of Palazzo Barberini[link]

Triumph of Divine Providence

Fresco cycles were numerous in Cortona's Rome; most represented framed episodes imitating canvases such as found in the Sistine Chapel ceiling or in Carraccis' The Loves of the Gods in the Farnese gallery (completed 1601). In 1633, Pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini) commissioned from Cortona a large fresco painting for the ceiling of the Barberini family palace; the Palazzo Barberini.^[7] Completed six years later, the huge Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power marks a watershed in Baroque painting. A putative sketch of the plan, of doubtful authenticity, is exhibited in the hall. The fresco is an illusion with the central field apparently open to the sky and scores of figures seen 'al di sotto in su' apparently coming into the room itself or floating above it. It contains endless number of heraldic symbols and subthemes.

Cortona's panegyric trompe l'oeil extavaganzas have lost favor in minimalist times, yet they are precursors of sunny and cherubim infested rococo excesses. They contrast starkly with darker renegade naturalism prominent in Caravaggisti, and remind us that the Baroque style was not monolithic. Cortona, like Bernini in sculpture, appears reactionary, patronizing; yet if excellence in art is measured by the ability to match style to intent within the limitations of the medium, then Cortona was triumphant. He was among the first of the fresco painters that dispensed with the architectural masonry of the roof, erasing it away with painted integral architecture and a broad, non-framed vista. While rising heavenward, works like the Barberini Allegory are meant to stagger and humble the visitor, who seems to stand over, and not below, a looming abyss of mythic power that threatens to overwhelm the viewer.

The Golden Age by Pietro da Cortona.

Frescoes in Palazzo Pitti[link]

Cortona had been patronized by the Tuscan community in Rome, hence it was not surprising when he was passing through Florence in 1637, that he should be asked by Grand Duke Ferdinando II de' Medici to paint a series of frescoes intended to represent the four ages of man in a small room, the Sala della Stufa, in the Palazzo Pitti. The first two represented the "ages" of silver and gold.^[8] In 1641, he was recalled to paint the 'Bronze Age' and 'Iron Age' frescoes. He began work on the decoration of the grand-ducal reception rooms on the first floor of the Palazzo Pitti, now part of the Palatine Gallery. In these five Planetary Rooms, the hierarchical sequence of the deities is based on Ptolomeic cosmology; Venus, Apollo, Mars, Jupiter (the Medici Throne room) and Saturn, but minus Mercury and the Moon which should have come before Venus.^[9] These highly ornate ceilings with frescoes and elaborate stucco work essentially celebrate the Medici lineage and the bestowal of virtuous leadership.^[10] Pietro left Florence in 1647, and his pupil and collaborator, Ciro Ferri, completed the cycle by the 1660s.^[11]

Late works[link]

For a number of years, Cortona was involved for decades in the decoration of the ceiling frescoes in the Oratorian Chiesa Nuova (Santa Maria in Vallicella) in Rome, a work not finished until 1665.^[12] Other frescoes are in Palazzo Pamphilj in Piazza Navona (1651–4).

In 1660, he executed The Stoning of Saint Stephen for the church of San Ambrogio della Massima in Rome. The work currently hangs in the Hermitage.^[13]

Towards the end of his life he devoted much of his time to architecture, but he published a treatise on painting in 1652 under a pseudonym and in collaboration. He refused invitations to both France and Spain.

Debate with Andrea Sacchi[link]

He was elected as director of the Academy of St Luke the painter's guild in Rome, in 1634. It was at the Academy in 1636 that Cortona and Andrea Sacchi were involved in theoretical controversies regarding the number of figures that were appropriate in a painted work.^[14]

Sacchi argued for few figures, since he felt it was not possible to grant meaningful individuality, a distinct role, to more than a few figures per scene. Cortona, on the other hand, lobbied for an art that could accommodate many subplots to a central concept. In addition, he also likely viewed the possibility of using many human figures in decorative detail or to represent a general concept. Sacchi's position would be reinforced in future years by Nicolas Poussin. Others have seen in this dichotomy, the long-standing debate whether visual art is about theoretical principles and meant to narrate a full story, or a painterly decorative endeavor, meant to delight the senses. Cortona was a director of the Accademia from 1634–1638.

Cortona employed or trained many prominent artists, who then disseminated his grand manner style. Apart from Ciro Ferri, others that worked in his studio included:

Romanelli and Camassei also trained under Domenichino. Giovanni Maria Bottalla was one of his assistants on the Barberini Ceiling. Sources for (W);^[17] while sources for (H).^[18][19] Source for MB is Bryan, Michael (1889). Walter Armstrong & Robert Edmund Graves. ed. Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical (Volume II L-Z). York St. #4, Covent Garden, London; Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18, 2007: George Bell and Sons. http://books.google.com/?id=K2cCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=Michael+Bryan+Painters+Engravers#PPP7,M1. 

Architectural projects[link]

Church of Santi Luca e Martina, Rome

Among Cortona's more important architectural projects are the church of Santi Luca e Martina (completed in 1664, the church of the Accademia di San Luca, located in the Roman Forum. While Cortona was principe or director of the Accademia from 1634–38, he obtained permission to dig in the crypt of the church, which led the likely mistaken finding of remains attributed to the first century Roman martyr and Saint Martina. This discovery led to further patronage for construction of the church. The layout is almost a Greek cross, with four nearly identical wings extending from the striking central dome. Much of the ground structure is undecorated, above intricately decorated. The overwhelmingly vertical decoration of the facade is granted liveliness by horizontal convexity. In his will, this bachelor called this church his beloved daughter.

He also renovated the exterior renewal of the ancient Santa Maria della Pace (1656–1667), and the façade (with an unusual loggia) of Santa Maria in Via Lata (appr. 1660).

Another influential work for its day was the design and decoration of the Villa Pigneto commissioned by the Marchese Sacchetti.^[20] This garden palace or casino gathered a variety of features in a novel fashion, including a garden facade with convex arms, and highly decorated niches, and elaborate tiered staircases surrounding a fountain.

Anatomical plates[link]

Prior to becoming famous as an architect, Pietro drew anatomical plates that would not be engraved and published until a hundred years after his death. The plates in Tabulae anatomicae are now thought to have been started around 1618. The dramatic and highly studied poses effected by the figures are in keeping with the style of other Renaissance Baroque anatomical artists, although nowhere does such an approach find any fuller expression than in these plates.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Rendina, Claudio (2000). Enciclopedia di Roma. Rome: Newton Compton. 
• Haskell, Francis (1980). Patrons and Painters; Art and Society in Baroque Italy. pp. 38–40, 60–62. 
• Connors, Joseph (1998). "Pietro da Cortona 1597-1669". The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians: 318–321. 
• Loire, Stéphane (1998). "Pietro da Cortona". The Burlington Magazine: 219–222. 
• Merz, Jörg Martin: Pietro da Cortona and Roman Baroque Architecture, New Haven-London, Yale university Press 2008

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pietro da Cortona

• Tabulae anatomicae
• Pietro da Cortona, A Design for a Quarantore at San Lorenzo in Damaso, c.1632

Gallery[link]

