Still life (Vanitas)
Author: Moraczyński Jan , 1807 - 1870
Created: 1851
Material / technique: canvas, oil.
Dimensions: 60x49 cm.
Signature: J. Moraczynski fecit 1851 (bottom left of the painting).
Jan Moraczyński (c.1807-1870) was an interesting 19th century artist, originally from the territory of the present-day Ukraine, who later spent many years studying or travelling in various European countries (he studied in Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Rome, visited St Petersburg, Warsaw, Krakow, Paris, etc.) and even spent 9 years in Vilnius (from the autumn of 1846 to the early 1856). The main events of his life are known from his autobiography, written to Juzef Ignac Kraševski. Moračinský worked in a variety of genres, but particularly appreciated religious and historical paintings, in which he sought to express deeper philosophical ideas. The artist was inclined towards theological studies, and towards the end of his life he wrote extensively on religious issues.
The Vilnius period, marked by contact with famous Romantic literary and artistic figures, was a very significant and productive period in Moraczynski's biography. The Vanitas-type still life in private collections in Lithuania, as the signature indicates, was also created while living in Vilnius and reflects the artist's inclination towards philosophical and religious reflection. In the context of Lithuanian 19th century art, this is an extremely rare work of the genre. The theory of Vilnius Romanticism emphasised the patriotic and civic content of a work of art, which is why still lifes almost disappeared from the artists' repertoire. Moračinskis, who during his studies became acquainted with the art schools of various countries, did not reject this genre, which has a deep iconographic tradition in the history of European painting. The allegorical still-life, a type of painting known since the Renaissance, was particularly popular in 17th-century Dutch painting, but it was not forgotten by artists of later times. Vanitas (Latin for "vanity") still lifes encode ideas of the transience of human life, the fragility of existence, the futility of wealth, pleasure and earthly power (the term comes from a phrase attributed to Solomon in the Bible - "vanity of vanities and all vanity" (Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas). The elements in Moraczynski's allegorical still-life are few, but each of them clearly has its own load of meaning, although they can be interpreted in different ways. With this work, Moraczynski encourages the viewer to immerse himself in the contemplation of being, life and death, because he was convinced that "an artist, like every philosopher, must first of all be independent of temporality; he must be a Christian sage to create the spirit, he must be a poet and an artist, not a sophisticated craftsman, in order to convey it in a spiritually poetic manner," the artist wrote in an article he published in 1849 (Pamiętnik naukowo literacki, 1849, no. 2, p. 44).
The conditionality of Moraczynski's composition makes it immediately clear that these are not just nicely arranged objects. Against the smooth black background, a fragment of sumptuous red drapery emerges, like a stream of blood, separating the symbolic objects composed in the foreground of the canvas from the blinding darkness of the background, probably expressing the impossibility of seeing the future. The foreground depicts the usual objects of Vanitas-type still lifes - a burning candle (a symbol of human life), an ornate table clock looming in its dim light (a symbol of the inexorable flow of time and the impermanence of everything) and the most important elements - a skull with a laurel wreath, lying on top of an open book, and a rapier or a spear with a luxurious handle beneath it. The pages of the open book are blank, so it is probably not the Scriptures that are represented here, but the Book of Life in which all names will be written. The crown of laurels around the skull denotes an extraordinary personality and perhaps expresses the idea that the glory achieved by great deeds lasts longer than one's earthly life. The rapier or scimitar, which is less often depicted in Vanitas-type works, may simply be a general symbol of death, but it is easy to see that the weapon depicted is special, fine and precious, the kind of weapon that could only belong to a nobleman.
The juxtaposition of the skull and the spaghetti may be a reference to Hamlet, William Shakespeare's well-known tragedy, in which the theme of Vanitas is very prominent, and in which the plot repeatedly refers to the rapier and the spaghetti, which are used to avenge the death of his father with a "treacherous blow". If Moraczynski's painting is indeed inspired by Hamlet, the symbols encoded in it could be supplemented by motifs of revenge and retribution. Interestingly, in a text, the artist's contemporary, the poet and publicist Edvard Żeligowski (pseudonym Antoni Sowa), linked our artist with the genius playwright because of the latter's ability to convey characters, which, according to him, "requires being a great painter of people and life, for example, like Shakespeare, or like the painter Moračinski from Vilnius" (Dziś i wczoraj, vol. 2, Petersburg, 1858, p. 1). Perhaps the still life discussed here is another unexpected link between these artists. In any case, with this painting, Moraczynski showed that a work of this genre, rejected by most artists, can also be poetic and ambiguous (Dr. (hp) Rūta Janonienė).