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Exhibition of art acquisitions and presents for the
Grand Duke’s Palace
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Since
6 July 2005
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Since
6 July 2005, adjacently with a renewed display of the finds of
the Grand Duke’s Palace at the Applied Art Museum (a subdivision of
the Lithuanian Art Museum), the visitor can see art works acquired and
presented for the recreated Lithuanian Grand Duke’s Palace. It is the
first time when the four especially valuable ancient tapestries bought
on the money raised by the Grand Duke’s Palace Support Fund (board
chairperson Edmundas Kulikauskas, director Indrë Jovaisaite)
are offered for public viewing. The works dating from the sixteenth
until the early eighteenth centuries produced by the Flemish and
French workshops have been acquired on recommendations by the
Lithuanian Art Museum (all the tapestry pieces were examined by the
most experienced specialist in ancient woven cloth, Dr Ieva Kuiziniene
from the Art Academy, specialists of P. Gudynas Restoration Centre of
the Lithuanian Art Museum, and a group of foreign experts).
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The oldest acquired tapestry ‘Procession of Elephants’ (a part of the
original) is of the weave by the famous Jean Grenier and Arnould
Poissonier’s workshop in the Flemish town of Tournai. Its production
period concurs with the ruling time of Sigismund the Old. The tapestry
of the late Gothic-early Renaissance style is believed to have
belonged in the Lisbon palace collection of King Manuel I of Portugal.
After Vasco de Gama’s trip to Africa motifs of exotic animals rose to
popularity in European art bringing Flemish workshops numerous
commissions from European rulers for tapestries exploring the motif.
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The ‘Procession of Elephants’ is 150 years older than any comparable
piece of textiles that had existed in Lithuania before the
acquisition. The reliable written sources have revealed that under
Sigismund the Old, tapestries of Western production had already
reached Poland and Lithuania and adorned ducal and some of the noble
residencies as well as these of ecclesiastical hierarchy. Thus the
acquired detail of the ‘Procession of Elephants’ is going to be one of
the palace interior highlights to evoke the epoch of Sigismund the
Old.
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The second of four pieces is a production of one (unidentified) of
Brussels’s famous workshops. The impressive tapestry of exceptionally
fine work, ‘A Scene from the Wedding of Alexander the Great’ is dated
by the late sixteenth -early seventeenth centuries. The piece was
woven based on the drawing of the famous Flemish painter and engraver
Maerten de Vos. The tapestry has been skilfully restored and is in a
good condition. The style of the tapestry bears similarity to the
manner of artistic expression characteristic of the famous collection
of textiles that once decorated the Vilnius Duke’s Palace and is
currently preserved at the Vavel Palace in Krakow. The creation time
of ‘A Scene from the Wedding of Alexander the Great’ corresponds to
the ruling period of Sigismund III Vasa of Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth. He and his son Vladislav Vasa altered the interior of
the Vilnius residency in the early Baroque style lending it amazing
sumptuousness and splendour. The quality of the tapestry fully
reflects the exquisite artistic tastes the Vasa dynasty was famous
for.
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The two remaining pieces of tapestry, the acquisitions for the ducal
palace, ‘A Mythological Scene’ and a verdure tapestry are believed to
be woven in the seventeenth-late seventeenth century at an
unidentified workshop in the French town of Aubusson. These are also
very valuable pieces of art that will adorn the walls of the rooms
recreated in the style of Baroque.
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Besides the tapestry pieces, on display is a present by Dr Tomasz
Niewodniczański (Germany), a rare engraving entitled ‘A View of Grodno’.
It is a work by the Nuremberg engraver Mathias Zündt (app.1498-1572)
dated 1568 and made after a drawing by Johann Adelhauser, a court
painter to Sigismund Augustus, Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of
Poland.
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The display is expanded by furniture pieces in the styles of
Renaissance and Baroque (chest-chairs, armchairs, etc.) from the
collections of the Lithuanian Art Museum.
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The exhibition will be enriched annually by newly acquired or
presented treasures of art that will become interior highlights of the
recreated ducal palace.
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Based on the information provided by Dr Vydas
Dolinskas, head of the Interior and Exhibition Section of the Ducal
Palace of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the Lithuanian Art Museum
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