The building called the Perkūnas House in Kaunas

Periodical TYGODNIK ILLUSTROWANY (Warsaw).

Woodcut after Michał Elwiro Andriolli.

The Perkūnas House in Kaunas is one of the town’s most famous Gothic structures. Its impressive architectural forms attracted lovers of history and artists in the 19th century. Michał Elwiro Andriolli (1836–1893) may have drawn the Perkūnas House before the 1863 uprising, or after it when he lived in Kaunas in hiding from the police. It is interesting that after 1843, the building housed a drama theatre, and the operas Halka and The Haunted Manor by Stanisław Moniuszko were staged here in Kaunas in 1861 for the first time. Andriolli may have been in the audience. He arrived in Warsaw from exile in 1871, and soon started contributing to the weekly Tygodnik Illustrowany as an illustrator. A woodcut by the Warsaw artist Józef Sosiński (?–1881), based on this drawing of the Perkūnas House, was one of his first works to be published (No 221, 23 March 1872, p. 156). The text accompanying the illustration emphasised the historical significance of the drawing, because this old piece of Kaunas’ history and culture had lost its original appearance by this time: in 1865, a separate flat was built in the ground floor, and the exterior walls were plastered, leaving only the pediment unchanged. The anonymous writer of the caption, who had obviously seen the building before the changes, mentions a legend about the temple of Perkūnas. He describes it correctly as Gothic, on the basis of its stylistic unity, the brickwork, and the coloured bricks (probably glazed) of the gable. It was believed that the structure had been a church, built by craftsmen in the time of the Crusades.

Text author Rūta Janonienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album RES PUBLICA (2018). Compiler and author Rūta Janonienė
Expositions: "The Age of Romanticism", 11 September 2019 – 6 August 2020, Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curator Rūta Janonienė.

Periodical TYGODNIK ILLUSTROWANY (Warsaw).

Woodcut after Michał Elwiro Andriolli.

The Perkūnas House in Kaunas is one of the town’s most famous Gothic structures. Its impressive architectural forms attracted lovers of history and artists in the 19th century. Michał Elwiro Andriolli (1836–1893) may have drawn the Perkūnas House before the 1863 uprising, or after it when he lived in Kaunas in hiding from the police. It is interesting that after 1843, the building housed a drama theatre, and the operas Halka and The Haunted Manor by Stanisław Moniuszko were staged here in Kaunas in 1861 for the first time. Andriolli may have been in the audience. He arrived in Warsaw from exile in 1871, and soon started contributing to the weekly Tygodnik Illustrowany as an illustrator. A woodcut by the Warsaw artist Józef Sosiński (?–1881), based on this drawing of the Perkūnas House, was one of his first works to be published (No 221, 23 March 1872, p. 156). The text accompanying the illustration emphasised the historical significance of the drawing, because this old piece of Kaunas’ history and culture had lost its original appearance by this time: in 1865, a separate flat was built in the ground floor, and the exterior walls were plastered, leaving only the pediment unchanged. The anonymous writer of the caption, who had obviously seen the building before the changes, mentions a legend about the temple of Perkūnas. He describes it correctly as Gothic, on the basis of its stylistic unity, the brickwork, and the coloured bricks (probably glazed) of the gable. It was believed that the structure had been a church, built by craftsmen in the time of the Crusades.

Text author Rūta Janonienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album RES PUBLICA (2018). Compiler and author Rūta Janonienė
Expositions: "The Age of Romanticism", 11 September 2019 – 6 August 2020, Lithuanian Art Centre TARTLE (Užupio St. 40, Vilnius). Curator Rūta Janonienė.