Aistė Bimbirytė-Mackevičienė

LITHUANIAN CULTURE RESEARCH INSTITUTE VILNIUS ACADEMY OF ARTS LITHUANIAN ACADEMY OF MUSIC AND THEATRE Aistė Bimbirytė-Mackevičienė WESTERN EUROPEAN FINE ARTS IN LITHUANIAN COLLECTIONS IN THE 19TH CENTURY AND COUNT WŁADYSLAW TYSZKIEWICZ Summary of doctoral thesis Humanities, Art History (H003) Vilnius 2019 The doctoral thesis was prepared in Lithuanian Culture Research Institute in the period from 2012 to 2018. Thesis supervisor: Dr. (hp) Laima Laučkaitė-Surgailienė, Humanities, Art Criticism, H003, Lithuanian Culture Research Institute. The doctoral thesis shall be defended at a Joint Board consisting of the members from the Vilnius Academy of Arts, the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, and the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre: Chairperson: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Helmutas Šabasevičius (Humanities, Art Criticism, H003, Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, Vilnius Academy of Arts). Members: Dr. (hp) Rūta Janonienė (Vilnius Academy of Arts, Institute of Art Research, Humanities, Art Criticism, H003) Dr. Dalia Klajumienė (Vilnius Academy of Arts, Institute of Art Research, Humanities, Art Criticism, H003) Dr. Reda Griškaitė (Lithuanian Institute of History, Humanities, History, H005) Prof. Dr. (hp) Ewa Manikowska (The Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Humanities, Art Criticism, H003) The defense shall be held in the assembly hall of the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute (at 58-216 Saltoniškių St., Vilnius) on 4 October 2019, 13:00 pm. The summary of the doctoral thesis was mailed on 4 September, 2019. The doctoral thesis is available in Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, as well as the libraries of the Vilnius Academy of Arts, the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute. LIETUVOS KULTŪROS TYRIMŲ INSTITUTAS VILNIAUS DAILĖS AKADEMIJA LIETUVOS MUZIKOS IR TEATRO AKADEMIJA Aistė Bimbirytė-MackevičienĖ VAKARŲ EUROPOS DAILĖ LIETUVOS KOLEKCIJOSE XIX AMŽIUJE IR GRAFAS VLADISLOVAS TIŠKEVIČIUS Daktaro disertacijos santrauka Humanitariniai mokslai, menotyra (H003) Vilnius 2019 Disertacija parengta 2012–2018 metais Lietuvos kultūros tyrimų institute. Mokslinė vadovė Dr. (hp) Laima Laučkaitė-Surgailienė, humanitariniai mokslai, menotyra – H003, Lietuvos kultūros tyrimų institutas. Disertacija ginama Vilniaus dailės akademijos, Lietuvos kultūros tyrimų instituto ir Lietuvos teatro ir muzikos akademijos jungtinės Menotyros mokslo krypties doktorantūros Gynimo taryboje: Pirmininkas Doc. dr. Helmutas Šabasevičius (humanitariniai mokslai, menotyra – H003, Lietuvos kultūros tyrimų institutas, Vilniaus dailės akademija) Nariai dr. (hp) Rūta Janonienė (humanitariniai mokslai, menotyra – H003, Vilniaus dailės akademija, Dailėtyros institutas) dr. Dalia Klajumienė (humanitariniai mokslai, menotyra – H003, Vilniaus dailės akademija, Dailėtyros institutas) dr. Reda Griškaitė (humanitariniai mokslai, istorija – H005, Lietuvos istorijos institutas) prof. dr. (hp) Ewa Manikowska (humanitariniai mokslai, menotyra – H003, Lenkijos mokslų akademijos Meno institutas, Instytut Sztuki PAN) Disertacija ginama viešame Gynimo tarybos posėdyje 2019 m. spalio 4 d., 13 val., Lietuvos kultūros tyrimų instituto salėje (216 kab.), Saltoniškių g. 58, Vilnius Daktaro disertacijos santrauka išsiųsta 2019 m. rugsėjo 4 d. Su disertacija galima susipažinti Lietuvos nacionalinėje Martyno Mažvydo, Vilniaus dailės akademijos, Lietuvos muzikos ir teatro akademijos ir Lietuvos kultūros tyrimų instituto bibliotekose. I. INTRODUCTION At the turn of the 19th century Lithuania crossed a significant cultural thresh- old when, in comparison with previous eras, an unprecedented number of foreign pieces of art works reached the manors. The changes took place not only in the number of collections, but also in their type – a significant shift from cabinets of curiosities (kunstkammer) towards galleries, where painting prevailed. Chronologically, such situation in Lithuania corresponds to the changes that took place in many regions of Europe. In fact, one thing remained unchanged, unlike in France or Germany, the social class itself, i.e. aristocracy remained the main custodian of art collections throughout the 19th century. Therefore, when talking about collections in Lithuania of that period, we inevitably have in mind the collections of the noblemen, be- cause even these few exceptions known today were influenced by the trends dictated by the aristocracy. Economic capacity of this social class enabled them to purchase works of art, they could respond to cultural changes tak- ing place abroad more quickly, i.e. their financial situation enabled them to travel, pursue education, access to the latest trends, literature sources and other means which let them keep in pace with pan-European tendencies, and their social status, as in all times, opened them the door to the places where others could not get in – to the residencies of Western European noblemen and their collections kept therein. Kamila Kłudkiewicz, who has been consistently researching the Polish situation on this issue, is convinced that the collections collected by the aristocracy in the 19th century are a distinctive feature of the whole era of the 19th century. Following the typology proposed by Krzysztof Pomian, whereby the collections can be forward-looking or past-oriented, she makes a suggestion to define the collections accumulated by the nobles during this period as a separate third type – “history collections”, thus complementing the system proposed by Pomian. The latter can be divided into two sub- groups: the first consisting of the sets of objects related to history, historical events and/or personalities (including works of art), and the seconds consisting exclusively of works of art, mainly examples of Western European fine arts, “painting, sculpture, applied art or simply the pieces of art that occupy a definite place in art history, reflecting the art situation of a particu- 5 lar period.” According to the author, particular interest of the aristocracy to these objects reveal a specific relation of the nobility to history: the past was a value for this social class upon which the present was based. The basis of the nobleman’s identity was generational continuity, clear prehistory and the validity of their rights recorded in history (in documents, works of art). As a result, the objects of “no history”, such as modern art, was of little interest to them. Undoubtedly, the statements of Kłudkiewicz also can be applied to the situation of Lithuania of the same period. Edward Chwalewik, who at- tempted to record the most important ‘Polish’ collections present in Lithu- ania and Poland during the first half of the 20th century, pointed out that 30 out of about 180 of the collections which were present in the historical lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, included the works of foreign authors. A little bit later, Roman Aftanazy described 546 manors that existed in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and in at least 140 of them the works of Western European artists were found. In al- most all cases, the values specified in their texts were the elements of the nineteenth-century interior decoration. The latter circumstance was determined not only by the fact the memory of the surviving descendants of the manor landowners – the main information source of Chwalewik and Aftan- azy was still alive; but in the course of this research the hypothesis that the majority of sculptures, paintings and the pieces of graphic artworks created in Western Europe reached the countryside residences and city apartments precisely in the 19th century (a large number even at the beginning of the 19th century) proved to be true. Paradoxically, what should rightly be considered a characteristic feature of the era has received so little research so far. A detailed historiographic overview is provided separately, however here we should mention the tradi- tion established in Lithuanian art history to speak about the collections of the local aristocrats of the 19th century only from the standpoint of patron- age research, i.e. apart from a few exceptional case studies in manors, the interest of specialists in collected sets of works of art was limited only to the extent related to realization of local artists’ production or the transfer of values for public use. In fact, the first group of the third type proposed by Kłudkiewiz, i.e. the objects of general historical interest, have already been 6 noticed by researchers, as evidenced by Žygintas Būčys’ dissertation and issued solid publications dedicated to Vilnius Museum of Antiquities. The second type, however, remains on the periphery of research. Synthetical research on the emergence, content, prevailing trends, and changes in the taste of collections, especially those accumulated on the basis of foreign fine arts, and ultimately the research on the path of such pieces of works to our native cabinets and “white salons” just do not exist. The subject of this doctoral thesis includes the collections of Western European fine arts, in particular the collections of paintings, the circum- stances of their emergence in the Lithuanian manors of the 19th century and a specific case of the collection of Władyslaw Tyszkiewicz. The selec- tion of Władyslaw Tyszkiewicz for my case study was determined by several reasons. First, the Biržai line, to which the Count belonged, is distin- guished in the history of Lithuanian collectors by the continuity of such activity, i.e. several

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