HISTORY OF ART HISTORY IN CENTRAL, EASTERN AND SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

Odeta Žukauskienė Lithuanian Culture Research Institute in Vilnius

Jurgis Baltrušaitis: cross-cultural biography and cross-cultural art history

Jurgis Baltrušaitis is the most prominent art histo­ ography of Jurgis Baltrušaitis (1903-1988) is one rian of Lithuanian origin and one of the leading of the strong links between Eastern and Western figures of the comparative studies of art. His intel­ cultural histories, while the comparative art history lectual biography and contribution to art history created by him is a perfect example of the study of has been examined in the monographs by Jean- cross-cultural dialogues in the world of art, wor­

Francois Chcvricr1, Maddalena Mazzocut-Mis2 and thy of the re-actualization in an increasingly global by the author of this article3. This study considers world. His life experiences accumulated in different the relationship between Baltrušaitis' cross-cul­ cultural milieu have had a profound influence on tural biography and his cross-cultural approach to the very comparative nature of his approach, which the history of art. The essay focuses on a scries of significantly contributed to the development of art biographical details that played an important part history. In fact, Baltrušaitis' scientific biography in in Baltrušaitis' life: fostered trans-cultural under­ some ways resembles those of outstanding art his­ standing, cross-cultural comparisons, and the stud­ torians and Polish immigrants - Louis Grodecki ies of inter-cultural imaginarles. The article is an and Charles Sterling - who moved to France and attempt to reconstruct his biography, drawing on also incorporated the intellectual tradition of Henri

4 a wide range of sources from his own archive , in Focillon. a field of historiography. A few background biographical details may be In recent decades, the fragmented European useful to better understand Baltrušaitis' attitudes memory gradually converges into a continuous land­ towards the history of art. Jurgis Baltrušaitis was scape and changes our approach to the past. Great born in 1903 in Moscow in the family of a future biographies of scholars who preferred exile connect Lithuanian diplomat and poet Jurgis Baltrušaitis. the memories of Eastern and Western Europe and His mother Maria OlovianichnikofT was from the promote to reconsider historiography. "Double" bi- well known Russian family of industrial entrepre­ neurs and art patrons. Father's friends, outstand­ ing Russian avant-garde artists, created an artistic 1 Chcvricr (1989). environment, which fostered his sensibility in art. 2 Mazzocut-Mis (1999). •' Žukauskienė (2006). Boris Pasternak and Alexander Scriabin were his 4 I thank Jean Baltrušaitis for opening the private archyve first tutors. After he graduated from the German of Jurgis Baltrušaitis to inc. 28 Odeta Žukauskienė

of forms" was so different from ideal models. The diversity of artistic currents and the contributions of North and East were recognized, and the atten­ tion was directed to the visual documentary, which testified to the artistic diversity and encouraged to question the tradirional linear succession of -ism's. Focillon's concept of the "life of forms" was the common methodological approach for all repre­ sentatives of his school. It also left a large footprint on the formation of Baltrušaitis' worldvicw. How­ ever, Baltrušaitis established a structural approach and created a distinctly original system for the in­ terpretation of art, in which a scries of drawings and sketches made by him grounded the narrative of art history. Studying at the Sorbonne, Baltrušaitis used to visit his parents in Moscow and return to Par­ is though Lithuania. While staying in different countries and observing their multilaycred cul­ tural landscape, he was much more sensitive to cross-cultural phenomena. As for the biography of Baltrušaitis, it should be noted also that his fa­ ther was not only Lithuania's Ambassador in Rus­ sia, but also the Lithuania's envoy to Turkey and III. 1 Jurgis Baltrušaitis with other Focillon's stu­ dents, about 1925. Photography from Jurgis Persia. So, his son had the privilege of travelling to Baltrušaitis's Archive (JBA) the East with diplomatic passport. While art his­ torians (especially Josef Strzygowski) have argued School of Moscow and granted the Bachelor diplo­ the importance of Early Christian art of the Cau­ ma in Lithuania, he planned to study in Germany, casus region in the evolution of Western medieval England or France. In 1923 he began his studies in art, Focillon encouraged Baltrušaitis to explore the Heidelberg, but in 1924 he went to Paris were he medieval art in Armenia and Georgia. In 1927 and came into contact with Focillon (ill. 1). 1928, Baltrušaitis made several archaeological ex­ The students of different native origins came peditions to the Transcaucasia. "In September 1928 to study at the Sorbonne in the 1920s: Sterling Jurgis Baltrušaitis obtained exceptional authoriza­ and Grodecki, among others, came from Poland, tion of Soviet authorities to get into Armenian site, Baltrušaitis from Lithuania, Ladislas Gal from Hun­ which was situated on the borderline of USSR and gary. At that time in the academic milieu there were Iran, the access to the area was strictly interdicted very lively discussions on the European identity and no one of western researchers had ever visited (like nowadays when we are searching for the cen­ this site before. It was the medieval cemetery of tral concept of European identity). Focillon created Old Armenian town Julfa, situated in the region of The Group of Art History at the Sorbonne, which Nakhchivan, from 1921 under the authority of Az­ consisted of the students of different nationalities, erbaijan, and absolutely inaccessible to the external

