EXHIBITION "CHRISTIANITY IN LITHUANIAN ART"
(28 December, 1999 - 31 December, 2003)

VILNIUS CATHEDRAL TREASURY AND OTHER JEWELLER’S ART TREASURES OF LITHUANIAN CHURCHES

Romualdas Budrys

The formation of the Vilnius Cathedral treasury was started after the baptism of Lithuania in 1387, when the Cathedral received its first gifts. Such liturgical objects as a small movable ivory altar (exhibited in an entrance hall), the stipula (a ritual stick) of a prelate chantor and the reliquary of St Stanislaus’ hand (kept in the Cathedral) remind of those times.
In the long run the Cathedral came into possession of more valuable liturgical articles. The treasury was constantly augmented by the donations of the rulers (Casimir, Alexander, Elizabeth Habsburg, Bona Sforza, and others), the state nobility (the Gostautas, the Radvila (Radziwill), the Sapiega (Sapieha), the Vaina (Wojna), the Tiskevicius (Tyszkiewicz), the Bzostovskis (Brzostowski) families), the bishops of Vilnius and other high rank clergy. The rich collections which included church articles, garments and tapestries accumulated in the Cathedral not by chance: notwithstanding that the Vilnius Diocese acquired the status of an archdiocesan centre and that of an independent Church Province (metropolitate) only at the wake of the 20th century, the throne of the Vilnius Catholic Bishop has been regarded to be particularly distinguished and honourable since its establishment, and the Vilnius Cathedral has always been the principal temple of the state. 
In the mid 17th century during the Russian and Swedish invasion the Vilnius Cathedral treasury suffered great losses. When evacuating the treasury to Königsberg, the most historically valuable gifts received from Lithuanian rulers Jogaila (Vladislaus Jagiello) and Vytautas the Great as well as their wives were plundered by Russian troops. The soldiers and Cossacks divided them among themselves, and they vanished from Lithuania for ever. Another part of the treasury, which had been hidden for a long time in the castle of the Dukes Sapiega family in Ruzhana, was returned to the Cathedral in 1667. The treasury had been always vigilantly guarded from possible dangers, particularly during the declines of the state, plagues, wars and epidemics. With the outbreak of WW II, it was so safely bricked in one of the Cathedral’s niches in the September of 1939 that it was discovered only in 1985. The treasures were registered and described. Great care was taken over II, it was so safely bricked in one of the Cathedral’s niches in the September of 1939 that it was discovered only in 1985. The treasures were registered and described. Great care was taken overf the treasury, which had been hidden for a long time in the ill) were lost. In the course of last centuries, the majority of the Cathedral’s treasures have not been used at liturgical rituals and some of them very seldom, only at great festivals. Not much was known of the quantity, the value of artistic articles and variety of the treasury. In the post-war years it was considered lost. Therefore, today’s presentation of the treasury at the art exhibition Christianity in Lithuanian Art offers a rare opportunity to the visitors to see the most valuable collection of the Lithuanian applied arts.
The treasury hall shows liturgical articles created by famous Lithuanian, West and Middle European goldsmiths - church chalices, monstrances, reliquaries, crosses among which a particular artistic and historical value belongs to the Gothic 15th century chalice, three 15th-16th century rings, the stipula (a ritual stick) of a prelate chantor, the chalice embellished with a filigree technique donated by Prof. A. Novicampianus, a teacher of a Hungarian King, in the early 16th century, the so-called Gostautas family monstrance, the crystal cross reliquary donated by Duke A. Gostautas, chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the voivode (governor) of Vilnius, and the late 16th century chalice of Duke J. Radvila (Radziwill), Cardinal, the Bishop of Vilnius. 
Greatly impressive are the jewellery articles donated in the 17th century. They include the chalices of S. S. Vilcopolskis (Wilczopolski) and M. Sulcas Volfovicius (M. Szulc Wolfowicz), capitularies of the Vilnius Cathedral, and the gold monstrance embellished with diamonds and other precious stones donated by Bishop J. Tiskevicius (Tyszkiewicz). Also some pure gold chalices of Duke K. L. Sapiega (Sapieha), vice-chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, three marvellous Baroque jeweller’s art pieces - the monstrance, the chalice executed by Ausburg masters and reliquary of the Blessed Mary Magdalen de Pazzi donated by the Bishop of Vilnius M. S. Pacas (Pac). The wooden cross embellished with mother-of-pearl and bearing the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem seems to witness missions-pilgrimages to the Holy Land.
Among the gifts presented to the Cathedral in the 18th century - the cross executed by the famous Danzig goldsmith J. G. Schlaubitz donated by Bishop A. Tiskevicius (Tyszkiewicz), the gold chalices of the Bishops of Vilnius K. K. Bzostovskis (Brzostowski), K. P. Pancežinskis (Pancerzynski), M. J. Zenkavicius (Zenkowicz) and the silver sarcophagus-shaped reliquary or St Josaphat Kuncevitius, the Uniat’s archbishop and martyr. 
In the early 19th century Count P. K. Bzostovskis (Brzostowski), referendary of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and canon of Vilnius, donated a small marble movable altar with, as supposed, a relief gold plaque’ Crucifixion’ created by an Italian master in the 16th century, Count M. Tiskevicius (Tyszkiewicz) - the mid 19th century chalice of rare beauty embellished with relief compositions and enamel scenes, in 1883 canon V. Franckevicius (Franskiewicz) - an imposing chalice of Neo-Rococo forms. In 1909 the treasury was augmented with a Neo-Romanesque chalice embellished with precious stones and filigree technique executed by the papal goldsmith A. Witte from Aachen. 
Besides the masterpieces of jeweller’s art possessed by the Vilnius Cathedral, artistic treasures of other Lithuanian churches are also exhibited at the treasury hall. The church of the Holy Spirit (Dominican) in Vilnius confided to the museum a Gothic 16th century monstrance, which had belonged for several centuries to the church of St Francis of Assizes (Bernardine) in Vilnius and is simply called a Bernardine monstrance, the church of St Michael in Vilnius - the papal cross created at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, which belonged to archbishop J. Steponavicius, and the Archdiocesan Curia in Kaunas - the monstrance of the Jesuit College in Kraziai. There are also shown impressive 17th-20th centuries articles - a crown, an abbot’s pastoral, reliquaries, monstrances, the sets of ampules, etc. possessed by the churches of St Catherine (Benedictine) and SS Peter and Paul the Apostles in Vilnius.
The museum intends to renew the exhibition twice a year and to put on display the treasures of jeweller’s art possessed by other churches in Lithuania. 

Photos by Antanas Luksenas

  © Lithuanian Art Museum, Fund of Samogitian Culture, Institute of Mathematics and Informatics 
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     Page updated 2011.08.12