The portal of the Benedictine convent

Series ‘Old Vilnius’, 1926, fascicle II.

The first Benedictine nuns came to Vilnius from Nesvizh in 1620. The convent prospered at the end of the 17th century and in the 18th century through the support of Jan Feliks Pac, the chamberlain of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: a few of his daughters became Benedictine nuns, and brought huge benefactions with them for the convent. The convent and St Catherine’s Church gained their magnificent Late Baroque appearance in the mid-18th century. Hoppen made an engraving of the main entrance to the convent beside the façade of St Catherine’s Church. A portal with bulging and undulating forms ends with an oval window with St Benedict’s cross in a cartouche. A Benedictine nun, wearing the traditional habit of the order, is coming out through the heavy wooden door, and the onlooker suddenly meets an 18th-century resident of Vilnius.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA II (2015). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
Expositions: “Vilnius. Topophilia. Views of Vilnius from the collection of the law firm Ellex Valiunas”, 5 October – 26 November 2017, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (curator Laima Laučkaitė)

Series ‘Old Vilnius’, 1926, fascicle II.

The first Benedictine nuns came to Vilnius from Nesvizh in 1620. The convent prospered at the end of the 17th century and in the 18th century through the support of Jan Feliks Pac, the chamberlain of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: a few of his daughters became Benedictine nuns, and brought huge benefactions with them for the convent. The convent and St Catherine’s Church gained their magnificent Late Baroque appearance in the mid-18th century. Hoppen made an engraving of the main entrance to the convent beside the façade of St Catherine’s Church. A portal with bulging and undulating forms ends with an oval window with St Benedict’s cross in a cartouche. A Benedictine nun, wearing the traditional habit of the order, is coming out through the heavy wooden door, and the onlooker suddenly meets an 18th-century resident of Vilnius.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA II (2015). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
Expositions: “Vilnius. Topophilia. Views of Vilnius from the collection of the law firm Ellex Valiunas”, 5 October – 26 November 2017, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (curator Laima Laučkaitė)