and organized the centre for medieval art studies world"5. These expeditions would have been impos­ for the exploration of the identity of Western art. sible without the support of Baltrušaitis' father who The French professor organised expeditions for also stimulated his son to carry out the research in students all over Europe in order to discover the the region. It has to be said, however, that living complexity of Western culture. Subsequently, they in Moscow, Baltrušaitis' father interacted with the started to study the monuments at the border re­ cultural diaspora of Armenians and appreciated Ar­ gions of western world and in the Latin East. menian poetry, theatre and fine art. He had sympa-

New territories of European art were discov­ ered. In this way, Focillon discovered that the "life ' Donabcdian (2000: 165). Jurgis Baltrušaitis: cross-cultural biography and cross-cultural art history 29

thy for the Armenian people and was well aware of their history. Consequently, Baltrušaitis was one of the first western art historians who was able to examine the authentic visual material, take photos and make sketch drawings of architectural and sculptural monuments in Christian Caucasus - the region situated at the crossroads between Roman and Persian cultures, Byzantine and Arabian world for centuries. In 1928 he wrote to Focillon from Tiflis: "As always I am a vagabond who travels through a landscape which austere poverty reached a singu• lar magnitude. I feel a little lost and intimidated by its greatness. My work is sometimes hard, but

it is beautiful a profession of archaeologist"6. One of Baltrušaitis' responsibilities during the expedi• tions was to make drawings and to take photos of various medieval monuments. The expeditions became the basis for four fundamental books. His first book titled Etudes sur l'art medieval en Géor• gie et en Arménie was published in 1929. It explores

the ornamental patterns of Christian monumental III. 2 Jurgis Baltrušaitis, Architectural decoration in Ha- sculpture in Transcaucasia, and with hundreds of houl, sketch, (Haho, now Turkey). JBA sketches, drawings and photos reveals the ornamen• restored the historic principles of the morphologi• tal motifs and figurative compositions which later cal system of Romanesque sculpture. In the book appear in Romanesque art. Baltrušaitis explored he demonstrated how ancient geometrical forms the geographical frontier of European civilisation and simple vegetable motifs shaped and modelled and he disclosed many cross-cultural connections the figurative representation in Romanesque art in the Transcaucasian art. Examining the monu• in a similar way as in the medieval art of Georgia mental sculpture and architecture in Georgia and and Armenia (ill. 3). According to him, Christian Armenia, he also perceived the rudiments of Ro• iconography intertwined with ornamental patterns, manesque and Gothic styles and highlighted the which absorbed figuration in Romanesque style. fact that the art of these countries was the bridge "The ornamental stylistics becomes the art of bal• between East and West. "Thus in front of the Eu• ancing the rigors of the constraint and the outburst ropean Middle Ages we see the Armenian Middle of fantasy. An evolutionary process is apparent and Ages, which, developing with extraordinary force it explains all the metamorphoses: the mastery of an and being closer to certain sources that also nour• elementary form - the palmctte - opens the door ished the West, could overtake the West in a large to all multiplications, combinations, assemblies, dis• number of areas"7 (ill. 2). locations and reunions of the figure it animates"9. The ornamental laws which created a supernat• Essentially, Baltrušaitis formulated the idea that the ural world in Romanesque art arc best captured by fantastic imagery in Romanesque art was not just Baltrušaitis. Through studies on the Transcaucasus an artistic capriciousness, but it was the result of or• he revealed a parallel experience to the Roman• nament stylistics, which had deep historical roots10. esque art. In 1931 he published his doctoral thesis His research was based on drawings, both precise La stylistique ornementale dans la sculpture romane*, and abstract. A huge number of sketchbooks filled in which he described "ornamental dialectics" and with drawings of capitals, bas-reliefs, ornamental,

