alternatehistory.com
Special Chapter: Baroque in Lithuania
Quick special chapter to not kill this timeline yet.
Possibly originating it's name from the Portuguese word "barroco", meaning "imperfect pearl" (though this origin has been disputed), and originating from Italy, the Baroque was a movement in arts and culture that replaced the Renaissance by the end of the 16th century. Much like it's predecessor, Baroque was heavily influenced by ancient Greek and Roman art, though also adding the features of the Medieval Era and the Renaissance itself to the mix. Although associated by many with pompastic and often exaggerated motion, simple to understand, yet often overdesigned, the Baroque actually holds a deep history within it's motifs and thought.
The end of the 16th century marked the collapse of Renaissance thought. The discovery of Vespucia, the Heliocentric system - pioneered by the Italian scientist Alberto Cogliatti, who later fought in a long battle with the Church over his discoveries - and then further advances in astronomy and navigation moved the borders of the Universe far back. To the Baroque man, it had become clear that it is impossible for a mortal human to comprehend the vastness of the Universe, not to mention try to control it and shape of like the Humanists wanted. In addition, the view on religion had also changed. The Reformation, pioneered by the Renaissance, threw Europe into a string of bloody wars and inhumane tragedies, and the view of God as a vengeful, cruel overlord was reflected in the arts and literature of the time. The phrase "memento mori" ("remember, you'll die"), brought to popularity from the Antiquity, can easily describe the mentality of the Baroque era.
Drama, tension and an exaggerated appeal to the senses to create grandeur are the primary qualities of Baroque art.
Pyotr Krashevsky, "Naturemorte", 1622
This art movement reached Lithuania around the same time as the rest of Europe - right after the end of the Twenty Years' War, brought to the nation by Lithuanian students in Western universities, especially architecture. The grandeur of Baroque architecture was supported and appreciated by both the Kings of Lithuania and the Lithuanian nobility, which saw it as a way to show off their wealth and power, and thus Baroque architecture quickly established a hold in the Kingdom. One of the most famous architectural wonders of Lithuanian Baroque is the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Sobor in Vilnius, funded by Martynas Augustas Pacas and finished in 1658. It is considered to be one of the most beautiful churches in Eastern Europe, and was placed among the "Seven Wonders of the Modern Era" by a public poll in 1986.
All was quiet on the literature front, however. Lithuania did not produce great poets or writers during the Baroque, certainly not on the same rank as the Visegradian Matthias Casimir Sarbiewski, even nicknamed the "Sarmatian Horace", nor the French Francois Excellier-Flammant, whose groundbreaking novel "Sir Roland" paints a satirical take on the Medieval knight novel genre. Lithuania did have local authors, however. The most well-known one is Emerikas Senkevičius, the son of a minor noble, who broke through his path to fame writing panegyrical poems to Albertas Jogaila I during the years 1624-1627. Out of them, the most well known is "Albertomachia", about the King's campaign against Sweden in the later stages of the conflict.
A peculiar work from the Lithuanian Baroque is Martynas Augustas Pacas's "Journey to the South", published in the year 1609. As a young and fiercely religious man, this soon-to-be great magnate went on a long journey to the Middle East to visit the many Christian holy sites scattered across the region - first Constantinople, then Palestine, where he reached Jerusalem itself - and kept a diary during the whole trip. The diary turned out to be so interesting and peculiar to his people, most of whom had never even seen the Middle East, that Pacas agreed to release it as a Latin book, which, due to it's quick spread across Europe, was one of the first Lithuanian "best-sellers", in a way. Among the many readers of the book was Prince Albertas Jogaila, who, after becoming King, reportedly kept the book along with him through all of his campaigns and even cited some of it's passages to his camp during the war with the Ottomans.
To Lithuanian art historians, the Baroque is like an intermediary between the first Lithuanian works in the Renaissance and the incoming light of the Enlightenment and beyond, but it is still remembered as an era of achievements.
