Architect Abraham (Würtzner?). Contribution to the History of Vilnius Baroque

Wojciech Boberski

Abstract

As much as it is widely acknowledged that the Vilnius variant of late-Baroque architecture did not result as a slow development of the local tradition, but appeared suddenly after 1730, evolving stylistically for the next 40 years, two opposite views regarding its genesis have been clashing for almost a century.

The first, and the still domineering one, represented in the publications by Stanisław Lorentz and Vladas Drema, saw the most important, possibly the only initiator and creator of the ‘school’ in Johann Christoph Glaubitz. Both scholars attributed to that unquestionably appreciated architect an impressive output containing over 60 pieces, including all the most outstanding works created both within his confirmed activity (1738–1767), before it, and even after his death. The sources of Glaubitz’s art have been sought after within the circle of architecture of the Imperial Countries, Bohemia, Austria, yet first and foremost in Silesia from where he most likely came.

It was Marian Morelowski who promoted a contradictory view: he tried to diversify ‘Glaubitz’s’ hegemony, belittling the role of the artists with German-sounding names, and exposing that of the supposed Italians, Flemish, and native artists instead. When pointing to the Italian inspirations of Vilnius architecture of late Baroque, he emphasized the direct impact of the models by Borromini, Guarini, and Juvarra, as well as Pozzo and the Bibbienas working for the Habsburgs. Under the influence of Piotr Bohdziewicz’s suggestions at the time he seriously considered the possibility that the Vilnius style revolution may have been initiated by the architect Francesco Placidi active in Lesser Poland and his supposed disciples.

The major premise for that attribution was the erroneous view which made Bohdziewicz attribute the unusual church in Kobyłka near Warsaw (1740–1746) to Placidi;  in its forms essential analogies with the early works of late-Baroque Vilnius ‘school’ of architecture were spotted. The Kobyłka Church also served as the key to the explanation of the genesis of the ‘school’ by Mariusz Karpowicz: he claimed that the groundworks for late Baroque in Vilnius were laid by Guido Antonio Longhi, later confirmed to have been the author of the church near Warsaw, while the work which played the role of the model was his design of the Uniate Cathedral of St Sophia in Połock from 1738, which actually anticipated the known activity of the architect. Since Longhi left the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1749, Karpowicz attributed the most illustrious works of the Vilnius Baroque created after the mid-18^th century to his supposed disciple Antonio Paracca of Castello, an architect affiliated to the Platers’ court in Krasław in Livonia. And thus, similarly as in the case of Glaubitz, a coherent and suggestive image was created, although obviously outlined only intuitively.

Despite the fact that preliminary researches into archival materials conducted by Polish and Lithuanian scholars have allowed to bring forth profiles of other architects (Joannes Valentinus Tobias de Dyderszteyn, Józef Fontana ‘of Witebsk’, Johann Wilhelm Frezer, Tomasz Żebrowski SJ), while Jerzy Kowalczyk thoroughly  studied Guarini’s roots of late-Baroque architecture of Vilnius, the question of its initiators remains unclear.

Still before the outbreak of WW II, Piotr Bohdziewicz and Marian Morelowski had distinguished three buildings whose dynamically undulating cornices  and protruding elevations were supposed to herald stylistic changes which occurred in Vilnius following the city’s fire in June 1737. The first was the Church of the Visitation Nuns whose construction launched in 1720 lasted for at least 20 years; the second was the belfry of the Calced Carmelites of All Saints dated from 1733–1743; the third being the Głębokie church of the Discalced Carmelites located 250 km south of Vilnius whose late-Baroque extension was to be completed with its consecration in 1735. When searching for the authors of those outstanding genuine pieces of architecture, focus was put on above-mentioned Francesco Placidi and his ‘school’, while in the case of the Głębokie towers the hypothesis was accepted that even a direct participation of his master may have taken place, namely that of Gaetano Chiaveri, designer of the Dresden Hofkirche.

