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GUIDE TO THE
EXHIBITION "CHRISTIANITY IN LITHUANIAN ART"
(28
December, 1999 - 31 December, 2003)
Hall II
The hall devoted to the historical Vilnius Diocese displays samples
of garments of the oldest diocesan churches (chasubles, dalmatics,
copes, miters, stoles, etc., liturgical articles, reliquaries,
candlesticks). The most copious
 collection
includes liturgical garments possessed by the Vilnius Cathedral. The
oldest chasubles and the cope plate go back to the
 16th
century and show Gothic, Renaissance and Mannerism features. The
splendour of Baroque is demonstrated by liturgical garments made of
costly West European brocade, silk and velvet artistically embroidered
with gold and silver thread. They were donated to Vilnius Cathedral by
the relatives of the state nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania -
the bishops of Vilnius Benediktas Vaina, Mikalojus Steponas Pacas,
Aleksandras Sapiega and others. Showcases 3 and 5 present original,
locally produced chasubles made of the kontush (the gentry’s outdoor
coat) waist-bands. The effects of the exposition of the Vilnius
Cathedral’s church textile is augmented by the most valuable
liturgical garments of the 17th - early 20th centuries possessed by
the Church of the Assumption in Trakai, the churches of SS Peter and
Paul the Apostles, St Nicholas, and the Holy Spirit in Vilnius. In
respect to their splendour, they are often in no way inferior to the
collections from cathedrals.
The exposition of the Vilnius Diocese is enlarged by two valuable
tapestries belonging to Vilnius Cathedral collection - David and
Bathsheba as well as Consecration of the Chapel,
which belonged to the series of eight tapestries the History of
David and Solomon. The tapestries were woven about the years
of 1640-1654 at the Jacob van Zeunen manufactory in Flanders,
Brussels. Abraham Diepenbeeck, a pupil of Peter Paul Rubens, is
thought to have drawn cardboards for these tapestries. A full series
of the tapestries were commissioned and bequeathed to the Vilnius
Cathedral by Duke Kazimieras Leonas Sapiega, Vice-Chancellor of the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
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One of the oldest Gotic chasubles in
Lithuania.
Early 16th c. Silk, linen cloth;
embroidered in linen and silk
thread; application. Belonged
to the Museum of
Church Art in Kaunas.
LDM (showcase 1) |
Chasuble. Lithuania, mid- 17th c.
Linen cloth; embroidered in
gilded silver thread, small scales.
LDM (from Vilnius Cathedral)
(showcase 1) |
Tapestry David and Bathsheba.
Flanders, Brussels, ca.
1640-1654.
LDM (from Vilnius Cathedral) |
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Giovanni dal Monte. Mid 16th c.
Portrait of Duke Povilas
Alseniskis, Bishop of Vilnius.
LDM |
The picture of the Trakai
Mother of God in silver
gilded setting.
Johann Friedrich Schömnick.
Lithuania, Vilnius, ca. 1725.
(The setting is exhibited on the
copy of the portrait facsimile).
Marian Szaniawski, priest of the
Trakai Church and a capitulary
of the Vilnius Cathedral is
thought to be the donor.
Church of the Visitation in Trakai |
Lithuanian artist from the 17th c.
Portrait of Cardinal Duke
Jurgis Radvila, Bishop of
Vilnius. LDM |
The exposition also exhibits portraits of the bishops of Vilnius
from the Lithuanian Art Museum collection. It includes 38 portraits of
the bishops of Vilnius painted mostly between the late 16th to early
18th centuries. They used to add splendour to the halls of the Bishops’
Palace. It is the earliest collection of portraits that survived in
Lithuania. The composition schemes and formats of the portraits are
different. However, ten canvases painted in the tradition
characteristic of the Renaissance portraiture impart uniformity to the
whole collection. The portrait of Duke Povilas Alseniskis
(Paweù of Holszany), Bishop of Vilnius, painted by the 16th -century
Italian painter Giovanni dal Monte is marked by its high
professionalism and a psychological suggestion.
The 16th-19th centuries artistically-bound church books from the
library of the Benedictine Convent in Vilnius are featured in the
small showcases of the hall.
The Vilnius Diocese, established on the 12th of March 1388, is the
oldest existing diocese within Lithuania. Between the 14th to 18th
centuries the bishops of Vilnius were not only authoritative priests
but also influential statesmen - members of the Gentry Council of the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the first state senators. The bishops of
Vilnius crowned the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in their cathedral.
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Cope plate displaying
some Gothic and
Renaissance features.
Flanders (?), 16th c. Silk
brocade; embroidery stitch
in silver and silk thread.
LDM (from Vilnius
Cathedral) (showcase 1) |
Antependium. Lithuania, Vilnius, 2nd
half
of the 18th c. Silvered copper. Church of
SS Peter and Paul the Apostles in Vilnius
(showcase 7) |
Coat of Arms of
Benediktas Vaina,
Bishop of Vilnius.
Embroidered on a chasuble
from the collection donated
to Vilnius Cathedral. Italy,
early 17th c. LDM
(showcase 2) |
The throne of the Bishop of Vilnius was the peak of an ecclesiastic
career in Lithuania. The priests of all other Lithuanian dioceses
(Samogitian, Luck, Smolensk, Livonian) aspired to succeed to that
throne, particularly those who often served on the capitula of the
Vilnius Cathedral. Frequently, the priests of the Vilnius Diocese were
the relatives of the most powerful
state nobility - the Radvila, Alseniskis, Vaina, Valavicius
(Woùùowicz), Tiskevicius, Sapiega, Pacas, Bzostovskis (Brzostowski),
and Masalskis families or even of the ruling Gediminian-Jogailian
dynasty. They were ardent protectors of the independence of Lithuania,
striving to break off the administrative dependence of their diocese
upon the Polish Gniezn Metropolitanate, to promote the throne of the
Bishop of Vilnius to the rank of an archbishop and to attain the title
of the Primate of the Lithuanian Catholic Church. However, up to the
end of the 18th century - the conquest of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
- the Vilnius Diocese remained a component part of the Polish Church
Province. Following the incorporation of Lithuania into the Russian
Empire, the Vilnius Diocese became a suffragan diocese of the Mogilev
Archdiocese Metropolitanate. Though the Vilnius Diocese was promoted
to the rank of an Archdiocese Metropolitanate in 1925, due to
political reasons it was included into the structure of the Lithuanian
Church institution only as late as 1991 by the edict of Pope John Paul
II.
The territory of the historical Vilnius Diocese was distributed
amongst the Vilnius Archdiocese, Panevezys, Kaisiadorys, Vilkaviskis
Dioceses, Belarus Catholic dioceses and Polish dioceses at the
borderland.
The Dominican Vitus, Bishop of Lithuania, whose diocese in the 13th
century might have bordered Vilnius and the Marian Jurgis Matulaitis,
Bishop of Vilnius, were proclaimed blessed by the Catholic Church. Two
bishops of Vilnius - Duke Jurgis Radvila (1583) and Archbishop Audrys
Juozas Backis (2001) were promoted to the position of cardinals of the
Roman Catholic Church.
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