• 

  Pietà

• 

  Virgin and Child with Saints

• 

  Martyrdom of St Lawrence

• 

  Ananias restores sight to St Paul

• 

  Return of Hagar

• 

  Guardian Angel

• 

  Stoning of St Stephen

• 

  'Romulus & Remus Sheltered by Faustulus

• 

  Venus as Huntress Appears to Aeneas

• 

  Rape of the Sabines

Cortona
—  Comune  —
Città di Cortona
Cortona Location of Cortona in Italy
Coordinates: 43°16′32″N 11°59′17″E / 43.27556°N 11.98806°E / 43.27556; 11.98806Coordinates: 43°16′32″N 11°59′17″E / 43.27556°N 11.98806°E / 43.27556; 11.98806
Country	Italy
Region	Tuscany
Province	Arezzo (AR)
Frazioni	Adatti, Bocena, Borgonuovo, Camucia, Cantalena, Capezzine Centoia, Casale, Cegliolo, Chianacce, Cignano, Creti, Falzano, Farneta, Fasciano, Fossa del Lupo, Fratta, Fratticciola, Gabbiano, Mengaccini, Mercatale, Mezzavia, Monsigliolo, Montalla, Montanare, Montecchio, Novelle, Ossaia, Pergo, Pierle, Pietraia, Poggioni, Portole, Riccio, Ronzano, Ruffignano, San Donnino Val di Pierle, San Lorenzo Rinfrena, San Marco in Villa, San Pietro a Cegliolo, San Pietro a Dame, Santa Caterina, Sant’Andrea di Sorbello, Sant’Angelo, Seano, Sodo, Tavarnelle, Terontola, Teverina, Tornia, Torreone, Valecchie, Vallone.
Government
• Mayor	Andrea Vignini
Area
• Total	342.33 km2 (132.17 sq mi)
Elevation	494 m (1,621 ft)
Population (31 March 2009)
• Total	23,041
• Density	67/km2 (170/sq mi)
Demonym	Cortonesi
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	52044
Dialing code	0575
Patron saint	Saint Margaret of Cortona
Saint day	22 February
Website	Official website

Cortona is a town and comune in the province of Arezzo, in Tuscany, Italy. It is the main cultural and artistic center of the Val di Chiana after Arezzo.

History[link]

This section requires expansion.

The Palazzo Comunale.

Originally an Umbrian city, it was conquered and enlarged by the Etruscans, who called it Curtun. Cortona eventually became a Roman colony under the name Corito. The origin-legends and ancient names of Cortona are described by George Dennis. ^[1] During the barbarian invasions of the 553, Cortona was sacked and destroyed by the Goths. Cortona became a Ghibellinian city state in the 13th century, with its own currency. From 1325 to 1409 the Ranieri-Casali family successfully ruled the town. After being conquered by Ladislaus of Naples in 1409, Cortona was sold to the Medici in 1411. In 1737, the senior branch of the Medici line went extinct and Cortona came under the authority of the House of Lorraine. Following the Italian Wars of Independence, Tuscany - Cortona included - became part of the Kingdom of Italy.

Cortona foundation legend[link]

The foundation of Cortona remains mixed in legends dating to classical times. These were later reworked especially in the late Renaissance period under Cosimo I de' Medici. The 17th-century Guide of Giacomo Lauro, reworked from writings of Annio da Viterbo, states that 108 years after the Great Flood, Noah entered the Valdichiana via the Tiber and Paglia rivers. He preferred this place better than anywhere else in Italy, because it was so fertile, and dwelt there for thirty years. One of Noah's descendants was Crano his son who came to the hilltop and, liking the high position, the fine countryside and the calm air, built the city of Cortona on it in 273 years after the Great Flood.

Main sights[link]

Via Nazionale or Ruga Piana.

The prevailing character of Cortona’s architecture is medieval with steep narrow streets situated on a hillside (altitude 600 metres), embracing a view of the whole of the Valdichiana. From the Piazza Garibaldi (still referred to by the local population by its older name, Piazza Carbonaia) is a fine prospect of Lake Trasimeno, scene of Hannibal's ambush of the Roman army in 217 BC (Battle of Lake Trasimene). Parts of the Etruscan city wall can still be seen today as the basis of the present wall. The main street, via Nazionale, is the only street in the town with no gradient, and is still usually referred to by locals by its older name of Ruga Piana.

Inside the Palazzo Casali is the Museo dell'Accademia Etrusca, displaying items from Etruscan, Roman, and Egyptian civilizations, as well as art and artefacts from the Medieval and Renaissance eras. The distinguished Etruscan Academy Museum had its foundation in 1727 with the collections and library of Onofrio Baldelli. Among its most famous ancient artefacts is the bronze lampadario or Etruscan hanging lamp, found at Fratta near Cortona in 1840 and then acquired by the Academy for the large sum of 1600 Florentine scudi. Its iconography includes (under the 16 burners) alternating figures of Silenus playing panpipes or double flutes, and of sirens or harpies. Within zones representing waves, dolphins and fiercer sea-creatures is a gorgon-like face with protruding tongue. Between each burner is a modelled horned head of Achelous. It is supposed that the lampadario derived from some important north Etruscan religious shrine of around the second half of the fourth century BC. A later (2nd century BC) inscription shows it was rededicated for votive purposes (tinscvil) by the Musni family at that time.^[2] The Museum contains several other important Etruscan bronzes.

