5th February at 2 p.m. Joana Vitkutė, doctoral student of Art History and Theory, will defend her dissertation „The Expression of the Concept of Childhood in Lithuanian Art from the Mid-18th to the First Half of the 19th Century“ (Art History and Theory H 003) at Vilnius Academy of Arts, 102 auditorium (Malūnų str. 3, Vilnius).
The dissertation defence meeting will be held in Lithuanian.
The institution where the dissertation was prepared: Vilnius Academy of Arts.
Doctoral supervisor:
Dr. Aistė Paliušytė-Lugovojienė (Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, Humanities, Art History and Theory H 003)
The dissertation will be defended in front of the Joint Academic Board of Art History and Theory of Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuanian Culture Research Institute and Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre:
Chairperson:
Prof. Dr. Helmutas Šabasevičius (Vilnius Academy of Arts, Humanities, Art History and Theory H 003)
Members:
Dr. habil. Rūta Janonienė (Humanities, Art History and Theory H 003)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aušra Vasiliauskienė (Vytautas Magnus University, Humanities, Art History and Theory H 003)
Dr. Jolita Sarcevičienė (Lithuanian Institute of History, Humanities, History H 005)
Dr. habil. Ewa Manikowska (Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Art (Poland), Humanities, Art History and Theory H 003)
Abstract
During the Late Renaissance and Baroque periods, the conventions characteristic of classical old children’s portraiture became established in official representations of children, which largely followed the compositional schemes of adult portraits. Such works primarily served to reinforce family status and embody the expectations placed upon the child. Consequently, little room was left in these portraits for the expression of individuality – let alone the childishness – of the young sitter, who was often depicted as a miniature adult or even artificially ‘aged’ by the artist. As in the real lives of children at the time, childhood itself was often ‘accelerated’ or deliberately concealed. Thus, in portraits of noble offspring, one can sense a clear tension where a child’s inherent childishness clashes with the adult role prematurely imposed upon them.
Nevertheless, significant changes emerged in children’s portraiture from the mid-18th to the first half of the 19th century, reflecting broader shifts in the perception of childhood. Under the influence of Enlightenment thinkers, and later of the worldviews of pre-Romanticism and Romanticism, childhood came to be defined – and soon also established in theoretical thought –as one of the most important, valuable, and unique stages of human life, worthy of considerable and special attention. As a result, artists increasingly sought to capture natural, childlike qualities in their subjects, emphasising the innate innocence of childhood. In other words, both in public life and art, the child gradually became a child, i.e. the way we perceive them today.
The aim of the dissertation is to problematise artistic Lithuanian studies of childhood –which until now have been based primarily on formal and iconographic analysis – by systematically linking them to the social processes that occurred in the 18th to early 19th century. In Europe, this period symbolically marked the turn of the century; in Lithuania, it also coincided with a significant era of political changes. The dissertation examines how the evolving concept of childhood – recorded in contemporary educational texts and practices – was manifested in secular children’s portraits created in the historical Lithuanian lands (or painted abroad on commission by local nobility) in the mid-18th and the first half of the 19th century. Although the main focus is on painting, works in other media – such as graphic art, sculpture, wall painting, and amateur art (home drawing) – are also considered, with the aim of presenting as comprehensive a panorama as possible of the Lithuanian ‘discovery of childhood’.
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Unknown artist, Portrait of a Boy, 1798, oil on canvas.
Lithuanian National Museum of Art, T 9119.
