Permanent exhibition "XVI-XIX C. Western Europe Art and Graphic Art"

WESTERN EUROPE ART

 

In the mid-17^th century the palace constructed by the Lithuanian Grand Hetman and Vilnius Voivode Jonušas Radvila (Radziwill) were known not just for their decorative interiors but also for the rich collection of West European art assembled there. Unfortunately, the palace could not flourish for a long time. During the wars of the 17^th century the palace was ravaged and the collections were looted and scattered.  

The renovated part of the Radvilas Palace has displayed the Lithuanian Art Museum’s foreign art collections since 1996. West European art counts for the largest part of the gallery’s permanent exhibition. The new exposition of West European art opened in early 2015 displays 138 paintings and 57 graphic art works. The exposition is enriched with sculptures and applied art works as well. 

The basis of the Lithuanian Art Museum’s West European painting collection consists of paintings donated in the first decades of the 20^th century by Lithuanian estate holders, some of whom were passionate collectors, to public collectors – the Vilnius Art Museum Society and the Association of the Friends of Science in Vilnius. Works that had been purchased and donated in the post-war and later years added to the collection. At present, the collections of the Lithuanian Art Museum contain over 300 16^th–19^th century paintings by West European artists, reflecting the change in styles from Gothic to Renaissance, and Romanticism to Realism.

The oldest works in this collection are 15^th-century Gothic altar wings painted by French masters, depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist and sculptures created in Germany and Central Europe in the 16^th century, titled St. Martin and The Crucifixion. 

The collection also features numerous valuable late 16^th–early 17^th century Mannerist paintings. Authors include the Dutch painters Bartholomaeus Spranger (1546–1611) and Cornelis van Haarlem (1562–1638), and Italian Marcello Venusti (1512/15–1579).

There are also many 17^th–18^th century Flemish, Dutch, German, Italian, Austrian, Spanish and French Baroque paintings. Among the more well-known artists are the Flemish painters Abraham Janssens (1575–1632), Jan van Boeckhorst (ca. 1604–1668), Adriaen van Utrecht (1599–1653), Cornelis Mahu (1613–1689), the Dutch painters Meindert Hobbema (1638–1709), Dirk van Bergen (ca. 1645–1690), Abraham Hondius (ca. 1625–1691), the Italians Antonio Bellucci (1654–1726), Giovanni Ghisolfi (1623–1683), Domenico Brandi (1683–1736), the Spaniards Francisco Ximenez (1598–1670) and Juan Rizi (1600–1681), plus the Austrian Johann Michael Rottmayer (1654–1730) and Frenchman Jacques Stella (1596–1657), and others.

The Classicist art trends that emerged in the mid-18^th century are present in the works of Italians Giovanni Paolo Pannini (1691–1765) and Giambattista Bassi (1784–1852). Classicist art from the second half of the 18^th century and early 19^th century is represented in the Lithuanian Art Museum’s collection in pieces by Frenchman Jean Laurent Mosnier (1743/44–1808), the German painter Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein (1788–1868) and Italian artist Lodovico Lipparini (1800–1856). Characteristics of Academism, Romanticism and Realism are noticeable in works by artists from the second half of the 19^th century, such as the German Franz Defregger (1835–1921), the Spaniard Ramon Tusquets y Maignon (1837–1904), the Belgian Ferdinand Marinus (1808–1890), and Carl Scherres (1833–1923) from East Prussia.

 

Dalia Tarandaitė

 

WESTERN EUROPE GRAPHIC ART

 

The Lithuanian Art Museum’s collection of Foreign Graphic Art is one of the largest, most valuable and most comprehensive in all of Lithuania. It reflects the general evolution of this field of art, the most important European schools, and presents a majority of the most renowned graphic art creators. This particular exposition displays only a small portion of the works from the museum’s old graphic art collection, among them some of the most exclusive graphic art works, some of which are on show for the first time.

The hand engravers who created works between the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries in Germany and the Netherlands stand out because of the novelty of their subjects, high level of professional implementation and sophisticated artistic tastes. Small works of graphicart by Martin Schongauer (1448–1491) and his countryman Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) emanate longing for harmony, beauty and humanistic values. The rebellious spirit of the Renaissance is revealed in the dramatic contrasts of black and white colours in the prints The Birth of Christ, A Small Horse, Adam and Eve and St. Eustace (St. Hubert). Motifs of the Biblical plots Saint Paul Led Away to Damascus and The Dance of St. Mary Magdalenerecreated by the famous Dutch artist Lucas van Leyden (1494–1533), who worked in the Netherlands at the beginning of 16th century, enchant for their masterfully fine lines, ingenious scene composition, variety of characters and subtle interchanging light.

We can find traces of 17th-century Mannerism in the graphic interpretations by the Flemish graphic art school representatives Schelte Adams Bolswert (1586–1659) and Paulus Pontius (1603–1658) of paintings by their countryman Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) – Susanna and the Elders, The Virgin Mary and Child at the Spring, and Saint Roch. The graphic art works by Pieter de Jode II (1604/6–1674) and Willem Hondius (ca. 1597–ca. 1660) as well as other guild artists stand out for their theatrical Baroque portrait aesthetics, reproducing the noble, aristocratic portraits of artists created by the brush of Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641). Aside from revealing the more prominent contours of character being portrayed, the distinctive realism and tonal manner masterfully conveyed in graphic portrait art by van Dyck, his tangible materialism also gives cause for enchantment.

The French-born engraver Jacques Philippe Le Bas (1707–1783) created neo-Classicist graphic art, compiling a large series of engravings illustrating the album released in 1758 of the most beautiful ruins of Greece. He has created compositions based on the paintings of the famous Flemish artist David II Teniers (1610–1690), known for their colourful portrayal of the everyday and their striking subject matter (Flemish Feasts, The Disasters of War). Among the Italian masters, the creator of neo-Classicist graphic art canon Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) is a highlight – a compulsive bard of the beauty of Roman architecture, the master of city landscapes Bernardo Bellotto di Canaletto (1721–1780), achieving fame for his sweeping realistic images of the cities of Central Europe – Dresden, Warsaw and Vienna, as well as Luigi Rossini (1790–1857). Like Piranesi, Rossini chose ancient Roman architectural subject matter for his works, depicting the Eternal City and its surrounds, however differently to his teacher, he admired grand ruin motifs, and his scenes are replete with pastoral moods.

Robert van Audenaerd (1663–1743) and Paolo Pilaia (mentioned 1734–1747) were artists from the studio of Johann Jakob Frey (1681–1752) and are attributed to the Late Baroque and neo-Classicist Italian graphic art school. Their works are based on the paintings of Italian masters Annibale Carracci (1560–1609), Carlo Maratti (1625–1713), Sebastiano Conca (1680–1764) and Carlo Cignani (1628–1719), and depict evangelical themes, literary and historical subjects from Antiquity, saints and martyrs.

Features of the French Rococo are obvious in the work of Nicolas de Launay (1739–1792) and Jean Mathieu (1749–1815). In their pieces, these artists drew inspiration from the emotional, erotically hedonistic work of Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806), itself breathing intimacy.

 

Ilona Mažeikienė

 

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Radvila Palace Museum of Art,
24 Vilniaus st, LT-01402, Vilnius, Lithuania
+370 5 250 5824