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- Title
Birute Ruta Vitkauskiene, “Zlotnictwo wilenskie. Ludzie i dziela, XV-XVIII wiek,” Wydawnictwo Neriton, Warszawa 2006, ss 365, ryc 129; “Skarbiec katedry wilenskiej. Katalog wystawy: Zamek Krolewski w Warszawie, 2 lipca-28 wrzesnia 2008, Zamek Krolewski na Wawelu, 15 pazdziernika 2006-15 stycnia 2009,” red. Dariusz Nowacki, Anna Saratowicz-Dudynska, Arx Regia, Warszawa 2008, ss 256.
- Authors
Wozniak, Michal
- Abstract
This article is a review of two books: “Goldsmithing in Wilno: People and Works, 15th-18th centuries,” written by Birute Ruta Vitkauskiene and published in 2006 by Neriton Publishing in Warsaw (Poland) and “The Treasury of the Vinius Cathedral: An Exhibition Catalog,” edited by Dariusz Nowacki and Anna Saratowicz-Dudynska, published by Arx Regia in Warsaw (Poland) in 2008. The first work focuses upon goldsmithing in the city of Vilnius during the 15th to 18th centuries and presents, for the first time in the Polish-language, an attempt at a comprehensive examination of the craft in a historically important Polish goldsmithing center. Vitkauskiene examines, among other things, the genesis, structure, and organization of goldsmith guilds within the city of Vilnius; the artistic, economic, and social contributions these craftsmen made to the city; and the masterpieces and treasures Vilnius goldsmiths produced in the 15th to the 18th centuries (both extant copies and those known only via written records). While the reviewer lauds her effort, he notes shortcomings of research and methodology, and that Vitkauskiene makes many generalizations and takes too many liberties with respect to positing exact origins for certain pieces--for example, her identification of the St. Stanislaw Reliquary (in the shape of a hand) as of Vilnius-origin cannot be documented and can only be hypothetical, a fact noted by the editors of “The Treasury of the Vinius Cathedral: An Exhibition Catalog” when the piece was exhibited in Poland. Despite also noting several issues with the dates and origins of certain works found within the exhibition catalog, the reviewer finds this second work a good complement to Vitkauskiene’s work, because she had failed to incorporate such a visual register of pieces within her book and because the accompanying comprehensive notes found within both books add much to the knowledge of 15th-18th century goldsmithing in Vilnius and within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
- Subjects
LOCAL history; GOLDWORK; ART history; VITKAUSKIENE, Birute Ruta; NOWACKI, Dariusz; SARATOWICZ-Dudynska, Anna; NONFICTION
- Publication
Quarterly of the History of Material Culture / Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej, 2008, Vol 56, Issue 2, p227
- ISSN
0023-5881
- Publication type
Book Review