St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Vilnius

Walenty Romanowicz (1911–1945), a member of the young interwar generation of Polish artists in Vilnius, and a graduate of Stephen Báthory University, did not wish to portray the usual view of the façade of the Church of St Peter and St Paul. Therefore, he introduced a compositional innovation, and put the church and the Chapel of the Lord Jesus together in his 1937 woodcut. The two-tier stone chapel used to stand in the street beyond the churchyard, on the line of the central axis of the church. The painter chose an angle of view that altered the sizes of the buildings: the distant church is small, and the chapel in the foreground is large. The two buildings are separated by the trunk of a tree, the top of which rounds off the composition neatly, without leaving any free space in the sky. The forceful and rhythmic lines, the red imprint of the coat of arms of Vilnius, and the inscription in the cartouche give the woodcut a modern decorativeness. The Chapel of the Lord Jesus was pulled down in Soviet times, during the construction of Antakalnio Street.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). 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)

Walenty Romanowicz (1911–1945), a member of the young interwar generation of Polish artists in Vilnius, and a graduate of Stephen Báthory University, did not wish to portray the usual view of the façade of the Church of St Peter and St Paul. Therefore, he introduced a compositional innovation, and put the church and the Chapel of the Lord Jesus together in his 1937 woodcut. The two-tier stone chapel used to stand in the street beyond the churchyard, on the line of the central axis of the church. The painter chose an angle of view that altered the sizes of the buildings: the distant church is small, and the chapel in the foreground is large. The two buildings are separated by the trunk of a tree, the top of which rounds off the composition neatly, without leaving any free space in the sky. The forceful and rhythmic lines, the red imprint of the coat of arms of Vilnius, and the inscription in the cartouche give the woodcut a modern decorativeness. The Chapel of the Lord Jesus was pulled down in Soviet times, during the construction of Antakalnio Street.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). 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)