Our Lady of the Gates of Dawn (Lithuania)

The architect, artist and engineer Juozapas Kamarauskas (1874–1946) was born into a family of farmers in the Širvintos district, and was educated in St Petersburg. He returned to Lithuania after the First World War and lived in Vilnius. He painted many pictures of various genres, watercolours, drawings, posters and other forms of applied graphic art. More than half his work consists of Vilnius townscapes, the streets of the Old Town, the castles and churches. Architectural features of the city are rendered in precise detail, and he recreated long-gone or rebuilt buildings that had their original appearance entirely changed, in the same precise manner, based on historical fact and fantasy.

Kamarauskas painted this picture of Our Lady of the Gates of Dawn when he was studying in St Petersburg. It might have been his respect for Lithuania’s past that induced him to create this special picture of the Virgin Mary. The work focuses attention on the silhouette of the slightly inclined head of Mary, which is well known to every Lithuanian, and the sombre look in her eyes. The silver setting of the famous picture, decorated profusely with embossed flowers, is turned into dark green floral motifs in this picture, recalling vegetation in the countryside. The chaplets of beads on her neck are fastened with two massive brooches in the form of shields, on which St Christopher and St Casimir, the patron saints of Vilnius and Lithuania, are depicted. This interpretation highlights the status of Our Lady of the Gates of Dawn as a patron of Vilnius and of all of Lithuania, and even gives her a meaning as an image of Lithuania.

Text author Dalia Vasiliūnienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album HEAVEN AND BEYOND (2016). Compiler Dalia Vasiliūnienė. Text authors Dalia Vasiliūnienė, Skaidrė Urbonienė
Expositions: “Heaven and Beyond. Works of religious art from the collection of Rolandas Valiūnas and the law firm Valiunas Ellex“, 31 May–24 September 2016, Church Heritage Museum, Vilnius (curators Dalia Vasiliūnienė, Skaidrė Urbonienė); “Académie de Vilna. Vilnius Drawing School (1866–1915)”, 5 October – 26 November 2017, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (curator Jolanta Širkaitė)

The architect, artist and engineer Juozapas Kamarauskas (1874–1946) was born into a family of farmers in the Širvintos district, and was educated in St Petersburg. He returned to Lithuania after the First World War and lived in Vilnius. He painted many pictures of various genres, watercolours, drawings, posters and other forms of applied graphic art. More than half his work consists of Vilnius townscapes, the streets of the Old Town, the castles and churches. Architectural features of the city are rendered in precise detail, and he recreated long-gone or rebuilt buildings that had their original appearance entirely changed, in the same precise manner, based on historical fact and fantasy.

Kamarauskas painted this picture of Our Lady of the Gates of Dawn when he was studying in St Petersburg. It might have been his respect for Lithuania’s past that induced him to create this special picture of the Virgin Mary. The work focuses attention on the silhouette of the slightly inclined head of Mary, which is well known to every Lithuanian, and the sombre look in her eyes. The silver setting of the famous picture, decorated profusely with embossed flowers, is turned into dark green floral motifs in this picture, recalling vegetation in the countryside. The chaplets of beads on her neck are fastened with two massive brooches in the form of shields, on which St Christopher and St Casimir, the patron saints of Vilnius and Lithuania, are depicted. This interpretation highlights the status of Our Lady of the Gates of Dawn as a patron of Vilnius and of all of Lithuania, and even gives her a meaning as an image of Lithuania.

Text author Dalia Vasiliūnienė

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album HEAVEN AND BEYOND (2016). Compiler Dalia Vasiliūnienė. Text authors Dalia Vasiliūnienė, Skaidrė Urbonienė
Expositions: “Heaven and Beyond. Works of religious art from the collection of Rolandas Valiūnas and the law firm Valiunas Ellex“, 31 May–24 September 2016, Church Heritage Museum, Vilnius (curators Dalia Vasiliūnienė, Skaidrė Urbonienė); “Académie de Vilna. Vilnius Drawing School (1866–1915)”, 5 October – 26 November 2017, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (curator Jolanta Širkaitė)