Sculptures of the Vilnius Cathedral and Their Author Tommaso Righi

Katarzyna Mikocka-Rachubowa

Abstract

The Cathedral of St Stanislaus in Vilnius was remodelled at the instigation of the Vilnius Bishop Ignacy Massalski beginning as of the late 1770s. In 1783-90, the works were headed by the architect Wawrzyniec Gucewicz, who had been first sent by Massalski to study in Rome, and then taken on a tour of North European countries, from where Gucewicz went to study architecture in Paris. Resorting to his Paris experience, in 1784, he created the concept of a monumental Neo-Classical building, authoring designs of the Vilnius Cathedral for Stanislaus Augustus (one of them has been preserved in the former royal collections). In order to execute a large set of sculptures for the Vilnius Cathedral, in 1784, Bishop Massalski employed the known Roman sculptor Tommaso Righi. In the to-date research no attempt has been made to explain why it was Righi who was brought to Vilnius and not any other sculptor; neither has it been accounted for why the sculptures adorning the Vilnius church differ so much in their character from the Neo-Classicist forms of the façade they were made for.

The initiator and committent the Cathedral’s remodelling, namely Bishop Ignacy Massalski (1726-1794), had been affiliated with Rome from the time of his studies in Sapienza; he also visited the city several times on later occasions;  furthermore, he remained in touch with the artists there, purchasing their works of art. The Bishop was on very special terms with the sculptor Vincenzo Pacetti (1746-1820), an important figure among the Roman artistic circles of the latter half of the 18^th century. From the early 1770s until the end of his life, Pacetti wrote a diary, recording all the major events related to his own activity, and information on the personages visiting his studio, thus on the works of art purchased there. In the diary, Bishop Massalski is mentioned on a number of occasions as someone who bought numerous sculptures in Rome, using Pacetti as an intermediary. During his stay in Rome, Massalski frequently visited Pacetti’s studio, and examined the sculptures gathered there, intending to buy some of them; Pacetti, in his turn, also visited the Bishop on a number of occasions. Vincenzo Pacetti was a disciple of Tommaso Righi, who ‘loved him like a son’, and parted with him with much sorrow when Pacetti was leaving his studio in 1766. Following this, Pacetti did maintain close relations with his master, also cooperating with him. Therefore, it seems very likely that it was Vincenzo Pacetti who directly impacted the choice of his former master to be employed by Bishop Massalski to work in Vilnius.

Born in Rome in 1722 or 1723, a disciple of the well-known sculptor Filippo Della Valle, Tommaso Righi (Fig. 2) was an important celebrity among the artistic circles of the Eternal City of the second half of the 18^th century. Having started his individual activity in the late 1740s, he executed tomb sculptures for Rome’s churches as well as sculpture decoration for churches and palaces in the city; they were most frequently after the designs of other artists, though there are works known as both his design and execution. He was member of the most important Roman artistic associations and academies, such as the Congregazione dei Virtuosi al Pantheon or the Academy of Saint Luke where he performed many functions and served as a professor. For a number of years his career was quite successful, while his activity met with high appreciation; he unquestionably was one of the most interesting and creative representatives of sculpture in the Rome of late Baroque. Therefore, the question arises why the artist enjoying important prestige throughout his life in Rome’s environment made up his mind to travel to distant Vilnius, at an already advanced age by the then standards. It can be assumed that what prompted him was the obvious decline of his artistic activity gradually more visible in the late 1770s. Lack of orders, resulting in financial difficulties evidently afflicted the financial standing of himself and his family, while the personal difficulties were additionally increased by the artistic production of Rome at the time. Not particularly interested in his art in the Antique, Righi was unable to apply the opportunities provided by the general at the time praxis of restoring, copying, and imitating Antique works, and the trade in ancient sculptures developing widely, the two yielding significant renown and high profits to Rome’s sculptors. Being commissioned fewer works in Rome, the artist may have made attempts to continue his activity at a centre distanced from his home town, where the tendencies in harmony with his late Baroque repertory were still in vogue. He, therefore, took advantage of Bishop Massalski’s invitation who employed him as his court sculptor in Vilnius in 1784.

