Prof. dr. Giedrė Mickūnaitė
giedre.mickunaite[at]vda.lt
Art historian, medievalist
Research interests: art and culture of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 14th–16th C., written sources of art history, theories of art history, culture of memory
Giedrė Mickūnaitė received BA in Art History at the Vilnius Academy of Arts and MA as well as PhD in Medieval Studies at the Central European University in Budapest. Since 2003 she works at the Department of Art History and Theory and since 2018 at the Art Research Institute of the Vilnius Academy of Arts. In 2019–21 she was a Senate member of VAA. Her research inquires into the relation of pictorial and textual imagery asking about vocabulary of visual experience and temporal dimensions of images. Focusing on late medieval and early modern period, Mickūnaitė is interested in the work of memory in providing cultural legacy and inquires into oblivion and absence as vehicles of cultural production. Mickūnaitė has held fellowships at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, the Warburg Institute in London, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, Centres for Advanced Studies “Collegium Budapest” and “Sofia”, the Dumbarton Oaks Research Institute of the Harvard University in Washington, DC, Landis&Gyr cultural residence in Zug, and International Cultural Centre in Krakow. In 2014–2016, she was associated researcher at the ERC funded Project “Jagiellonians: Dynasty, Memory and Identity in Central Europe” at the University of Oxford.
Since 2005 she is the member of Lithuanian Art Historians Society. In 2009–2015 she chaired the Humanities and Social Sciences section of the Lithuanian Research Awards Committee, in 2011–2014 was a member of State Commission of Cultural Heritage, since 2018 she is a member of Research Council of Lithuania and Mecenas Council of Lithuania.
In addition to teaching and supervision, Mickūnaitė publishes regularly in Lithuanian and international scholarly press, works as national and international research expert in humanities, acts as museum advisor and exhibition curator.
RESEARCH PROJECTS
Project leader, “Face, Trace, Grace: the Adoration of the Magi Altarpiece (1514/22) from Drysviaty,” Supported by: Thesaurus Poloniae Programme of the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Poland (2021)
Project leader, “Maniera Greca in Europe’s Catholic East. On Visual and Verbal Translations,” Institution: Vilnius Academy of Arts; Supported by: Lithuanian Research Council (2016–2017)
Participant, “Jagiellonians: Dynasty, Memory and Identity in Central Europe” Institution: University of Oxford; Supported by: European Research Council (2014–2016)
Project leader, “Maniera Greca in Europe’s Catholic East” Institution: Vilnius Academy of Arts; Supported by: Lithuanian Research Council (2014–2015)
Project leader, “The Parish Church of Trakai in the Fifteenth Century: Reconstruction of Architecture and Wall Paintings,” Institutions: Vilnius Academy of Arts, Church Heritage Museum of the Vilnius Diocese Supported by: Lithuanian Research Council and Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania (2012–2013)
Participant “Medievalism and Archaic Origins: Histoire Croisee of the Nineteenth-Century Europe”, Hosted by: Collegium Budapest, Budapest Hungary; supported by Trecentenary Foundation of Swedbank (2011)
Participant „Unfolding Narratives: Art Histories in East-Central Europe after 1989“, leading institution: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; partners Estonian Academy of Art, Masaryk Univeristy in Brno, New Europe College in Bucharest; supported by the Getty Foundation (2010–2011)
Participant “Art History and Visual Studies in Europe,” Teeside University, UK; Supported by: European Science Foundation (2009–2011)
Project leader, „Synagogues in Lithuania. A Catalogue,“ Institutions: Vilnius Academy of Arts, Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Centre for Studies of the Culture and History of Eastern European Jews, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University; Supported by: Lithuanian State Science and Studies Foundation, the Cahnman Foundation (2006–2008).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2023: Maniera Greca in Europe’s Catholic East: On Identities of Images in Lithuania and Poland (1380s–1720s), Central European Medieval Studies (Amsterdam Univertsity Press). DOI: 10.5117/9789462982666
2022: „Bizantinė dailė pagonių rezidencijose: Krėvos ir Medininkų pilių bokštų sienų tapyba“ [Byzantine art in pagan residencies: wall paintings in the towers of Kreva and Medininkai castles], Meno istorijos studijos 11, Objektas ir dekoras: paveldas, procesai, kontekstai (2022), p. 45–60.