6 Tissot(1998: 111). > Matray(1987). 7 Baltrušaitis (1957: 4). 10 Meyer Shapiro's (scholar born in Lithuania) radical cri• " Republished under the title Formations, déformations in tique of Baltrušaitis' book in 1933 had been colored by his 1986. ideological beliefs and touched by Marxism. 30 Odeta Žukauskienė

3 Jurgis Baltrušaitis, Romanesque sculptural decoration, drawing. JBA

figurative and architectural motifs were made dur­ amined mural and tripled basilicas in Georgia, in• ing his travels. This visual documentation shows vestigated the prototypes of the basilicas in ancient that Baltrušaitis was a "technician" in art history, Asia and published the book L'église cloisonnée en and that he developed image-based research. The Orient et en Occident (1941). The detailed analy• book comprised more then 800 schematic figures sis revealed the genesis of the ancient churches in that showed the perpetual compromise between Georgia and the development of the triple-church abstraction and image. basilica type in Europe. In 1924 Baltrušaitis met Hélène Castell, the In the context of these studies it should be men• stepdaughter of Focillon, and married her in 1931. tioned that Baltrušaitis returned in Kaunas in 1932 So Baltrušaitis became Focillon's son-in-law. Con• and became a professor of art histoty at Vytautas tinuing his studies of the Caucasus culture, in 1933 Magnus University. Shortly, he wrote two volumes Baltrušaitis family traveled in Persia (Baltrušaitis' fa• of Visuotinė meno istorija (Universal art history, ther had to meet the Shah with his son as secretary). 1934, 1939) for Lithuanian students. It was the They stayed in Tehran, visited Isfahan, Maskad, first professional manual of general art history in Shiraz, aand returned to Europe via Turkey. This Lithuania. Lecturing in Kaunas, he continued his trip encouraged Bultrušaitis to write the book Art research work. However, he was engaged in peda­ sumérien, art roman (1934), in which he sought to gogical activities in a responsible manner. Lectur­ establish the ultimate sources of Romanesque orna• ing the general history of art and workshops he mental stylistics, and demonstrated the affinities of paid particular attention to the formal structures: Sumerian stylistics with Romanesque one. "lecturing art history professor Jurgis Baltrušaitis In a few years, Baltrušaitis published two books loved to depict in chalk the details of architecture on architecture. In the book entitled Le problème de and sculpture"11. He was a virtuoso and was called l'ogive et l'Arménie (1936) he dealt with the prob• historian-artist. lem of gothic ribs and contributed to the ancient At the same time, in 1935, he organised the academic debate by presenting many Armenian exposition of Lithuanian folk art in Paris. On this architectural monuments of the 10th—13th centu• occasion, a catalogue of exhibition was published ries unknown to Western scholars before. Argu• with a preface written by Focillon. In the catalogue12 ing the tectonic role of the ribs he stressed that Baltrušaitis presented the exhibits and reviewed the Armenia had very substantial contribution to the history of Lithuania since ancient times, revising its purely Western formations of gothic architecture, links with Eastern and Western neighbours that in and especially to the development of the structural elements of vaults. In order to obtain additional materials, he went back to Georgia in 1937. He ex• " Trumpa (1988). 12 Guide de l'exposition (1935). Jurgis Baltrušaitis: cross-cultural biography and cross-cultural art history 31 their own way affected the evolution of Lithuanian ed himself in the Western countries as a professor art. The exhibition attracted a lot of Parisians, who of Kaunas. Unfortunately, Lithuania has lost the were interested in Lithuanian folk art as an authen• opportunity to establish the school of art his• tic source of cultural continuity. In the beginning tory based on French tradition. Living in France, of the 20th century, Lithuania's folk art was the lead Baltrušaitis actively participated in the Lithuanian of cultural identity, and the intelligentsia of Europe political struggle for independence, but in his was also looking at the folk traditions of each re• scholarly works he always remained independent gion with the interest in European identity. of all institutional politics, never linked his studies