The Fra Angelico Annunciation.

Etruscan chamber-tombs nearby include the Tanella di Pitagora^[3] (halfway up the hill from Camucia): the fine masonry of the tomb stands exposed, but was formerly covered by an earth mound. two at the foot of the hillside at Il Sodo, and a complex in Camucia itself. Il Sodo I, the 'Grotta Sergardi' commonly known as 'Il Melone', contains a passage, opening into parallel passages leading to square inner chambers, within a mound about 640ft in circumference. Although the chambers are paved with slabs of masonry the walls are constructed of pieces of rock roughly-formed into bricks.^[4] This tomb can be visited. Il Sodo II contained a large stone-stepped altar platform with carved sphinxes devouring warriors.^[5]

The town's chief artistic treasures are two panels by Fra Angelico in the Diocesan Museum, an Annunciation and a Madonna and Child with Saints. A third surviving work by the same artist is the fresco above the entrance to the church of San Domenico, likewise painted during his stay at Cortona in 1436. The Diocesan Museum houses also a group of work by Giuseppe Maria Crespi, known as Lo Spagnuolo, called Ecstasy of Saint Margaret. The Academy Museum includes the very well known painting Maternità of 1916 by the Cortonese artist Gino Severini. There are also examples of the works of Pietro da Cortona.

Renaissance architecture[link]

Two of the churches in Cortona are prime examples of two different principles of Renaissance construction.

The Church of Santa Maria Nuova, 1554, a central square-plan Renaissance church.

Santa Maria Nuova, built by Giorgio Vasari in 1554, is a church of square ground-plan. It is on a Greek cross plan and is surmounted by a main cupola which was only finished during the 17th century, a primary example of such a centralised design. Inside are four large columns which supports the lantern of the cupola. At the sides the four arms of the cross branch out covered with barrel-vaults, while four small cupolas arise in the spaces of the angles. Among the works of art are the Nativity by Alessandro Allori, San Carlo Borromeo che porta la Comunione agli appestati by Baccio Ciarpi, and the Annunciation by Empoli. The church is in poor condition, and is not open for sightseeing or inspection.

Santa Maria delle Grazie al Calcinaio was built in 1484-1515 by Francesco di Giorgio Martini in connection with an alleged miracle-performing image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the "Madonna del Calcinaio".^[6] This image was originally painted on the timbers of a lime-vat, a calcinaio, hence the name. In cases like this, where the strength of the Renaissance ideal of centralized building-design is applied to a nave-construction, the eastern part of the building was generally developed into a centralized form, that would then be crowned with a large cupola, foreshadowing the cathedral at Florence. The restored interior has unusually high arches.

Other churches[link]

• Cathedral (Duomo) of Cortona (Santa Maria)
• Basilica of Santa Margherita
• Spirito Santo
• San Benedetto
• San Cristoforo
• San Domenico
• San Filippo Neri
• San Francesco
• San Marco
• San Niccolò
• Santa Chiara
• (Former) church of Jesus
• Abbey of Farneta
• Franciscan Convent at Le Celle
• San Donnino (or, Madonna della Croce)
• Pieve di San Michele Arcangelo at Metelliano
• Sanctuary of the Madonna del Bagno
• San Biagio at Pierle
• San Marco Evangelista

Transportation[link]

Cortona may be accessed by rail: the closest station is Camucia-Cortona, three kilometres away. There are direct trains from Florence, Rome, and Foligno (via Perugia).

