Events

Engravings from the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences at the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania

26 07 2024

On 27 June 2024, the National Museum–Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in Vilnius, in cooperation with the Scientific Library of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (PAAS) and the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS) in Cracow (Biblioteka Naukowa PAU i PAN w Krakowie), opened an international exhibition of engravings from probably the most significant and largest collection of graphic art not just in Poland but in the whole Central Eastern European region. The exhibition consists of over 200 masterpieces from the collection of the Print Room of the Scientific Library of the PAAS and PAS in Cracow.

With the opening of the Print Room of the Scientific Library of the PAAS and the PAS in Cracow in 1935, two invaluable graphic art collections featuring works accumulated in the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries were combined. Half of the works consisted of the collection of the Moszyński family, who were magnates of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Fryderyk Józef Moszyński (1738–1817), a member of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth parliaments, Grand Quartermaster, the referendary and the chief secretary of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the last Grand Marshal of the Kingdom of Poland, accumulated the largest part of this collection during the reign of Stanislaus August Poniatowski (1764–1795), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. The other half of the works in the Print Room was transferred from the Polish Library in Paris. A large part of this collection consisted of graphic art works collected by Maciej Wodziński (1782–1848), a Polish émigré living in Dresden, a participant in the Napoleonic Wars, and the president of the Polish Senate during the 1831 uprising. Today, it the Print Room holds more than 90,000 magnificent and valuable old engravings created by the most renowned artists in almost every centre of printmaking in Europe: Nuremberg, Antwerp, Rome, Paris, London, Dresden, and others.

The part of the collection shown at the Museum of the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania is not only a reminder of its intricate history, but also a representation of works of extremely high artistic value. Over 200 prints exhibited are divided into five thematic parts: ‘The Biblical World, ‘The World of Mythology and Antiquity’, ‘The World as an Allegory’, ‘The Examined and Tamed World’, and ‘The End of the World. The Apocalypse’. They weave together biblical and mythological themes to depict the relationship between humans and the divine, earthly, animal, and plant realms, which culminates in dramatic depictions of the apocalypse. A unique aspect of the exhibition is that the prints are not only divided by the said themes: most of them are exhibited in complete cycles, of which there are 27 in all. Collectors show great interest in such cycles of works as they are highly valued in the international art market.

The exhibition features the works by Martin Schongauer, Peter Brueghel the Elder (Peter Brueghel de Oude), Albrecht Dürer, Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio, Peter Paul Rubens, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Bernardo Bellotto, among other famous old masters.

Engravings at the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania

The opening of the exhibition was attended by H.E. Ozaki Tetsu, Ambassador of Japan to Lithuania, representatives of other embassies, Prof. Jan Ostrowski, the president of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cracow, Prof. Zenonas Dabkevičius, the vice-president of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, heads of the scientific divisions of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences Prof. Leonas Valkūnas and Prof. Limas Kupčinskas, Dr Sigitas Narbutas, the director of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, academicians, artists, and other honoured guests.

At the opening of the exhibition ‘From the Creation of the World to the Apocalypse’

The guests of the exhibition opening were welcomed by Dr Vydas Dolinskas, Prof. Jan Ostrowski, and Prof. Zenonas Dabkevičius, who in his welcome address emphasised the fact that the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, which are striving for even closer co-operation, have rich libraries that take care of the preservation of historical books, manuscripts, original maps and works of art.

Prof. Zenonas Dabkevičius, the vice-president of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, delivering his welcome address

He thanked the Scientific Library of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences for exhibiting the old sixteenth-eighteenth century prints at the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania as due to their fragility and sensitivity to the environment they are rarely displayed in exhibitions and very rarely shown abroad. He expressed his hope that the exhibition would be of interest to historians, art professionals, art collectors, and the general public.

Guests viewing the prints.

Other speakers at the opening of the exhibition were Agnieszka Fluda-Krokos, the director of the Scientific Library of the of the PAAS and the PAS in Cracow, and the exhibition curators – Magdalena Adamska, the head of the Print Room of the Scientific Library of the PAAS and the PAS in Cracow, and Gabija Tubelevičiūtė, an expert at the National Museum–the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania.

The musical interludes at the opening of this exhibition included vocal works by Jean-Baptiste Lully, Johan Adolph Hasse, and other composers of the period.

The patrons of the exhibition ‘From the Creation of the World to the Apocalypse’ are Prof. Jan Ostrowski, the president of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Prof. Jūras Banys, the president of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. Although due to other commitments Prof. Jūras Banys was unable to attend the opening of the exhibition, on 30 June he met Prof. Jan Ostrowski and Dr Vydas Dolinskas, the director of the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania to discuss ideas for further cooperation.

The exhibition ‘From the Creation of the World to the Apocalypse’will be open until 15 September 2024.

Prepared by Evelina Baronienė, Chief Assistant to the President of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, with reference to the material publicised by the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania: https://www.valdovurumai.lt/en/exhibitions/i/8998/international-engraving-exhibition-from-the-creation-of-the-world-to-the-apocalypse/

Photography Mindaugas Kaminskas and Deimantė Šuliauskaitė, Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania