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Laurynas Gucevičius

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Laurynas Gucevičius (Polish: Wawrzyniec Gucewicz;[2] 1753–1798) was a Polish [3][4][5][6][7]-Lithuanian architect from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and all of his designs were built there.[8]

Laurynas Gucevičius
Born
Laurynas Masiulis (Latin: Laurentius Masulis[1])

1753
Migonys, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Died10 December 1798(1798-12-10) (aged 44–45)
Vilnius, Russian Empire
OccupationArchitect
BuildingsVerkiai Palace
Vilnius Town Hall
Vilnius Cathedral
ProjectsTemple of Divine Providence, Warsaw
Signature
Modern representation of Gucevičius

Biography

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He was born in the village of Migonys near Kupiškis, in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. His father was a Lithuanian peasant, Simonas Masiulis.[9] He was baptized as Laurynas Masiulis.[9] His Lithuanian mother, Kotryna Žekonytė Masiulienė, died early in his youth, and her relative and his godmother Ona Baltušytė-Gucevičienė (Polish: Anna Gucewicz) supported him and financed his studies. After her, he changed his surname to Gucevičius. He attended local schools at Kupiškis and Palėvenė and then the gymnasium in Panevėžys. According to his student and biographer Karol Podczaszyński, the school in Kupiškis was the place where Gucevičius for the first time started to learn the Polish language.[10] In 1773 he joined the Academy of Vilnius. He studied engineering, attended the lectures on architecture held by Marcin Knackfus.[11] Around that time, he also became a missionary monk.

His guardian became the Bishop of Vilnius, Ignacy Massalski, who in 1775 sent him to Warsaw, and a year or two later to Rome.[12] Along with a large number of young artists and architects from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (among them Chrystian Piotr Aigner, Szymon Bogumił Zug, Stanisław Zawadzki, Ephraim Schröger and Jakub Kubicki),he spent there a year studying classical architecture.[13][14] After returning, Hugo Kołłątaj offered him a position as a professor of architecture at the Jagiellonian University.[12]

 
Central palace in Verkiai, drawn before its demolition

In the following years, he travelled through Western European countries, where he attended lectures on architecture and learned from the works of the most renowned architects of the time. He visited France, Denmark, Sweden and various German states.[11] He spent a year and a half studying in Paris under the guidance of Jacques-Germain Soufflot and Claude Nicolas Ledoux.[8] On his return, he was hired by Bishop Ignacy Jakub Massalski, for whom he designed and built the episcopal Verkiai palace, later known after its later owners, the Wittgenstein family. The palace and the surrounding architectural complex, the work on which was commenced by Gucevičius's tutor Knackfus, is currently considered one of the most valuable classicist complexes in Lithuania.[15]

In 1789 Gucevičius became a professor of architecture and topography at the Artillery and Engineering Corps' School of Vilnius. In 1794 he also returned to his alma mater, where he became a professor of civilian architecture[11] and held the chair in engineering. In 1794, at the outbreak of Kościuszko's Uprising, Gucevičius joined the ranks of the local civil guard and took part in the Vilnius Uprising against the Russian garrison. He became one of the leaders of the local militia formed out of volunteers. Wounded in a skirmish near Ashmyany (modern Belarus), he was demobilised. Following the Partitions of Poland–Lithuania, when Vilnius was annexed by Imperial Russia, the new authorities expelled Gucevičius from the academy for his part in the uprising. However, in 1797 he returned there, this time as a head of the newly founded separate chair of architecture.[16]

 
The façade of the Vilnius Cathedral, as seen in a mid-19th century picture[17]

Around that time Gucevičius created the most renowned of his works. First was the new town hall of Vilnius, completed around 1799.[18] He also constructed a similar, yet smaller town hall in Vidzy (now in Belarus). Between 1777[19] and in 1801 he worked to rebuild the Vilnius Cathedral (which had undergone many reconstructions and had been partially Baroque) in the neoclassical style. It is sometimes said that his reconstruction of the cathedral, modelled after a Roman temple, pre-dated the work of Thomas Hamilton and James Playfair, two notable Scottish architects to introduce classicism in the United Kingdom.[20]

