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PRANCISKUS SMUGLEVICIUS
Professor Pranciskus Smuglevicius (Franciszek Smuglewicz, 1745-1807), founder of the Department of Drawing and Painting at Vilnius university, - a painter who linked the artistic culture of the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth with the European art achievements of the Enlightenment through his oeuvre, and whose tireless activities determined the formation of the national art school in Lithuania.
He was born in Warsaw to the family of Lukas Smuglevicius (1709-1780), a Samogitian - born court painter P. Smuglevicius learnt the first rudiments of art at his father’s studio and with Simonas Cechavicius (Szymon Czechowicz, 1689-1775), one of the outstanding masters of religious painting. In 1763 he left for Rome, where under the patronage of King Stanislaw Augustus and the Treasury of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania he studied at St Lucus Academy. In Rome P. Smuglevicius collaborated with an international community of scientists, archaeologists, artists and publishers, whose efforts initiated the investigation, documentation and publications of the ancient Rome art monuments, which served as an impulse for the formation, and expansion of Classicism style throughout Europe.
After twenty one years in Rome, in 1784 P. Smuglevicius returned to homeland as an all-round professionally matured painter with his individual style of works. His creative and pedagogical activities had a particular significance for the state of both nations P. Smuglevicius’ monumental paintings on the subjects of the Bible, New Testament, mythology and ancient history produce a great impression by the force of their titanic scope and a novel classical perception of form. The cycles of drawings and paintings on the themes of his native country’s history exemplify innovator work, witnessing his apparently first attempt to consistently reflect the major moments in the development of Poland’s and Lithuania’s self-dependence. His first painted from nature Polish and Lithuanian landscapes and the paintings portraying everyday life of peasants and townsfolk revealed one more aspect of the painter’s manifold creation - a distinct origin of realism which was highly influential on the 19th century painting.
P. Smuglevicius’ pedagogical activities were of equal value to his creative work. With the establishment of the Department of Drawing and Painting at the Principle School of Lithuania (later - university) in 1797, P. Smuglevicius as its organiser and head designed a system for training professional painters. The system was based on the pedagogical practice of other the European Academies of Arts and associated with the needs of training Lithuanian artists.
After P. Smuglevicius’ death, Jonas Rustemas (Jan Rustem, 1761-1835), the professor’s adjunct from 1798, took the lead of the Department. In the course of its existence (until the closing of the university in 1832) the Department of Drawing and Painting had trained several generations of painters, whose works paved the way for the history of Lithuanian professional art.Information of the LAM
© Lithuanian Art Museum, Fund of
Samogitian Culture, Institute of Mathematics and Informatics 2001
Comments, remarks send to: samogit@delfi.lt
Page updated
2011.08.12