Dalia Vasiliūnienė (PDF)
https://doi.org/10.53631/MIS/2024.15.4
For the first time, the article presents a washing device lavabo of the eighteenth century preserved in the sacristy of the Dominican Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius. The article briefly describes the equipment in the southeastern sacristy that originated after the 1748 church fire, namely the furniture, boiserie and lavabo. The review covers historical iconographic sources from the second half of the eighteenth century to the 1930s. However, attention is focused on the lavabo preserved in the sacristy. It consists of an oak structure and pewter parts. The oak structure in the form of a retable is in harmony with other sacristy furniture. It is decorated with four wooden sculptures, carvings and a canvas painting of St Gundisalvus of Amarante (São Gonçalo de Amarante). The pewter elements are a sculpture of the Dominican Gundisalvus standing in the background of the landscape with a bowl at the bottom and two dolphin figures on the sides with smaller bowls to drain the water. The article discusses the possible circumstances of the lavabo’s creation. Probably, it was made by Michał Tomasz Teschner, a Jesuit pewterer from Vilnius, who repaired and added pewter parts to the lavabo in 1772. It presents well-known analogues in the churches of Vilnius and Poland and examines the contextuality of the artistic design of the Church of the Holy Spirit. The iconography of two images of the Portuguese Dominican Gundisalvus of Amarante on the pewter part of the lavabo and in the painting on the top is discussed.
In summary, the lavabo of the Dominican church, created from 1750 to 1772, is a rarity in the Lithuanian context. It is distinguished by the complex technique of pewter craft, artistic value, unique content and symbolic meanings. There are very few surviving pewter lavabo in Lithuania, and sculptural devices of this level are rare even in the territory of the former Republic of the Two Nations.
Keywords: Dominican Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius, Dominicans, sacristy, lavabo, St Gundisalvus of Amarante, Jesuits, Michał Tomasz Teschner, pewtery