He is credited with several other projects, although their actual authorship is not documented. Among them is the palace of the Tyzenhauz family in Rokiškis (completed in 1801), the reconstruction of the castle in Raudonė for its contemporary owners, the Olędzki (Olendzki) h. Rawicz family, and the manor house in Čiobiškis. He is also thought to have prepared designs of palaces for other notable magnate families of the time, including Radziwiłł, Sapieha, Pac, Chomiński and Scypion.[11] However World War II losses in the preserved archives make the matter difficult to settle definitively.[21] Additionally, he designed several merchant houses in Kretinga.[11] He was the author of a topographic map of the western part of the city of Vilnius.

He died on 10 December 1798. The location of his burial is unknown but is presumed to be the churchyard of the Church of St. Stephen in Vilnius.[22] In his last will he dedicated all of his projects to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and some of the surviving sketches and designs are currently held in the library of Warsaw University.[23][24]

Legacy

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The architect's life and creations inspired the Lithuanian poet Justinas Marcinkevičius to write the play The Cathedral.

Notes

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a. ^ Polish: Wawrzyniec Gucewicz. His last will, written in Polish, which was the lingua franca of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, has the name Wawrzyniec Montrym Żakowicz Gucewicz.[25] So, there exist sources that call him Polish.[26]

References

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  1. ^ That is how his name was written in his baptismal record: "Literatūra ir menas. AKTUALIJOS. DĖL LAURYNO GUCEVIČIAUS PAVARDĖS". 2007-09-28. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2022-07-17.
  2. ^ His last will, written in Polish, has the name Wawrzyniec Montrym Żakowicz Gucewicz: Drėma, Vladas (1966). "Nieznane materiały do działalności Wawrzyńca Gucewicza, Piotra Rossi, Tomasza Righi oraz Karola i Kazimierza Jelskich". Biuletyn Historii Sztuki. 28 (3/4): 372.
  3. ^ Łoza, Stanisław (1930). Słownik architektów i budowniczych Polaków oraz cudzoziemców w Polsce pracujących. Warszawa: Kasa im. Mianowskiego, Instytutu Popierania Nauki. p. 114–115.
  4. ^ Tatarkiewicz, Władysław (1966). O sztuce polskiej XVII i XVIII wieku : architektura, rzeźba. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. p. 104.
  5. ^ Stanisław Lorentz, Andrzej Rottermund (1984). Klasycyzm w Polsce. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Arkady. p. 14. ISBN 83-213-3082-7.
  6. ^ Szolginia, Witold (1975). Architektura i budownictwo: ilustrowana encyklopedia dla wszystkich. Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Naukowo-Techniczne. p. 124. ISBN 83-204-0820-2.
  7. ^ James Stevens Curl, Susan Wilson (2016). The Oxford dictionary of architecture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 335. ISBN 978-0-19-967499-2.
  8. ^ a b "Gucewicz, Wawrzyniec". Nowa encyklopedia powszechna PWN (in Polish). Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. 2006. Archived from the original on 2012-05-09. Retrieved 2006-07-18.
  9. ^ a b As evidenced by the original baptismal record preserved in a local church: Latin: babtisavi infantem n(omi)ne Laurentium patris Symoni Masulis et Matris Catharinae Masulowa de villa Migance; as cited in: Edmundas Rimša (May 2003). "Dėl Lauryno Gucevičiaus pavardės (On the surname of Laurynas Gucevičius)". Literatūra ir menas (in Lithuanian) (2950). Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2006-07-17.
  10. ^ Lorentz, Stanisław (1958). "Na marginesie monografii". Biuletyn Historii Sztuki (in Polish). XX (3/4): 369.
  11. ^ a b c d e "Gucewicz Wawrzyniec (Migańce, 1753 - 1798)". Biogramy architektów (Biographical notes on architects) (in Polish). Warsaw University Library (BUW). Archived from the original on 2006-08-30. Retrieved 2006-07-19.
  12. ^ a b Lorentz 1961, p. 133.
  13. ^ Adam Zamoyski (1987). The Polish Way: A Thousand-Year History of the Poles and Their Culture. London: John Murray. p. 241. ISBN 0-531-15069-0.
  14. ^ Rathje, Annette (2004). "Polish Artists and the Emergence of Archaeology". The Rediscovery of Antiquity: The Role of the Artist. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum, University of Copenhagen. p. 419. ISBN 87-7289-829-1.
  15. ^ "Verkių dvaro sodyba" (in Lithuanian). Administration of Verkiai and Pavilniai Regional Parks. Retrieved 2010-10-09.
  16. ^ Alfredas Bumblauskas (2005). Senosios Lietuvos istorija 1009-1795 (History of Lithuania) (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Paknys. ISBN 9986-830-89-3.
  17. ^ Jan Kazimierz Wilczyński (1847). Album wileńskie J. K. Wilczyńskiego, obywatela powiatu wiłkomierskiego (Vilnian Album of J.K. Wilczyński, a citizen of the powiat of Wiłkomierz) (in Polish).
  18. ^ Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski (2000). Poland: An Illustrated History. London: Hippocrene Books. pp. 134–135. ISBN 0-7818-0757-3.
  19. ^ Some sources mention 1783 as the starting date
  20. ^ Banister Fletcher; et al. (1996). "Austria, Germany and Central Europe". In Dan Cruickshank (ed.). Banister Fletcher's A History of Architecture. Architectural Press. p. 998. ISBN 0-7506-2267-9.
  21. ^ Stanisława Sawicka; Teresa Sulerzyska (1960). Straty w rysunkach z gabinetu rycin Biblioteki Uniwersyteckiej (Losses in the drawings of the Hall of Plates of the Warsaw University Library) (in Polish). Warsaw: Warsaw University. p. 64.
  22. ^ Girininkienė, Vida (2004). "Kur yra Lauryno Gucevičiaus kapas?". Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis (in Lithuanian). 32: 95. ISSN 1392-0316.
  23. ^ "Wawrzyniec Gucewicz (1753-98)". Warsaw University. 2005. Archived from the original on 2006-10-23. Retrieved 2006-07-18.
  24. ^ Teresa Sulerzyska (1969). Katalog rysunków z Gabinetu Rycin Biblioteki Uniwersyteckiej w Warszawie (Catalogue of the Hall of Plates of the Warsaw University Library) (in Polish). Vol. II. Warsaw: Warsaw University.
  25. ^ Drėma, Vladas (1966). "Nieznane materiały do działalności Wawrzyńca Gucewicza, Piotra Rossi, Tomasza Righi oraz Karola i Kazimierza Jelskich". Biuletyn Historii Sztuki. 28 (3/4): 372.
  26. ^ James Stevens Curl, Susan Wilson (2016). The Oxford dictionary of architecture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 335. ISBN 978-0-19-967499-2.

Sources

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Laurynas Gucevičius.
  • Eduardas Budreika (1954). Architektas Laurynas Stuoka Gucevicius (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Valst. Polit. Ir Moksl. Lit. L. p. 167.
  • Eduardas Budreika (1965). "Laurynas Stuoka-Gucevicius, 1753-1798". Architektas Laurynas Stuoka Gucevicius (in Lithuanian). Kaunas: Mintis. p. 58.
  • Eduardas Budreika (1982). "Laurynas Stuoka-Gucevicius, 1753-1798". Verkių rūmai (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Mintis. p. 61.
  • Lorentz, Stanisław (1961). "Wawrzyniec Gucewicz". Polski Słownik Biograficzny (in Polish). Vol. 9. Wrocław. pp. 133–135.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Tomas Venclova (2006). "Ensemble of the Verkiai estate". Vilnius City Guide. Vilnius: R. Paknys Publishing House. p. 215.
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