Lithuanian art history under Nazi occupation : Mikalojus Vorobjovas (1903-1954) and his views on the Vilnius Baroque School

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Antras pasaulinis karas; Dailės istorija; Jonas Kristupas Glaubicas; Lietuvos meno istorija; Mikalojus Vorobjovas; Vilniaus meno mokykla; Art history; Johann Christhoph Glaubitz; Lithuanian art history; Mikalojus Vorobjovas; Vilnius Baroque School; Worls War II.

ENAs was correctly asserted in a recent call for conference papers, "Having been neglected for a long time, the study of art history under National Socialism now occupies a firm place in specialized historical research into this period".1 This call was for the conference "Art History in the Occupied Territories (1939-1945): Discourses, Structures, Practices". But with regard to my country, Lithuania, this topic is quite new and provoking. It prompts us to explore what was forbidden in the Soviet period even by mention alone, and what is still avoided in post-Soviet Lithuania, namely attempts to write a politically-engaged history of art, excluding the attempts at Sovietisation, which also have not been discussed systematically. Discussion of the division of Lithuania's artistic heritage is still generally avoided, as it would compel us to talk about the Lithuanian and Polish nationalistic ambitions, which have long heated people's passions, and it would also induce lengthy polemics about the different visions of the past shaped by these ambitions. In addition, Germans also episodically interfered in this division in the period of the First World War and later in the mid-20th century. The attempts to Germanize the history of Lithuanian art influenced part of the research performed, where the researcher'’ attention was drawn to previously unexplored monuments. However, they did not leave a more distinct imprint in the historiography of the Lithuanian artistic heritage, due to several reasons. [...]. [Extract, p. 239]