Architektūriniai vaizdai Pranciškaus Smuglevičiaus kūryboje

ENSmuglevičius was the first artist to introduce architectural landscape into Lithuanian art of the eighteenth century. The painting and drawing of towns and buildings in Lithuania appeared at the end of the fifteenth century, and was perfected at the seventeeth-eighteenth centuries. However, in most cases that were landscapes of symbols, backgrounds of historical paintings as well as complementary elements to devotional images. Smuglevičius “portraits” of architectural monuments of Rome, Warsaw, Vilnius are not only the documents of history of urban architecture but also notable works of art which show innovatory interpretation of the genre of landscape. In his Romantic water-colours and drawings of the Tivoli of 1763-84, the surroundings of Rome and Southern Italy resemble the work of G. B. Piranesi. In 1776 the album of engravings Vestigia delle Terme di Tito e loro interne pit- ture by Smuglevičius and young architect Vincenzo Brenna ordered by the antiquarian L. Mirri was published and became popular among art lovers, collectors and tourists.The later landscapes of Warsaw and genre scenes which combine dynamic contrasts of light and shadow seem to have been inspired by works of Rembrandt. Smuglevičius followed classical conventions in his portraits and nudes, while in all landscape pictures the auguries of sentimentalism and early Romanticism are clearly noticeable. In 1785 Smuglevičius drew national monuments and relics in scenes of Vilnius, the so-called Vilnius Album. The landscape of fact, direct observation, precise detail is combined with imaginative vision, mettle sketchy strokes and originated so -called ‘full-size sketches’. Some sepia drawings from Vilnius Album series were accompanied by several fresh, impressional landscapes and pictures of historical buildings, people worshipping in the Grand Synagogue and mosque in Lukiškės, which foreshadowed Romanticism through their mood of oriental weirdness. In his architectural landscapes Smuglevičius has succeeded in subordinating the infinitive visual data of landscape to a single pictorial idea. Smuglevičius works influenced even few generations of Lithuanian and Polish landscape artists.