Jurgis Baltrušaitis: Cross-Cultural Biography and Cross-Cultural Art History

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).

Load more