2022: „Albrechto Dürerio sapno realizmas“ [The realism of Albrecht Dürer’s dream], Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, vol. 106, Vizijos ir sapnai [Visions and dreams] ed. Rūta Janonienė (Vilnius: VDA leidykla), 251–260; DOI: 10.37522/aaav.105.2022.104
2021: [book review] “Jūratė Kiaupienė, Between Rome and Byzantium. The Golden Age of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s Political Culture. Second Half of the Fifteenth Century to First Half of the Seventeenth Century, translated by Jade Will, Lithuanian Studies without Borders. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2019,” Canadian-American Slavic Studies 55 (2021), 164–168; DOI:10.30965/22102396-05502010
2021: “Words for Images: on perceptions of ‘Greek manner’ in Lithuania and Poland,” in The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: History, Memory, Legacy, eds. Andrzej Chwalba and Krzysztof Zamorski (London: Routledge, 2021), p. 60–137.
2021: “‘The Gods were moved to laughter’ or the Other Face of Sigismund Augustus’ II Medal,” XI Baltic Medal Triennial: Medal Art in Poland and Lithuania – 500 Years (Vilnius: Lietuvos nacionalinis muziejus; Toruń: Artistic Association “Otwarte”), 112–115.
2020: “Religious Debate and Visual Compromise: Interpreting Byzantine Murals in Lithuania and Poland,” Studia historica Brunensia 2019, 66.2 (2020): 127–157; DOI: 10.5817/SHB2019-2-9
2020: “Bisonomachia in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: from Myth to Chivalric Spectacle,” Latvijas Zinātņu Akadēmijas Vēstis, 73.2 (2020): 112–123.
2020: “Kiek juoko dievams visagaliams!” arba kita Žygimanto Augusto medalio pusė” [‘The Gods were moved to laughter’ or the other face of Sigismund Augustus’ medal], Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, vol. 96, Kaukė ir veidas: atvaizdo istorijos ir teorijos aspektai [Mask and face: aspects of image history and theory], ed. Tojana Račiūnaitė (Vilnius: VDA leidykla, 2020), 20–48.
2020: Дзярновiч, Алег; Mickūnaitė, Giedrė. “Сценапic Крэўскага замка: пытаннi паходжання i датавання” [Murals of the Kreva castle: on provenance and dating], in Крэва: гісторыя; археалогія, культурная спадчына: зборнiк навуковых артыкулаў (Мiнск: Беларуская навука), 160–208.
2018: “Our Foreign Traitors and Redeemers: Remembering Jagiellonians in Lithuania,” in Remembering the Jagiellonians, ed. Natalia Nowakowska, Remembering the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds (London: Routledge), 28–48.
2018: “Vaizdiniai ir žodiniai bizantinės tapybos registrai. Trakų bažnyčios atvejis” [Visual and verbal registers of the Byzantine wall paintings in the parish church of Trakai], Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, vol. 90, Po Trakų Dievo Motinos karūna [Under the wreath of Our Lady of Trakai], ed. Mindaugas Paknys (Vilnius: VDA leidykla), 49–70.
2018: [book review] “Patronat artystyczny Jagiellonów, ed. Marek Walczak and Piotr Węcowski, Cracow: Societas Vistulana, 2015, 420 pp., Studia Jagiellonica, vol. 1”, Kwartalnik Historyczny, 125.2, 166–172.
2017: “United in Blood, Divided by Faith: Elena Ivanovna and Aleksander Jagiellończyk,” in Frictions and Failures. Cultural Encounters in Crisis, ed. Almut Bues, Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau. Quellen und Studien (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz), 181–200.
2016: “Trakų bizantinė tapyba ir antroji pietų slavų įtakos banga” [Byzantine paintings in Trakai and the second wave of South Slavic influence], in Dailės kūrinys – istorijos šaltinis [Art work as a historical source], ed. Skirmantė Smilingytė-Žeimienė (Vilnius: LKTI), 8–41.
