Theodora Homiceano studied at the Academy of Fine art in Bucharest, graduating in 2003. Theodora’s passion for Italian Renaissance sculpture influenced her painting. Throughout her studies in Bucharest she spent much of her time in the library researching Renaissance and Baroque art. As soon as she could Theodora travelled to her beloved Italy and finally settled in Rome.

She was accepted as a pupil of the contemporary Roman master Stefano Tomsa. Whilst working with Tomsa Theodora was able to exhibit at and take part in both local and national exhibitions.

Theodora soon found her muse in the opulent Baroque sculpture of Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini. Two of her paintings focus specifically on the monumental sculpture the Fontana dei Fiumi which is situated in Piazza Navona in Rome. The Baroque masterpiece completed in 1647 was considered a great triumph for Bernini and bought him not only the admiration but also the patronage of Pope Innocent X.

The Fontana dei Fiumi symbolises the four great rivers; the Danube, Ganges, Nile and Rio della Plata. Bernini uses the river god in Rio della Plata to tease his artistic rival Francesco Borromini. Borromini was the architect of the adjacent Baroque church of Santa Agnese in Agone. The river god in Bernini’s fountain holds up his arm dramatically as if to save himself from the falling debris of Borromini’s crumbling church.

I he second painting the river god of the Nile is blinded so he does not have to look upon Borromini’s masterpiece – artistic rivalry in the extreme!!

The third small painting is a close up of a Putto from the Fontana del Moro by Gregorio Zappala, also situated in Piazza Navona. The back view of this plump winged angel is extraordinarily life like, as if it were not made from marble but of flesh and bone; a sculpture brought to life.

Homiceano paints these well loved Baroque masterpieces with a fresh eye and with bravado and wit. She captures the excitement and expressive movement of the marble figures and adds subtle colour and powerful chiaro scuro to intensify the composition.