Sapiegos ir menas
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Sapiegos (Sapiega family); Sapiegų giminės meninis palikimas; Abiejų Tautų Respublika (ATR; Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów; Žečpospolita; Sandrauga; Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth); Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); Artistic legacy of the Sapiega family; Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
ENIt is hard to define the passion for art and the services rendered in this field by some dozen generations of the family who, on account of their social standing, were naturally marked out for showing activity in this domain. In the course of more than 500 years of the family’s significant role in the history of Poland and Lithuania, many of its members were interesting personalities and were noted for their remarkable achievements in various fields, including art, especially as their great wealth permitted them to carry out their plans. The oldest extant examples, dating from the early 16th century, bear eloquent testimony to the definitely western forms of objects commissioned by representatives of this Ruthenian, at that time still Orthodox, family. The splendid late Gothic chalice bearing the Lis (Fox) coat of arms, which was wrought by a goldsmith from Royal Prussia, comes from the Orthodox church at Supraśl, erected between 1503 and 1511 by the Chodkiewicz family; the chalice was probably ordered by Iwan (Iwaszko) Sapieha, Voivode of the Podlasie region (+1517), married to Anna Chodkiewicz. He is also credited with the building of a Gothic, in all likelihood originally Orthodox, church at Sapiegiškis (today Zapyškis) near Kaunas, with which a very strong genetic - in its double sense - relationship is manifested by the castle Orthodox church at Kodeń, the latter being raised in 1530 by Iwaszko’s son Paweł, Voivode of Nowogródek (+ 1579). The two structures are additionally linked by the fact that they are relics of the residential complexes which have not survived but which must have been equally interesting and identical in their stylistic forms. Few as 16th century mementoes of the Sapieha family are in number, one must nevertheless "cross off" from the list a silver beaker of 1560, a recent gift to the Vilnius Castle, because contrary to some totally unfounded suggestions it is not in any way linked with Hrehory, Chamberlain of Orsza.The turbulent history of the country, unpropitious for the preservation of artistic heritage, has affected the patrimony of this family in a particularly grievous measure. None of the Sapiehas’ numerous residences have survived in their original form nor have any of them ever been adequately documented, while only ruins have remained of a large number of impressive edifices founded by them or scarce records which give but a pale image of their past splendour; one such example is a picture painted by Wincenty Dmochowski in 1853 (MNK, inv. No. 4927), which shows the castle at Halshany, already then in a state of ruin and today reduced to unidentifiable fragments of masonry. Despite these irretrievable losses, or perhaps in defiance of them, there persist in the form of impressive ruins two of the greatest architectural works - the palace at Ruzhany and the Carthusian monastery in Byaroza. The residence at Ruzhany, built at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century for Lew Bazyli Sapieha, and in the 1780s extended on a grand scale by Aleksander Michał (1730-1793), still amazes for its colossal layout, as do the remains of the monastic complex, scattered over a vast area in ByarozaKartuskaya, the latter having been founded in 1648 by Kazimierz Lew. Both the Grand Chancellor of Lithuania Lew Bazyli (1557-1633) and his son Deputy Chancellor of Lithuania Kazimierz Lew (1609-1656) are rightly reputed to have been the most generous and most outstanding founders in the family. The former - the originator of the family’s political and financial power - and the latter have deserved the gratitude and admiration of posterity due to the number, scale, and quality of their achievements in the sphere of culture, including art.Among the works created on Lew Bazyli’s initiative, the codification and publication of the Third Statute of Lithuania (1588), a fundamental collection of laws binding in the Grand Duchy, would suffice as a lasting monument to his glory. However, the chancellor also considered it his civic duty to commission edifices that would meet the religious needs of the people. He built or furnished 24 churches, and, which was so characteristic of local religious relations, these were Roman Catholic churches and monasteries as well as Orthodox churches. Some of them were wooden structures (churches at Wolpa, Rietavas, and a church and monastery at Byalynichy) which have not survived, but a number of masonry edifices have met a similar fate (the Orthodox church and monastery of the Holy Trinity at Chareya, the parish churches at Ikazn’, Kosovo, Orsza, and Josvainiai, as well as the parish church at Slonim, which was later given over to the Canons Regular). In the group of those preserved and testifying to the chancellor’s discriminating artistic taste, one should mention St. Michael’s Church and convent of the Bernardine Nuns in Vilnius (1607) and the parish church at Siemiatycze (1626-1637), all three edifices representing the Lublin variety of Mannerism. The Lithuanian variant of this style appears in the church at Ruzhany (1617), whose form with a characteristic slender polygonal tower on the axis of the faęade closely resembles the church at Šiauliai in Samogitia (erected in 1625 by the Chodkiewicz family). In addition to the churches he founded, he contributed fairly large sums towards the construction of the Jesuit Church of St. Casimir in Vilnius (1604-1616). The Deputy Chancellor Kazimierz Lew was also very active as a founder. Thanks to his endeavours some of his father’s building undertakings were completed, including the churches at Siemiatycze and Slonim. [...]. [From the publication]