2014: “Imagining the Real: Material Evidence and Participatory Past in Nineteenth-Century Lithuania,” in Histoire Croisée of Nineteenth Century Medievalism, eds. Patick Geary and Gábor Klaniczay, vol. 2, Manufacturing a Past for the Present, eds. János Bak, Patrick Geary and Gábor Klaniczay (Leiden: Brill), 267–286.
2014: “Tikrumo link: Trakų Dievo Motinos paveikslo pri(si)taikymas Naujiesiems laikams” (Towards authenticity: the Early Modern adjustments of the image of the Trakai Mother of God], Dailės istorijos studijos, vol. 6, Vaizdo kontrolė [Image control], ed. Erika Grigoravičienė (Vilnius: LKTI), 10–33.
2013: “Stebuklingasis Dievo Motinos atvaizdas ir „graikiškos“ tapybos tradicija Trakų parapinėje bažnyčioje” [The miracle-working image of the Mother of God and tradition of “Greek” painting in the parish church of Trakai], Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, vol. 69, Kultiniai atvaizdai Lietuvos Didžiojoje Kunigaikštystėje: importas ir sklaida [Cult images in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Import and Dissemination], ed. Tojana Račiūnaitė (Vilnius: VDA leidykla), 47–64.
2013: “Das Bild der Muttergottes in Wilna,” in Religiöse Erinnerungsorte in Ostmitteleuropa: Konstitution und Konkurrenz im nationen- und epochenübergreifenden Zugriff, eds. Joachim Bahlcke, Stefan Rohdewald and Thomas Wünsch (Berlin: Akademie Verlag), 377–383.
2013: “The Gaze of Power, the Act of Obedience: Interpreting Byzantine Wall Paintings in Trakai, Lithuania,” in Images and Objects in Ritual Practices in Medieval and Early Modern Northern and Central Europe, eds. Krista Kodres and Anu Mänd (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing), 105–121.
2013: “Maniera Graeca in Europe’s Catholic East. Representation, Imagination and Tradition: A Case Study of the Parish Church of Trakai in Lithuania,” Ikon 6, Visions, ed. Marina Viscelja-Matijašić (2013): 141–154.
2012: “Bažnyčia ir pilis XV amžiaus Trakų miestovaizdyje: bizantinės sienų tapybos ir bažnyčios architektūros interpretacija” [The church and the castle in the townscape of Trakai: an interpretation of wall paintngs and architecture], Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, vols. 65–66, Lietuvos kultūros karališkasis dėmuo: įvaizdžiai, simboliai, reliktai, eds. Jolita Liškevičienė and Gabija Surdokaitė (Vilnius: VDA leidykla), 93–106.
2012: Krista Kodres, Giedrė Mickūnaitė and Stella Pelše, “Cultures of Interruptions. Art History in the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,” in Art History and Visual Studies in Europe: Transnational Discourses and National Frameworks, eds. Matthew Rampley, etc., Brill’s Studies on Art, Art History, and Intellectual History 212/4 (Leiden: Brill), 249–274.
2012: Dailėtyra: teorijos metodai, praktikos. Vadovėlis [Art history: theories, methods, practices. Student manual], ed. Giedrė Mickūnaitė (Vilnius: VDA leidykla).
2012, 2010: Synagogues in Lithuania. A Catalogue, eds. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, Sergey Kravtsov, Vladimir Levin, Giedrė Mickūnaitė, Jurgita Šiaučiūnaitė-Verbickienė, 2 vols. (Vilnius: VAA Press).
2011: “Greek” Paintings in the Parish Church of Trakai: Picturing Belief and Spreading Faith in Late Medieval Lithuania,” in Tyrnovska knizhova shkola, vol. 9, Tyrnovo i ideyata za khristiyanskiya universalizm XII–XV vek (Veliko Tyrnovo: Universitetsko izdatelstvo „Sv. sv. Kiril i Metodij“), 659–678.
2010: “Trakų parapinės bažnyčios restauravimas: atradimai, praradimai, vertinimai” [The restoration of the parish church of Trakai: discoveries, losses, considerations], in Atrasti Vilnių. Skiriama Vlado Drėmos 100-mečiui [Discover Vilnius. Dedicated to the centenary of Vladas Drėma], ed. Giedrė Jankevičiūtė (Vilnius: VDA leidykla), 242–251.