Twin towns[link]

• Château-Chinon, France, since 1980
• Krujë, Albania, since 1995
• San Josè de Los Remates, Nicaragua, since 1989
• Újbuda, Budapest, Hungary, since 1988
• Athens, Georgia, USA, since 1978

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cortona

• Tabula Cortonensis - An ancient Etruscan artifact found in the city of Cortona in 1992.
• Saint Margaret of Cortona
• Tuscan Sun Festival

References[link]

External links[link]

• Cortona - Art and Architecture
• Cortonaweb: everything about Cortona
• Cortona Mia: Art, Food, Ice cream, Accommodation, Night Life in Cortona
• Maec - The Museum of the Etruscan Academy
• Thayer's Gazetteer of Italy - Pierle
• 'Il Pollo della Valdichiana', contemporary information newsletter, now published as 'Valdichiana oggi'

The Leningrad Symphony. Conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky by Lev Alexandrovich Russov, 1980

Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Mravinsky (Russian: Евге́ний Алекса́ндрович Мрави́нский) (4 June [O.S. 22 May] 1903 – 19 January 1988) was a Soviet-Russian conductor.

Life and career[link]

Mravinsky was born in Saint Petersburg. The soprano Yevgeniya Mravina was his aunt. His father died in 1918, and in that same year, he began to work backstage at the Mariinsky Theatre. He first studied biology at the university in Leningrad, before going to the Leningrad Conservatory to study music. He served as a ballet repetiteur from 1923 to 1931. His first public conducting appearance was in 1929. Through the 1930s he conducted at the Kirov Ballet and Bolshoi Opera. In September 1938, he won the All-Union Conductors Competition in Moscow.

In October 1938, Mravinsky took up the post that he was to hold until 1988: principal conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he had made his debut as a conductor in 1931.^[1] Under Mravinsky, the Leningrad Philharmonic gained a legendary reputation, particularly in Russian music such as Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. During World War II, Mravinsky and the orchestra were evacuated to Siberia. But members of the Leningrad Philharmonic's reserve orchestra and the Leningrad Radio Orchestra were left behind in the siege of Leningrad, so it fell to Karl Eliasberg to conduct the surviving musicians in the Leningrad premiere of the Symphony No.7 "Leningrad" by Shostakovich.

Legend has it that at the first performance of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5, during the applause immediately after the performance, Mravinsky took the score in his hand and waved it above his head. Mravinsky gave world premieres of six symphonies by Shostakovich: numbers 5, 6, 8 (which Shostakovich dedicated to Mravinsky), 9, 10 and finally 12 in 1961. His refusal to conduct the premiere of Shostakovich's 13th Symphony in 1962 caused a permanent rupture in their friendship.

He premiered Sergei Prokofiev's sixth symphony in Leningrad the year of its composition (1947, [1]).

Mravinsky made commercial studio recordings from 1938 to 1961. His issued recordings from after 1961 were taken from live concerts. His final recording was from an April 1984 live performance of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 12.

Mravinsky first went on tour abroad in 1946, including performances in Finland and in Czechoslovakia (at the Prague Spring Festival). Later tours with orchestra included a June 1956 itinerary to West Germany, East Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Their only tour to Great Britain was in September 1960 to the Edinburgh Festival and the Royal Festival Hall, London. Their first tour to Japan was in May 1973. Their last foreign tour was in 1984, to West Germany.

His last concert was on 6 March 1987 (Schubert, Symphony No. 8, and Brahms, Symphony No. 4). Mravinsky died in Leningrad in 1988, aged 84.

Conducting style[link]

Recordings reveal Mravinsky to have an extraordinary technical control over the orchestra, especially over dynamics. He was also a very exciting conductor, frequently changing tempo in order to heighten the musical effect for which he was striving, often making prominent use of brass instrumentation. Surviving videos show that Mravinsky had a sober appearance^[2] at the podium, making simple but very clear gestures, often without a baton. The critic David Fanning has memorably described some of Mravinsky's Tchaikovsky performances:

The Leningrad Philharmonic play like a wild stallion, only just held in check by the willpower of its master. Every smallest movement is placed with fierce pride; at any moment it may break into such a frenzied gallop that you hardly know whether to feel exhilarated or terrified". [2]

Method[link]

In a 1970's interview on Leningrad Television, when asked how he chooses a particular interpretation of the music he conducts, Mravinsky explained that he tries to understand what the composer's intention was by immersing himself into the "atmosphere" of the music (Mravinsky used a term "atmospherization").