Having moved the dating, Stanisław Lorentz finally included all the three buildings in Glaubitz’s output, while Jerzy Kowalczyk created the concept of an ‘anonymous Italian architect’ (gently suggesting that Józef Fontatna, active within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania could have played that role), and extended the above-mentioned group by incorporating the undulating façade of the Dominican Church into it. The view on the activity of the anonymous Italian who ‘shyly’ promoted the ideas of Borromini and Guarini in Vilnius was shared by Mariusz Karpowicz, although he considered the façade of the Church of the Visitation Nuns to have been the work of Guido Antonio Longhi.

Amidst that vivid academic debate, although not grounded in the sources, an exceptional view had been voiced still before WW II. Namely, owing to the similarity of ornamental motifs, Piotr Bohdziewicz pointed to the two towers of the façade of the Dominican Church of SS James and Philip at the Vilnius Łukiszki, concluding, however, that their author was less courageous in his artistic imagination than the authors of the three structures mentioned earlier. When Euzebiusz Łopaciński found among the invoices of the Łukiszki Dominicans the name of the architect Abraham who raised the towers of the Church of SS James and Philip in 1743–1746, Marian Morelowski, although not avoiding a question mark, attributed to this newly-discovered ‘representative of Placidi’s school’ all the works from the above-mentioned group (and several new ones as well), but also for some incomprehensible reasons (since not grounded in the mentioned invoices) he named him ‘Genu’, suggesting his descent from the Republic of Venice. The latter was, by no means, a fictitious personage, since at least as of 1727 until his death in 1769, there lived in Vilnius Abraham Antoni Genu (Żena, Genou). Finally, he turned out to have been a Frenchman. He participated in numerous celebrations of the Brotherhood of St Martin, which grouped German artists, craftsmen, and merchants living in Vilnius around the Church of the Jesuit Novitiate.  An affluent individual, he was buried in the Carmelite Church: his two tenement houses were located nearby. However, the only unknown is his profession. There are no such doubts with regard to another member of that Brotherhood Abraham Würtzner (Werthner), present in it from 1728, who died 30 years later. It is known that in 1741, an architect and a Vilnius citizen as well, he designed (unpreserved) brick stucco altars and the music gallery in the Corpus Christi Chapel in the Jesuit Church of St John. For the moment it is the only architect’s name recorded in the course of creating an impressive set of stucco altars inside the Church: a breakthrough artistic project in the art of the Vilnius of the day. Although Glaubitz, employed to renovate the Chapel of St Barbara (of the goldsmiths) and of the Annunciation of Our Lady had appeared there earlier (1739–1740), he was merely a ‘magister murarius’, working under architect’s supervision, and a stuccoist.

The paper attempts at outlining the profile of the architect Abraham, possibly bearing the name of Würtzner (before 1700–1758).  Archival sources testify that he came from ‘Imperial Countries’. He most likely had a son Ignacy, an architect as well, but also a relative Johann, a goldsmith, who came to Vilnius from Lidzbark Warmiński  and died in 1757. Furthermore, the sources confirm the participation of the architect Abraham in the creation of the majority of works promoting the ideas of Borromini and Guarini,  previously attributed to Placidi, Glaubitz, or the ‘anonymous Italian architect’. Abraham thus authored  the unusual belfry of the Calced Carmelite Church of all Saints in Vilnius, the extension of the Carmelite Church in Głębokie; he raised the towers of the Łukiszki Dominican Church, and the genuine church of the Piarist College at Łużki near Głębokie (1742). Furthermore, he raised some edifices in Minsk and Nowogródek. Despite any direct references lacking with respect to definite projects, his genuine style allows to attribute to him the authorship of a number  of structures in Vilnius itself (façades of the Churches of the Visitation Nuns, the Franciscans, and of the Augustines), in Minsk (façades of the Dominican and Bernardine Churches, the tower in front of the Jesuit College), and Nowogródek (Uniate Church at the Castle?), as well as in the provinces, e.g., the Iwieniec Parish Church or the Zdzięcioł Palace of the Radziwiłłs (1729–1731?). 

The assumed chronology of several of the above architectural works requires verification and specification, however, the collected material justifies the conclusion that next to Johann Christoph Glaubitz it was Abraham (Würtzner?) who played a leading role in the early period of the formation of ‘Vilnius Baroque’ in which the caesura was formed by the next fire in the city in 1749, and the inflow of new artists following it.