Aistė Paliušytė (PDF)
https://doi.org/10.53631/DIS/2014.6.3
The article deals with the documents of artwork commissioning, mostly contracts, in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 18th century. The article aims to define the intentions of commissioners and draw a link between the attitudes conveyed in these documents and other texts, which reveal the perception of art within the period in question.
The commissioning of religious images corresponded to the notion of image postulated in the religious discourse of the post-Tridentine era, manifesting and establishing it through the laconic, summarising language of contracts. These documents once again support the conclusion drawn from the research of other resources: the highest value was set upon the iconographic aspect of an artwork. In most cases, a commissioner determined the subject and the work motifs. The expression was generally seen as an artist’s competence; however, the commissioner often gave enough supplementary recommendations considering the form of artwork: well-proportioned composition was among the most repeated requirements, along with the request for life-like images and ornateness. Many notions circulating through the texts were influenced by the tradition of rhetoric, which highlighted the importance of effects in the work of art. Therefore, commissioning documents demonstrate the visual aims of the society, which have not been considered sufficiently in Lithuanian historiography so far.
Keywords: art commission, contract, intentions of the commissioner, conception of art, culture of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 18th century