From February, 17 till June,17, 2012 From February, 17 till June,17, 2012
From February 17, 2012 the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus will present four Slutsk belts from the collection of the Lithuanian Art Museum in Vilnius for the first time. Many visitors remember the exhibition of silk belts from Moscow Historical Museum which ran in our Museum in 2008 – 2010. Some visitors saw then Slutsk belts widely known from literature for the first time. It happened so that these rare museum pieces are presented with individual monuments in museum collections of Belarus unlike in Russia, Lithuania, Poland and the Ukraine. Taking into consideration strong interest of the public in the national heritage, we would like to further show belts from various collections in our museum.
Slutsk Belts
Slutsk belts are globally considered to be the Belarusian national relic as a unique hand-weaving type and a nation identity symbol. Skillfully made weaving masterpieces were created during the mid 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries in local factories, and Slutsk factory was the most famous of them.
Belts from the collection of Lithuanian Art Museum are presented in the exhibition (Vilnius).
Belts were an important part of the male dress; they served as a symbol of their owner’s power and wealth level and accompanied a person in various life situations. A portrait by Walenty Wańkowicz (1800–1842) depicting Slonim nobility leader Wojciech Pusłowski in the traditional szlachta dress with a Slutsk-type belt is exhibited. Here a spectator can get an idea of the way of wearing the belt and its decorative role in the szlachta dress.
Works by masters from the Ottoman Empire, Persia (Iran) and China were believed to be the best ones. Imported belts were rare and expensive; thus, it became necessary to found local factories (“persyarnyas”) to produce similar things. In 1758 prince Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł invited weaver Yan Madzharsky (? – 1800 or 1801) from Stanislav (now the town of Ivano-Frankovsk, the Ukraine) to work at first in Nyasvizh and then in Slutsk factory. The Armenian master who was born in Istanbul brought Eastern tradition of silk belt manufacture to Rzeczpospolita and taught the local weavers his art.
In the course of time exotic Eastern bouquets were changed by local flora motives – easily recognizable forget-me-nots, cornflowers, poppies and bell-flowers. The belt was decorated with thrum-ends, and the weaving label containing the woven name of the master (“Yan Mazharsky”, “Leo Mazharsky”) or manufacture place (“Slutsk” or “In the town of Slutsk”) was put in the margins. From 1781 till 1807 the factory was rented by Yan Madzharsky’s son – Leon Madzharsky (1740–1811). He developed and improved decorative and color pattern of the belts and successfully continued their manufacture. The exhibition presents two belts of Yan Madzharsky’s work age (1767–1780). One belt contains his label and two belts have label “Leo Mazharsky” with golden or silver threads interwoven. Exquisite color range, thin and complicated drawing of flower bouquets and oval cartouches covered with vegetable plants with flower wreaths inside are typical for the belts.
In the result of the final division of Rzeczpospolita (1795) and annexation of ethnic Belarusian lands to the Russian Empire the range of the Slutsk manufacture products was reduced. After uprising of 1831 wearing the traditional szlachta dress became a symbol of political disloyalty. And Slutsk belts were no longer used. The factory closed in 1848. It existed mostly thanks to the belt production. In the second half of the 19th century belts became an object for collecting.
Still in the manufacture prosperity age there were founded factories that produced belts after the Slutsk patterns. Armenian Paskhalis Yakubovich (? – 1816 or 1817) was the most famous belt producer in Poland. The Paschal Lamb with the holy banner was the weaving label of his factory. Similar belts were produced in the Ukraine, France and Austria.
Slutsk belts are a unique element of the national art culture. Thanks to the high-level artistic taste and natural sense of color Belarusian masters made a great contribution to European applied art history. With their flawless design harmony and peculiar exquisite pattern, Slutsk belts are one of the greatest achievements of the world art culture.
WALENTIJ WAŃKOWICZ (1800–1842)
PORTRAIT OF WOJCIECH PUSŁOWSKI (1762–1833)
NOBILITY LEADER OF THE SLONIM UYEZD. BEFORE 1833
Oil on canvas. 102x82
Lithuanian Art Museum. Vilnius
“Kontusz Elder”
This is the first painting by Walentij Wańkowicz that has been exhibited in Belarus since 1919. The portrait of Wojciech Pusłowski could be commissioned to young Walentij Wańkowicz both in Wilno where Walentij Wańkowicz studied at university (1818–1824) and in Saint-Petersburg where the artist continued his education in the Academy of Arts (till 1829). Both Wilno and Saint-Petersburg were repeatedly visited by Wojciech Pusłowski due to his active social activities. The portrait could be also painted in the Slonim land. The Pusłowski family had more than one estate there; and still being a student, Walentij Wańkowicz often visited those lands as there was born his wife Anelie from the Rastotsky family.
Wojciech Pusłowski “Szeliga” (odm.) is a representative of an ancient szlachta family of Rzech Pospolita, a famous personality in social, political and agricultural life of the Belarusian and Lithuanian lands, the nobility leader of the Slonim uyezd from 1797 till 1816 (?), owner of numerous estates in the Slonim, Kobrin, Hrodna, Pinsk, Wilno, Trakai uyezds etc of the then Northwest Kray of the Russian Empire – territories of modern Belarus and Lithuania. The most famous of them included “Peski and Albertsin and also Merechyuoschina – motherland of Tadeusz Kościuszko, and Kosova (the Pusłowski Palace restoration in Kosova will be ended in a few years).
Wojciech Pusłowski, the son of Frantsishek, a Rechitsa courtier, and Salomeya from the Harbousky family, was born in 1762 in the family estate “Peski” of the Slonim uyezd (now a village in Byarozausky district of Brest region). In 1799 he married Józefa from the Drucki-Lubiecki family. Five sons out of seven children survived (Frantsishek, Vladislav, Ksavery, Titus, Vandalin) and daughter Genowefa, in marriage Tizengauz.
Wojciech Pusłowski inherited only a good name and a small family estate. But the successful marriage brought him useful relations and at the end of life he owned several thousand peasants and a good capital; he bought state estates for small sums of money, built various factories (cloth, paper factories), and opened enterprises (producing turpentine, alcoholic beverages). The active nobleman did not also forget spiritual values: he headed Wilno Charity Society, contributed money for repairs and support of churches and also for construction of churches. In Olshava (now a village in Byarozausky district of Brest region) St. Wojciech church with a funeral chapel was built at his expense. It was the funeral chapel where Wojciech Pusłowski was later buried.
Wojciech Pusłowski was depicted as a remarkable person – affluent, adventurous and quick in business, a dandy and a devout Christian at the same time – in the portrait by Walentij Wańkowicz. His contemporary called him “a Kontusz Elder”: “Getting ready for the daughter’s funeral, he ordered as many silk kontuszes for himself as many dresses his daughter-bride had”. The nobleman’s face, well-depicted by the artist, attracts with its inner energy, optimism, confidence. Red cross of St. Anne’s order of the 1st level was received by Wojciech Pusłowski for his financial support and supplies of the Russian army during the anti-Napoleon campaign of 1812. Honorable Russian reward on Old Polish kontusz with the rich Slutsk belt gave the artist an opportunity to depict peculiarities of the Belarusian szlachta that wished to reconcile the historical memory with a new reality in its mind.
The exhibition will run till the end of 2012.
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