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So, I've finished a portion of my Lithuanian translation, I'm thinking of continuing the timeline itself soon. There's a lot of things I've planned out, going as far as the 18th and 19th centuries, and I'm sure it will be exciting.
While we're in this "hibernation period", let's discuss! What are some of your predictions for this timeline? Anything you think or hope will happen sometime down the line? Or maybe you read me like a mirror and can already tell my plans?
Possibly originating it's name from the Portuguese word "barroco", meaning "imperfect pearl" (though this origin has been disputed), and originating from Italy, the Baroque was a movement in arts and culture that replaced the Renaissance by the end of the 16th century. Much like it's predecessor, Baroque was heavily influenced by ancient Greek and Roman art, though also adding the features of the Medieval Era and the Renaissance itself to the mix. Although associated by many with pompastic and often exaggerated motion, simple to understand, yet often overdesigned, the Baroque actually holds a deep history within it's motifs and thought.
The end of the 16th century marked the collapse of Renaissance thought. The discovery of Vespucia, the Heliocentric system - pioneered by the Italian scientist Alberto Cogliatti, who later fought in a long battle with the Church over his discoveries - and then further advances in astronomy and navigation moved the borders of the Universe far back. To the Baroque man, it had become clear that it is impossible for a mortal human to comprehend the vastness of the Universe, not to mention try to control it and shape of like the Humanists wanted. In addition, the view on religion had also changed. The Reformation, pioneered by the Renaissance, threw Europe into a string of bloody wars and inhumane tragedies, and the view of God as a vengeful, cruel overlord was reflected in the arts and literature of the time. The phrase "memento mori" ("remember, you'll die"), brought to popularity from the Antiquity, can easily describe the mentality of the Baroque era.
Drama, tension and an exaggerated appeal to the senses to create grandeur are the primary qualities of Baroque art.
Pyotr Krashevsky, "Naturemorte", 1622
All was quiet on the literature front, however. Lithuania did not produce great poets or writers during the Baroque, certainly not on the same rank as the Visegradian Matthias Casimir Sarbiewski, even nicknamed the "Sarmatian Horace", nor the French Francois Excellier-Flammant, whose groundbreaking novel "Sir Roland" paints a satirical take on the Medieval knight novel genre. Lithuania did have local authors, however. The most well-known one is Emerikas Senkevičius, the son of a minor noble, who broke through his path to fame writing panegyrical poems to Albertas Jogaila I during the years 1624-1627. Out of them, the most well known is "Albertomachia", about the King's campaign against Sweden in the later stages of the conflict.
A peculiar work from the Lithuanian Baroque is Martynas Augustas Pacas's "Journey to the South", published in the year 1609. As a young and fiercely religious man, this soon-to-be great magnate went on a long journey to the Middle East to visit the many Christian holy sites scattered across the region - first Constantinople, then Palestine, where he reached Jerusalem itself - and kept a diary during the whole trip. The diary turned out to be so interesting and peculiar to his people, most of whom had never even seen the Middle East, that Pacas agreed to release it as a Latin book, which, due to it's quick spread across Europe, was one of the first Lithuanian "best-sellers", in a way. Among the many readers of the book was Prince Albertas Jogaila, who, after becoming King, reportedly kept the book along with him through all of his campaigns and even cited some of it's passages to his camp during the war with the Ottomans.
To Lithuanian art historians, the Baroque is like an intermediary between the first Lithuanian works in the Renaissance and the incoming light of the Enlightenment and beyond, but it is still remembered as an era of achievements.
---
So, I've finished a portion of my Lithuanian translation, I'm thinking of continuing the timeline itself soon. There's a lot of things I've planned out, going as far as the 18th and 19th centuries, and I'm sure it will be exciting.
While we're in this "hibernation period", let's discuss! What are some of your predictions for this timeline? Anything you think or hope will happen sometime down the line? Or maybe you read me like a mirror and can already tell my plans?
- Augenis
- Word Count: 850