The Missionaries’ Monastery in Vilnius

Jan Gintowt-Dziewałtowski (1904–1980) chose this view of the Missionaries’ monastery and church from the garden by the hill below the monastery. This view allowed him to show the impressive relief of Vilnius: the sloping hill overgrown with old trees, and the graceful towers of the Missionaries’ Church. The picture is suffused with the melancholy of autumn, with the glow of the golden foliage, and the misty smoke from the chimney of the monastery forming stormy clouds. Gintowt-Dziewałtowski stylised the foliage of the trees and the shape of the land by creating a graceful Art Nouveau pattern, at the same time as preserving a balance between the natural shapes and the decorativeness of the picture. This is another romanticised and emotional vision of old Vilnius. Text author Laima Laučkaitė.