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Tassie, Gregor, "A Truly Noble Conductor". Gramophone (US Edition), May 2002, pp. 36–37.
• Tassie, Gregor, Yevgeny Mravinsky: The Noble Conductor, The Scarecrow Press, 2005 (ISBN 978-0810854277)

Media[link]

	Tchaikovsky Fourth Symphony noicon This excerpt from the second movement of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony demonstrates some of Mravinsky's distinctive qualities. The conductor uses his control of dynamics and tempo to achieve a breathtakingly exciting and emotional result. Many of these details are introduced by Mravinsky and are not in Tchaikovsky's original score
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

External links[link]

• http://www.mravinsky.org/ (Russian)
• Biography at allmusic.com
• Discography
• Tribute including discussion of Mravinsky's relationship with Shostakovich
• Legacy of Yevgeni Mravinsky
• A History of Portrait of Yevgeny Mravinsky, by Lev A. Russov. (Russian)
• František Sláma (musician) Archive. More on the history of the Czech Philharmonic between the 1940s and the 1980s: Conductors

Mircea Geoană
Mircea Geoană (March 2012)
President of the Senate of Romania
In office December 19, 2008 – November 23, 2011
Preceded by	Ilie Sârbu
Succeeded by	Petru Filip, interim
Constituency	17 (Dăbuleni)
Romanian Ambassador to the United States
In office 1996 – December 28, 2000
Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office December 28, 2000 – December 28, 2004
Preceded by	Petre Roman
Succeeded by	Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu
Personal details
Born	(1958-07-14) July 14, 1958 (age 53) Bucharest, Romania
Nationality	Romanian
Political party	PSD (2001-2011) Independent (2011-present)
Spouse(s)	Mihaela Geoană
Alma mater	Politehnica University of Bucharest University of Bucharest École nationale d'administration Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies(PhD)[1]
Religion	Romanian Orthodoxy[2]
Website	http://www.mirceageoana.ro/

Dan Mircea Geoană (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈmirt͡ʃe̯a ˈd͡ʒe̯o̯anə]; born July 14, 1958 in Bucharest) is a Romanian politician, who served as president of the upper chamber of the Romanian Parliament, the Senate from December 20, 2008 until he was revoked by the senators on November 23, 2011. From 21 April 2005 until 21 February 2010 he was the head of the Partidul Social Democrat (PSD, Social Democratic Party), one of Romania's largest parties.^[3] He was the candidate of the party for the position of President of Romania in the 2009 presidential election. He was dissmised from PSD following the refusal to resign as President of the Senate on 22 November 2011.

History[link]

Mircea Geoană (in 2004)

From December 28, 2000 to December 28, 2004, Geoană was the Foreign Minister of Romania, as part of the PSD government of Adrian Năstase. After the Romanian legislative elections of 2004, he was replaced by Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu from the Justice and Truth Alliance.

In 2001, Geoană was the chairman of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. In 2004, during the local government elections in Romania, he ran for Mayor of Bucharest, but lost to Traian Băsescu of the Democratic Party.

A career diplomat, from 1996 to 2000 Geoană served as Romania's ambassador to the United States. At the time, he was the youngest ambassador in Romania's diplomatic corps.

Considered a young reformer, Geoană was elected president of the party on April 25, 2005 by delegates at a PSD Party Congress held in Bucharest. His victory represented a surprise defeat for the former President and founder of the PSD Ion Iliescu, who was expected to defeat Geoană handily. Geoană's win was attributed by the media to last minute backroom dealing by party leaders opposed to Iliescu as well as to public gaffes made by Iliescu at the Party Congress, including using the term comrades when referring to his party colleagues.^[4] Iliescu also used harsh language to criticize Geoană, saying that Geoană acted "like a foolish person" during a meeting of the PSD sentators in 2005. Iliescu was referring to Geoană's stance before the 2004 presidential run-off, when Geoană declared that the Hungarian minority party, UDMR, will join a PSD-led government. According to Iliescu's analysis, this declaration alienated the Romanian ultra-nationalist electorate who voted for Traian Băsescu, thus costing Adrian Năstase the 2004 presidential election.^[5] Due to this remark of Iliescu, the characterization "foolish" was used by Geoană's political opponents repeatedly in his later career, as a form of negative campaign. For instance, during the 2009 presidential run-off with Traian Băsescu, the latter used banners with his own image splattered with black paint reading "Banner ruined by the foolish person. Don't let the foolish person ruin your life."^[6]

At the PSD Congress on December 10, 2006, Geoană was re-elected as party President, with his platform, "Social Romania", defeating Sorin Oprescu's.

