Immediately after completion, the Sibiu murals were reviewed by a specialists' commission headed by Arthur Verona, who provided a lukewarm reception. According to Iorga, Smigelschi persisted in his goal to paint a church of his own in Romania-proper, and presented his designs during the 1906 national exhibit in Bucharest, "the Capital of his People." He was sidelined in favor of "others, better seen and better connected." However, the icons he presented at the exhibit did earn Smigelschi a state prize, worth 250 lei; his Blaj carpet was also put on display for the occasion. Another portrait of Neagoe Basarab was included by Smigelschi in a 1906 mobile triptych, alongside a heroic scene from the Siege of Plevna and a panel showing sowers stricken by the vision of a better world. The work was an unsuccessful competitor in a Bucharest art show, accidentally rediscovered in 1908 by collector Francisc Hossu-Longin, but since lost. It enjoyed an episodic fame as a symbol of Romanian nationalist aspirations, after it was printed into a set of postcards commissioned by Iorga and Hossu-Longin. Accumulating influences from Bertalan Székely and direct borrowings from folk art, it was also controversial for including highly realistic elements done from life—including a possible depiction of Smighelschi's wife as Despina Doamna. The triptych also featured a slogan authored by Iorga and Goga.