The negative on glass was made by Romulus Vuia, in 1923, in Uricani village, Hunedoara county, and it presents the image of a young woman dressed up in a folk costume specific to Jiu Valley. The young woman has her hair combed on the middle, braided in two thick tails, curled under her ears, enriched with two artificial wool tails (“pletari”), over which sits “tindeu” - a long white towel, adorned on one end with dark geometric patterns and white lace (“ciptă”). The hair and “tindeu” are fixed with glass hairpins having large pin heads. The Carpathian canvas shirt has a narrow collar, decorated with geometric patterns worked “inside out”, forming “brățăriu”, under which the curls are tightened in a small “ciupag” (“brățăria”) and wide sleeves starting from the collar. The shirt embellishment is placed on collar, sleeves and chest. The geometric decoration of the sleeves is grouped on the shoulder in a horizontal band (called “umeraș”) from which start vertically arranged rows made of specific seams. On the neck, the woman wears a straight “lătițar” (worn around the neck) made of small beads, of different colors, with geometric motifs and a string of large mosaic Murano beads. Over the shirt, she wears a “sloppy” breastplate, richly decorated with floral motifs.
The negative, registered with title “Peasant woman”, inventory no. 75, is a cliché made in the silver gelatin-bromide technique on glass support, with dimensions of 9 cm x 12 cm.
Photo: the MET archive