In the final televised debated before the runoff round of the 2009 presidential elections Geoană was accused by the incumbent Băsescu that he met the controversial businessman and media owner Sorin Ovidiu Vântu the night before at Vântu's home. The meeting, which Geoană acknowledged,^[7] happened right after a former collaborator and close friend of Vântu, Nicolae Popa, who had been convicted in absentia for fraud and embezzlement to 15 years in jail in the Fondul Naţional de Investiţii (FNI) ponzi scheme scandal, was apprehended in Jakarta, Indonesia after evading justice for seven years.^[8][9] Since Băsescu had made a main theme of his campaign his fight against the "media moguls" including Vântu, and repeatedly claimed that Geoană is a front man for the moguls, this meeting between Geoană and Vântu was criticized by several journalists, including Cristian Tudor Popescu,^[10] as a major judgement error on Geoana's behalf.^[11][12][13] Vântu also acknowledged the meeting, but mentioned similar meetings with Băsescu during the latter's 2004 bid for presidency, including one in an empty parking lot.^[14]

Immediately after the end of the 2009 presidential elections, an 18-second-long footage was broadcast depicting Geoană allegedly receiving money from a person whose face cannot be seen. In the recording Geoană is silent, but the apparent voice of the female donor is heard saying: “I have EUR 5,000 here, my campaign contribution. I mean, this will help you now, but this is my contribution for an eligible position.” Geoana immediately described the tape as a "campaign fake", and other PSD leaders reacted similarly.^[15]

On 22 November 2011, after refusing to step down as the President of the Senate of Romania following the request of the PSD leadership, he was ousted as member of the party, losing the confidence of his colleagues in the Executive National Council of PSD where his dismissal was voted 50 to 5 while 3 absteined. In the following days he will have to step down as President of the Upper House of the Romanian Parliament as he no longer has the support of a party group in the Senate.^[16] The following day he was revoked by the senators in the plenary meeting with 112 votes for,2 against and 5 abstentions. He remains an independent senator.

He is married to Mihaela Geoană and has a teenage daughter and son - Ana Maria and Alexandru Ion.

References[link]

External links[link]

• (Romanian) Official website

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mircea Geoană

v t e Presidents of the Senate of Romania Corpul Ponderator (Moderating Body) 1864 - 1866 Nifon Rusailă Senat 1866 - 1940 Nifon Rusailă Ştefan Golescu Nicolae Golescu Alexandru Plagino Nifon Rusailă Calinic Miclescu Constantin Bosianu Dimitrie Ghica Ion Emanoil Florescu Nicolae Creţulescu Ion Emanoil Florescu Constantin Boerescu Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino Dimtrie Ghica Dimitrie Alexandru Sturdza Eugeniu Stătescu Nicolae Gane Constantin Boerescu Eugeniu Stătescu Petre S. Aurelian Constantin Boerescu Petre S. Aurelian Constantin Budişteanu Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino Theodor Rosetti Ion Lahovari Basile M. Missir Emanoil Porumbaru Dimitrie I. Dobrescu Paul Bujor Constantin Coandă Mihail Pherekyde Constantin I. Nicolaescu Constantin Coandă Constantin I. Nicolaescu Traian Bratu Mihail Sadoveanu Nicolae Costălescu Leonte Moldovan Constantin Dimitriu-Dovlecel Alexandru Lapedatu Nicolae Iorga Constantin Argetoianu Senat since 1990 Alexandru Bârlădeanu Oliviu Gherman Petre Roman Mircea Ionescu-Quintus Nicolae Văcăroiu Doru-Ioan Tǎrǎcilǎ* Ilie Sârbu Mircea Geoană Petru Filip* Vasile Blaga ^* interim (acting)