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Restoring the
Museum of Miniature Arts in Juodkrantë
 Museologists
have long noticed that miniatures – paintings, graphic arts,
sculptures and applied arts in a smaller form – nearly disappear in
a large space alongside massive paintings and sculptures. Placing
all of these miniatures into one exhibition space, the artistic
value and charm of miniatures are conveyed. The miniatures do not
compete with one another but instead, simply augment each other. In
1976, after Juodkrantë Church had been repaired (after years of
having been left derelict), the exposition of the Museum of
Miniature Arts was installed. Our society saw the miniatures as
works of art, which were of special beauty and subtlety. Classical
music concerts and poetry evenings at Juodkrantë Church were to
encourage even more interest in the small examples of paintings,
graphic arts, and sculptures. In 1978, the casement glass windows of
the architect Vladas Vizgirda (which during concerts were closed so
as not to distract audience members) highlighted the expositions
uniqueness. The lines of the arched stands, on the other hand,
imitated in their own way the building's architecture. Like
Palanga's Amber Museum, large crowds came to visit the Museum of
Miniature Arts although traveling to the Curonian Spit at that time
was strictly limited. Remaining statistical data indicates that each
summer, the majority of Neringa vacationers and tourists visited to
the Museum of Miniature Arts. This interest in Miniatures on the
part of visitors became one of the most important incentives to
restore the Museum of Miniature Arts. This summer, the museum will
be opened in a historic building next to the church on the other
side of the street. In the 1970s, the actual museum building was
relocated near the church and restored. This was done in order to
save it from the threat of destruction caused by the construction of
nearby vacation homes. Numerous tourists, who will stop to visit the
Juodkrantë Church as well as those who will become acquainted with
the lagoon's coastline and Witches' Hill, from now on will have the
opportunity to see hundreds of miniatures and summer exhibitions.
The impressive collection of
various genres is kept in the funds of the National Art Museum of
Lithuania. There are only medals here – over 1,500. (The museum
expects to place about 200 on exhibition.) They are the miniature
painted portraits, fans, and sculptures created by the masters of
the Parisian, St. Peterburg and Viennese school.
Miniatures developed according to
their natures although the depicted art, fashion, and even advances
in technology of the times had their influence on them. From 13th
to the 16th centuries, the flourishing art of miniature
graphics overlapped the classical period of art, which saw the
increasing spread and popularity of miniature portraits. This trend
began to vanish with the discovery of photography, where devices
(the predecessors of the modern–day camera) were able to capture
images in miniature at prices ten times cheaper. During the
Renaissance, oval miniature sculpture (i.e. various types of
statuettes) were popular, while during the Baroque period, fans were
very popular – fans whose form, décor, and material all very much
depended on fashion. They were made of ivory or tortoise shell,
mother–of–pearl and even wood, and then decked in cloth. Some are
noteworthy for their subtlety of color, the genre scenes they
depict, or their complicated ornamentation. Others for their
elaborate ajouré.
Life before, visitors at the
Museum of Miniature Art will see fans created by the masters of
Paris, st. Petersburg, and Prague (16th – 19th
centuries). Boùesùaw Ruseck's painting, “A Lady with a Fan”, which
will be presented in a large format, illustrates women's jewelry and
fans of the Vilnius region. The miniature portraits are noted for
their attention to detail in pictures and their subtle colors.
Artists would typically paint water–colors and frame them in gold or
in medallions (precious materials used just to hasten their
actual decay). Not only portraits, but also paintings on small
boxes, the already mentioned fans (both of which belong to the
fields of applied art and painting) as well as Palech's examples of
painting will be placed on exhibition in the restored museum.
Perhaps, medallions will make the largest part of the exhibition.
They can be divided into two commemorative and historical, both of
which immortalize the most important event of certain periods, as
well as famous personalities (i.e. scientists, artists, and public
figures), towns, exhibitions, etc. The medals on exhibition reflect
the development of this art and the separate work of its masters.
The medallions of Fiodor Tolstoy, who helped to establish the “art
of medals” as a discipline at St. Petersburg's Academy, have a
special place in the museum. His medallions depict the 1812 War in
Russia. A very valuable 16th–century poster of Sigismund
the Old will be of interest to visitors. In the Museum of Miniature
Arts we will see more artworks of the Lithuanian school (works of
Vilnius’s goldsmith guild, the already mentioned Rusecki portrait,
and others). At the restored exposition, a great deal of attention
will be placed on the evolution of Lithuanian medals.
Visitors will particularly like
the colored copper engravings, which depict costumes from the late
17th century – early 19th century. They will
serve a double function, as they acquaint visitors with the history
of clothing with their details and attributes, while on the other
hand, the engravings will show what types of soldiers, artists and
other professions existed. Visitors will be struck by the steel
engravings of English artists, who focused on the architectural
monuments of antiquity. Such art was financed by an association that
wished to make ancient monuments more popular at the time. With
their poetic as well as romantic images, the creators of these
engravings look not only at Europe (Italy, Greece, and the Crimea)
but also at monuments in Africa and Asia Minor. At the restored
museum, visitors will see more than a few examples of applied art:
small paintings, boxes, and wallets created by the art of sewing
colored glass bead; tiny porcelain and faience sculptures, vases,
plates and cups; 19th–century tableware as well as
plaster cast busts of ancient gods and goddesses from the Mesien
factory.
From this summer on, the more than
one–hundred examples of miniature paintings, a part of the National
Art Museum of Lithuania's collection, will once again be a cultural
jewel to the natural environs of Neringa. Visitors will have the
opportunity to explore landscapes, portraits, compositions with
religious, everyday–life, and mythological motifs, and the various
techniques of miniature painting: the application oil paint on small
copper or marble plates, water–colors r gouache on ivory or paper,
as well as varnish or enamel painting.
From the mid–18th
century, the painting of miniature portraits became the most
important from of miniature–making. This type of the art makes up
the largest portion of the National Art Museum of Lithuania's
collection – more than 70 art works, which will be amply represented
at the Miniature Museum. The styles of Rococo, Classicism, and
Romanticism (often with a dash of sentimentality) in portraits,
painted watercolors and gouache on ivory plates (less often on
paper) acquaint one with the grace of how artists apply both
subtlety and image. Such subtlety and image are then highlighted
even more by the exquisite little frames. The miniatures represent
different schools – French, Austrian, German, Russian, Polish, and
Lithuanian.
We hope that museum visitors will
enjoy the miniatures of the self–educated artist, Lida Meðkaitytë.
Her works are being kept at the National Art Museum of Lithuania;
they will make up a third of the exposition. Visitors may take in
the subtle miniatures of Meðkaitytë,
which convey the outdoors of the artist's home village of
Antðvenèiai with precision. It is a world of silence, which radiates
goodness and invokes peacefulness. In the artist's miniatures,
expressions of the moment pulsate, as they open to subtle images of
nature and the images of the world of people.
Besides miniatures, two
exhibitions will also be running in other museum buildings during
the summer season: The Lithuanian art exhibition, “Dolls and
Textiles” and an exhibition on amber and works of amber, “Amber
Miniatures,” which the National Art Museum of Lithuania has put
together with “Gintaro pasaulis” Ltd.
Romualdas Budrys,
director of Lithuanian Art Museum |
;)