Baltrušaitis later developed the research of folk with his nationality or diplomatic work14. It could art in his book Lithuanian folk art, published in be said, that during the years of exile he conducted 1948 in Munich. In this book the Lithuanian folk a battle in cultural field "to keep traditions of free• art is observed through the prism of the Focillon's dom alive"15. A core set of values guided him all theory of "life of forms". It is also significant because his life. the development of Lithuanian folk art associates After the WWII, Baltrušaitis continued his com• with the history of Christian Europe, and, in the parative research work and devoted it to the history context defines the identity of traditional Lithua• of Gothic art. In 1955 he published his masterwork nian culture. The book begins with the following Le Moyen âge fantastique. André Chastel wrote: words: "The history of a European country and the "The Fantastic Middle Ages can be characterised as life of her people's tradition do not follow a uni• the first collection of large scale analysis, in which form course. On one hand there is a succession of the fabulous and monstrous funds of medieval eras, a succession of styles and fashions, on the other imagination and the reveries of all times had been hand, there is sterility uninfluenced by events. On revived"16. His original research involved the fan• the one hand there is precipitancy and haste, and tastic and grotesque creatures of Gothic art reveal• on the other hand slow and regular development. ing new light on medieval art history. Baltrušaitis Evolution has two rhythms. It is not a question of claimed that even evolving towards reality, the art different levels or of unequal values. There are the of Middle Ages never lost its fantastic side. He also two faces of the same civilization"13. Baltrušaitis presented original documentation, which largely sought to demonstrate that European cultural ge• exceeded all the provided information on the ex• ology is very diverse, and the profound structures of changes of East and West. Lithuanian identity are based on the solid grounds Innovative research works on fantastic Gothic of traditional culture, in which the Christian Mid• (bearing in mind his book Réveils et Prodiges, pub• dle Ages and various currents of Western culture lished in 1960) were an attempt to reveal the mar• left traces, but nevertheless it remained unique and gins of the Gothic, where Romanesque world of bi• distinct. In the book we can find many encounters zarre creatures persisted. These survivals paved the with Western medieval art: expressive Romanesque way for the new invasions of exotic forms. Along• sculpture, austere Cistercian architecture,gothic style side the works, Baltrušaitis discovered many orien• decorations. In the studies of folk art, Baltrušaitis tal themes that intervened in fabulous Gothic style, highlighted the frontier-like character of Lithuania earlier considered as the quintessence of Western and disclosed many features absorbed by the folk art. He found not only the survival of Roman• art from Western culture, as well as from the Ori• esque drolleries, but also the creations of antique ent. Thus, this book is not only about Lithuanian glyptic art, the motifs of Islamic art, and Buddhist folk art, but also about Lithuanian identity and themes in Western Gothic art and in the paint• Lithuania as a geographical frontier of European ings of Brueghel and Bosch. At the end of Mid- civilization.

Returning to the Baltrušaitis' biography it 14 After the WWII he was appointed adviser of the Lithua• should be stressed that he moved from Kaunas in nian Embassy in France, and became an activist in the struggle for Lithuania's independence. 1939 before the Soviets took over Lithuania and " Mottar ([n.d]: 26) = JBA, Documentation Collection, had remained in Paris ever since. However he never box 1, folder 2, "Mottar, M. Robert, Displaced Scholars. 3 denied his Lithuanian identity, and always present- professors who fled Communism resume free researches in the West", The Johns Hopkins Magazine, press cutting [n.d.]: 12-26.

16 " Baltrušaitis (1918: 1). Cha5tcl(1955:8). Odeta Žukauskienė 32

fined anamorphosis as "a projection of forms out­ side their visible limits, a distortion of an image in such a way that it can be viewed in its correct form from a particular point. The method is established as a technical curiosity, but it contains the poetics of abstraction, the powerful mechanism of optical

illusion and the philosophy of artificial reality"18. Baltrušaitis uncovered an artificial side of perspec­ tive and developed a real interest in the representa­ tions that mislead the eye. He explored "depraved perspectives" that arc based on optical illusions and link together figuration and abstraction, as a picture stretched according to the same rules of perspec­ tive becomes a grotesque or abstract form. He ana­ lysed very carefully the geometrical technique for dra%ving slant pictures and introduced its historical context. Developing cross-cultural comparisons, Baltrušaitis discovered that anamorphic paintings for cylindrical and conical mirrors were popular in

both Europe and the Orient during the 17,h and

18,h century. At the time, known for centuries in the East, mirror anamorphosis was very popular in China. As the Western world have intensified its re­

III. 4 Jurgis Baltrušaitis, Marginai drolleries in Gothic lations with China, particularly through the Jesuit manuscripts, drawing. JBA missions, caroprric mirror anamorphosis spread out in West (ill. 5). The book on anamorphosis received wide ac­ die Ages "the other side of China attracts the most claim. Inspired by his book, a vast exposition on attention of Westerners and the land of dragons the theme was organised by the Rijksmuseum in

will soon offer to Europe together with stuffs and Amsterdam19. Baltrušaitis' books on the "depraved spices the new features of fantastic world. Western perspectives" still inspire many artists and cura­

world needed demons. <...> In Baltrušaitis' book tors20. "The popularity of his books today is due there is a precise description of what our hell owes not to their method or to their vision of art history, to the Orient"17. Exploring various meetings of East but to the objects they bring together. It is a reitera­ and West in art history, Baltrušaitis also sought to tion of the cabinet of curiosities, the creation of an

reveal different aspects of the transmission of art 'imagery museum'"21. through commercial, diplomatic and religious con­ Working on "depraved perspectives" (includ­ tacts. The recognition of borrowed imagery from ing Anamorphoses, Aberrations, La Qiiete d'lsis, Le other cultures and the ways of artistic transmission Miroir) Baltrušaitis developed a real interest in led to the renewal of the comprehension of Middle questions linked to the psychology of perception Ages (ill. 4). and visual history. Coherent body of the work has During the period of 1946-1960, the scholar­ a genuinely anthropological dimension. The schol- ship of Baltrušaitis turned to a study of anamor­ phoses and aberrations. Art historian became in­ 18 Baltrušaitis (1996: 7). terested in optical games of Renaissance. His book " Anamorfosen: spA met perspectief, Rijksnutsciiiu, 1975- Anamorphoses (1955) was a great contribution 76. Afterwards the same exposition was held in the Museum of Decorative Art in Paris (1976) and in various museums and to the history and philosophy of European art. galleries in the United States and Canada (1976-1980). Baltrušaitis put down the intellectual foundation 20 The approach taken by the exhibition "One Image May of the analysis of anamorphosed images. He de- Hide Another" (general curator Jean-Hubert Martin), pre­ sented at the National Galleries of the Grand Palais in Paris (2009), is also close to that of Jurgis Baltrušaitis.

17 Bonncfoy(I956: 174). 21 Rccht (2009:37). Jurgis Baltrušaitis: cross-cultural biography and cross-cultural art history 33

III. 5

arship of the "legends of forms" refers to the im• If he himself regarded the psychoanalytic and aginative perception and to the artistic phenomena postmodern theories with suspicion, many philoso• that weave together reality and vision. Thus, the phers had become interested in his works. Analys• book Aberrations11 is dedicated to visual phenom• ing the scopic drive, Jacques Lacan in 1964 cited ena widespread in the 17th-18th centuries that make Anamorphoses in his seminar. While developing his one sec things that do not exist and, in this way, own conception of the pleat {'pli'). Gilíes Dcleuze inspire the emergence of the legends of forms in the referred to the work of Baltrušaitis. Among many visionary world. Baltrušaitis analysed illusions and others, Jean-Francois Lyotard in his book Discours. fictions that appear around the forms and then ma• Figure (1985) discussing anamorphic space in vi• terialise themselves in normal life. All the subjects sion also relied on his work. analysed in his books refer not only to different do• To sum up, we can say that Baltrušaitis' adoles• mains, but also to different civilisations. cence and youth spent in multicultural milieu left In the book The Qjiest oflsis (1967), the point a defining imprint on his world comprehension. of his interest was to bring to the light the "legends As an art historian, he presented often unexpected of myth". It deals with the Egyptian myth which comparisons and affiliations between cultures and transfigured the history of civilisations and nations very distant civilisations. He promoted cross-cul• of Europe and Asia. The last book of this polyptych, tural awareness and sought to open a more cross- The Mirror, considers the "legends of science". "I do cultural perspective on art history, constructing think that the mirror transfigures the things, but it comparative study of art which gained importance is more then the transfiguration of reality and it ex• in the conditions of the development of trans-cul• tends into the transfiguration of thought and spirit. tural world. He also introduced anthropological ap• I was interested especially in these creative transfig• proach to the history of images. Besides, he focused urations. Everything I did since the Anamorphoses on the ambiguity of images and the perception of was the history of aberrations, curiosities, mistakes vision, so he expanded the professional territory of and illusions that had generally been disregarded art history, foreseeing the emergence of Visual Cul• by leaving aside the ignored texts that I had largely ture, which had widened the field of investigations used. However, these texts added a completely new previously occupied by Art History. light to the evolution and formation of thoughts in