2010: “Gediminas”, “Kaunas”, “Lithuania”, “Lithuanian Metrica”, “Lithuanian Statutes”, “Mindaugas”, “Trakai”, “Vilnius”, in Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages, ed. Robert E. Bjork (Oxford: Oxford University Press), s.v.
2009: “Maniera Graeca in Europe’s Catholic East: Byzantine Paintings in the Parish Church of Trakai, Lithuania,” Ikonotheca 22, East Meets West: at the Crossroads of Early Modern Europe, eds. Grażyna Jurkowlaniec and Jeannie J. Łabno, 41–53.
2009: “Disguised Nationhood: Imagined Middle Ages in the Arts of the Soviet Lithuania,” in Gebrauch und Missbrauch des Mitelalters, 19.–21. Jahrhundert / Uses and Abuses of the Middle Ages: 19th–21st Century / Usages et Mésusages du Moyen Age du XIXe au XXI siècle, eds. János M. Bak, Jörg Barnut, Pierre Monnet and Bernard Schneidmüller, Mittelalter Studien 17 (München: Wilhelm Fink), 313–323.
2009: “Didžiojo kunigaikščio medžioklė: pasakojimas, vaizdas, alegorijos” [The grand ducal hunt: narrative, image, and allegories], Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, vol. 55, Lietuvos dvarai: kultūros paveldo tyrinėjimai [Lithuanian manors: studies in cultural heritage], eds. Algė Andriulytė and Rasa Butvilaitė (Vilnius: VDA leidykla), 7–22.
2008: Vytautas Didysis. Valdovo įvaizdis (Vytautas the Great: the ruler’s image) (Vilnius: VDA leidykla).
2008: “Freska ‘Nukryžiuotasis su Švč. Mergele Marija ir šv. evangelistu Jonu’ Vilniaus katedros kriptoje: kas, kaip, kam, kodėl?” [Wall painting ‘Crucifixtion with the Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist’ in the crypt of the Vilnius Cathedral: who, how, for who, and why?], in Pamaldumas Išganytojui Lietuvos kultūroje [Devotion to the Saviour in Lithuanian culture], eds. Gabija Surdokaitė and Liudas Jovaiša (Vilnius: KFMI), 128–140.
2008: “The Crucifixion from the Vilnius Cathedral: Integration of Faith and Translation of Skill,” in Art and the Church: Religious Art and Architecture in the Baltic Region in the 13th–18th Centuries / Kunst und Kirche: Kirkliche Kunst und Architectur in der baltischen Region im 13.–18 Jahrhundert, eds. Krista Kodres and Merike Kurisoo (Tallin: Eesti Kunstakademia), 57–67.
2007: “The Mergence of Orthodox and Catholic Artistic Traditions in the Painting of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Two Case Studies),” in Litauen und Ruthenien. Studien zu einer transkulturellen Kommunikationsregion (15.–18. Jahrhundert) / Lithuania and Ruthenia. Studies of a Transcultural Communication Zone (15th–18th Centuries), eds. Stefan Rohdewald, David Frick and Stefan Wiederkehr, Forshungen zur osteuropäischen Geschichte (Wiesbaden: Harassowitz Verlag), 350–64.
2006: Making a Great Ruler: Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania (Budapest and New York: CEU Press).
2005: “Making Local Global and the Other Way Around: Art Historical Research in Lithuania,” Acta Historiae Artium Balticae 1, Artistic Identity, 16–27.
2005: “Medievalism in Early-Modern Art of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania,” Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte im Baltikum, Homburger Gespräch 2003. Heft 20, 89–109.
2004: “Immitatio viri sancti arba Vaišelgos pėdsakų beieškant” [Immitatio viri sancti or searching for Vaišelga’s footsteps], Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, vol. 35 Pirmavaizdis ir kartotė. Vaizdinių transformacijos tyrimai [A prototype and a copy: research on the transformation of images], eds. Gabija Surdokaitė and Marius Iršėnas, (Vilnius: VDA leidykla), 19–26.
2004: “Empire as Nostalgia or a la recherche de terres perdues,” Ab Imperio 4, 523–28.
