Denis Galloway - English engineer, naval officer and painter, one of Romulus Vuia’s collaborators, since 1926 began photographing various aspects of the life of the communities in Hunedoara’s Pădureni, thus contributing to enriching the collection of negatives of the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography. The refinement, the originality of the decorative motifs and the mastery of the sewing techniques that define the elegance of women’s costume from Pădureni Land were also immortalized in the negative made by Denis Galloway, in 1927, in Ruda village, Ghelari area, Hunedoara county. Women’s costume, which is distinguished by a highly expressive artistic individuality, is differentiated primarily by age and social status. The married woman in the image has her hair tied back in a bun, and at the temples the hair is twisted into spiral strands (“dupei”). A conical bonnet (“șapța”) is placed on the bun, with the tip extended towards the back, made of homemade cloth and with a compact black decoration.
A long white cloth with lace at the end, which hangs down the back, is attached to the tip of “ceapsa” with pins. The elaborate way in which the woman’s neck is adorned deserves special attention. It can be distinguished: a stripe (“lătiță”) made of polychrome beads, forming simple geometric motifs; strings of beads, of various shapes and colors; “money bag” (also called “money baier” or “salba de libre”) - a necklace made up of three parallel chains (called “chain links”) to which coins are attached. One of the characteristic elements of the forest women’s costume is the voluminous, compact decoration of the shirt. This decoration consisting of geometric motifs is located at the narrow collar, along the mouth of the shirt, on the wide sleeves, at the wristband above and at its edge.
Over the decorated hems of the shirt, the woman wears a dark colored “opreg” and apron, which contrasts nicely with the abundance of color and decoration of the shirt. The back opreg, woven in four strands, is edged at the hem with a dark colored lace (“șiptă”). The front apron, shorter than the back apron, is made of commercially available cloth, decorated on three sides with colorful gallons and edged with corner lace. The apron is shorter so that the decoration of the shirt’s lapels is visible. The presence of the cloth apron worn in front by women is one of the characteristic elements of the Ghelari women’s costume. Around the woman’s waist is wrapped a polycolored belt, woven with geometric motifs. The negative, registered with title “Woman from Ruda”, with inventory no. 226, is made in the gelatin-silver bromide technique on glass support, with dimensions of 9 cm x 12 cm.
Photo: the MET archive