Western civilization"23.

" Being rccdited many times his book Aberrations (1957) inspired the exposition "Landscape gardens in France 1760- 1820. The Countries of Illusions. The Land of Experiences" presented at the Hotel dc Sully in Paris (1977). " B.dmiSairis(1979:49). 34 Odeta Žukauskienė

Bibliography Matray 1987 = JBA, Manuscript Collection, box 9, folder 7, "Bernard Matray: Jurgis Baltrušaitis. For­ Baltrušaitis 1948 = Baltrušaitis Jurgis: Lithuanian Folk mations, deformations", press cutting [n.p.], 1987 Art, Munich, Vizgirda 1948 Mottar ([n.d]: 26) = JBA, Documentation Collec­ Baltrušaitis 1957 = Jurgis Baltrušaitis' Archives (in tion, box 1, folder 2, "Mottar, M. Robert, Displaced Paris), Iconography Collection, box 45, folder 9, Scholars. 3 professors who fled Communism resume "Expose de Jurgis Baltrušaitis. UNESCO Radio, free researches in the West", The Johns Hopkins Mag­ Orient-Occident. Le Monde Arménien", printed azine, press cutting [n.d.]: 12-26 text, (1957): 2-5 Mazzocut-Mis 1999 = Mazzocut-Mis Maddalena: De- Baltrušaitis 1979 = BaltrušaitisJutgis: Jurgis Baltrušaitis, formazionifantastiche. Introduzione all'estetica di Ju­ Christian Descamps, Jean-Paul Simon "Conversa­ rgis Baltrušaitis, Milan 1999 tions sur le miroir", Ça cinéma, 17 (1979): 49-62 Recht 2009 = Recht Roland: "Jurgis Baltrušaitis. An­ Baltrušaitis 1996 = BaltrušaitisJurgis:^«rfwor/>/,w«0K amorphoses". Interview byjeanctte Zwingenberger, Thaumaturgus opticus, Flammarion, Paris 1996 Art Press, 13 (2009): 29-37 Bonncfoy 1956 = Bonnefoy Yves: "Le Moyen Age Fan• Tissot 1998 = Tissot Claire: Archives Henri Focillon tastique" Mercure de France, 1 (1956): 173-175 (1881-1943). Inventaire, Paris 1998 Chastel 1955 = Chastel André: "Orient-Occident au Trumpa 1988 = Trumpa Vincas: "Jurgis Baltrušaitis, Moyen Age", Le Monde, 18 Novembre (1955) sūnus (1903-1988)" (Jurgis Baltrušairis, son (1902- Chevrier 1989 = Chcvrier Jean-François: Portrait de Jur• 1988)), Draugas, 124 (1988) gis Baltrušaitis, Paris 1989 Žukauskienė 2006 = Žukauskienė Odeta: Aleno Donabédian 2000 = Donabédian Patrick: "Jurgio Bal• fortnt( metamorfozės: komparatyvistinė Focillono ir trušaičio jnašas j krikščioniškojo Kaukazo tyrinėji­ Baltrušaičio menotyra (The Metamorphoses of Art mus" (The contribution of Jurgis Balrrušaitis in the Forms: Comparative Art Studies by Focillon and art studies of Christian Caucasus), Logos, 22 (2000): Baltrušaitis), Vilnius 2006 156-166 Guide de l'exposition 1935 = Guide de l'exposition d'Art populaire baltique: Estonie, Lettonie, Lituanie, Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro, 1935