2002: “Motiejus Stryjkowskis apie Lucko suvažiavimą. Tekstas, vaizdas, kontekstas” [Maciej Stryjkowski about the meeting in Lutsk: text, image, context], Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, vol. 27, Vaizdas ir pasakojimas [Image and narrative], ed. Ieva Pleikienė (Vilnius: VDA leidykla), 7–21.
2002: “Bizantija ir Lietuvos Didžioji kunigaikštystė: įtakos, skoliniai, idėjos. Du pavyzdžiai: Trakų salos pilies rūmų sieninė tapyba ir ‘Vytauto pagyrimas’” [Byzantium and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: influences, borrowings, ideas. Two case studies: the wall paintings from the palace of Trakai island-castle and the ‘Panegyric to Vytautas’], Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, vol. 25, Paveikslas ir knyga: LDK dailės tyrimai ir šaltiniai [Image and book: studies and sources of the art of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania], ed. Tojana Račiūnaitė (Vilnius: VDA leidykla), 9–36.
2002: “From Pamphlet to Origin Theory: The Establishment of Lithuanian Dynastic Tradition,” in The Medieval Chronicle II. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Medieval Chronicle Driebergen/Utrecht 16-21 July 1999, ed. Erik Kooper, Costerus New Series 144 (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi), 156–65.
2002: “Išrankioji atmintis arba prisiminimai apie Vytautą, ‘galingiausią ir žiauriausią valdovą, kurį Lietuva yra turėjusi’” [Fastidious memory or reminescenses about Vytautas, ‘the most prominent and the most cruel ruler Lithuania ever had’], Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, vol. 24, Tipas ir individas Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės kultūroje [Type and individual in the culture of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania], eds. Jolita Liškevičienė and Tojana Račiūnaitė, (Vilnius: VDA leidykla), 109–26.
2001: “Ruler, Protector, and a Fairy Prince: The Everlasting Deeds of Grand Duke Vytautas as Related by the Lithuanian Tatars and Karaites,” in Oral History of the Middle Ages: The Spoken Word in Context, eds. Gerhard Jaritz and Michael Richter (Krems and Budapest: Medium Aevum Quotidianum and CEU Medievalia), 79–87.
1999: „A Medieval Parade ?”, in … The Man of Many Devices, Who Wandered Full Many Ways … Festschrift in Honour of János M. Bak, eds. Balázs Nagy and Marcell Sebők (Budapest: CEU Press), 277–280.
1999: „The Court of Vytautas: An Example of Wall-paintings in the Palace of Trakai Island-castle”, Annual of Medieval Studies at CEU, 1997–1998, ed. Katalin Szende (Budapest: CEU), 249–264.
1998: „Features of Royalty in the Court of Mindaugas and His Successors”, Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, vol. 14, Istorija ir elitinės kultūros teigtys, ed. Vidmantas Jankauskas (Vilnius: VDA leidykla), 8–42.
Conference Papers
2022: Into the woods: on creative ways of being with Lithuanian forest. IFZO Annual Conference 2022 „Baltic Sea Region in Exchange. Transformations between Conflict and Cooperation“, Germany, 2022 07 07–09.
2022: The History of Lithuanian Art within the Void between the Dos and Donts of Global Scholarhip and Local Evidence. The 2022 Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) Conference at Univeristy of Washington „Baltic Studies at a Crossroads“, USA, 2022 05 22–27.
2021: Trice a Foreigner: on words about and world around Helena of Muscovy, Grand Duchess of Lithuania. International conference „Conflict after Compromise: Regulating Tensions in Multi-Confessional Societies in the Fifteenth Century“, Czech Republic, 2021 11 11–12.
2019: „Bisonomachia”: From Myth to Spectacle. Internationale wissenschaftliche Konferenz „Kulturlandschaft: Inhalte, Wahrnehmung, Transformation Das Baltikum in der europäischen Gartenkultur“ [International scientific conference 'Cultural Landscape: Content, Perception, Transformation The Baltic States in European Garden Culture'], Latvia, 2019 09 14–17.
2018: Cultural denial in practice: Helena of Muscovy & Alexander Jagiellon (1495). Conference „Renaissance Royal Weddings & Cultural Production“, United Kingdom, 2018 04 26–27.