Righi left Rome for Poland on 17 May 1784. On the way to Vilnius he had a stopover in Warsaw, carrying a recommendation letter he had been given in Rome to Papal Nuncio in Poland Gaetano Ghigiotti. (It was to the Nuncio that Righi sent letters from Vilnius in 1788 asking for protection for his son Antonio living in Rome). It may have been thanks to his stay in Warsaw on that occasion that in August 1785 King Stanislaus Augustus was invited to join the Academy of St Luke as an honorary member which happened ‘agli stimoli del suo individuo Tommaso Righi’.

Righi remained employed in Vilnius for 6 years and 4 months. Initially, for 18 months he worked on the decoration of the Vilnius Bishops’ Palace in Werki near Vilnius, where he executed some undefined sculpture works, most likely bas-reliefs with multi-figure scenes adorning the building’s façade. Subsequently, in 1786-90, he was contributing to the works at the Vilnius Cathedral. In total, he received 62,700 Polish zlotys (14,850 for the works at Werki and 47,850 at the Cathedral); additionally, the contract included the allowance of 1,800 zlotys to cover the travel expenses from Rome to Vilnius and back.

As for the Vilnius Cathedral, it features 6 statues and 6 multi-figure bas-reliefs on the façade, as well as 2 statues inside, all of them stucco. The façade has the following statues flanking the portico in niches crowned with triangular pediments: Abraham and Moses (the artist placed his signature at the feet of Moses), while 4 Evangelists were situated in niches amidst the portico pilasters: St Matthew and St Mark on the left, with St Luke and St John the Evangelist on the right. Above the Evangelists’ figures and the entrance to the church five rectangular bas-reliefs with the scenes from the Acts of the Apostles are found:  The Pentecost, The Healing of a Lame Man, St Peter Preaching, St Paul Healing a Sick Man, and Death of Ananias and Sapphira. Another work by Righi is also the bas-relief in the portico tympanum Noah Offers a Sacrifice (Fig 16). Inside the Cathedral, there are statues personifying Love of God and Love of Neighbour. Not only did Righi most likely execute those, but he may have designed them, too. In 1795, Bishop Massalski’s collection at the Vilnius Bishops’ Palace boasted 8 models of statues for the Cathedral made by Righi, as well as four busts in terracotta (one of them possibly being the bust of Jakub Briotet, signed: ‘RIGHI/ FECIT/ AN^o / 1789’).   

The set of sculptures for the Vilnius Cathedral was a large project whose range exceeded that of Righi’s works from an over 30-years’ span of his activity in Rome. Dynamic, picturesque, and lofty, the sculptures emanate Baroque expression, unharmonized in their artistic impression with the Neo-Classicist façade of the Vilnius Cathedral. When creating them, the artist made reference to the works he knew from his home town. The composition of the Vilnius figures, their poses and gestures, as well as the arrangement and shaping of the robes’ draperies seem to be reminiscent of marble Apostles standing in the niches of the nave of the San Giovanni in Laterano Basilica in Rome. That cycle was executed in 1703-18 by seven artists (e.g. Camillo Rusconi, Pierre Legros, Pierre-Etienne Monnot, Francesco Moratti) after the drawings by Carlo Maratta. The likeness between the statues in Rome and in Vilnius can be found not only in the formal and stylistic layer of the figures, but also in the placing of the Vilnius prophets’ statues in niches crowned with triangular pediments, just like in the Roman basilica, with multi-figure bas-relief scenes featured in rectangular panels above all the statues. When creating the sculptures for the Vilnius Cathedral, Righi could thus draw inspiration from the monumental statues adoring the interior of the Rome San Giovanni in Laterano Basilica, at which he had been employed in the 1760s. In the Sante Seconda e Ruffina Chapel of the Baptistery by the Basilica the statues he executed can be found; they include the monuments of Archbishop Niccolò Lercari (1760), Cardinal Niccolò Maria Lercari (1761), and also of Archbishop Alessandro Borgia (1767), the latter signed “THOMAS RIGHI INVENIT ET SCULPSIT”.  

In autumn 1791, Righi left Vilnius for Warsaw where he was employed at the court of Stanislaus Augustus. In 1792-93, he worked on the decoration of the King’s summer residence in Łazienki. There, he executed some minor decoration works for the Palace and a set of stucco statues designed by André Le Brun (the ‘first sculptor’ of King Stanislaus Augustus) in the attic of the amphitheatre: two figures personifying Tragedy and Comedy and 16 figures of seated playwrights (unpreserved). In the Łazienki Park there are two Righi’s statues in sandstone personifying the Vistula and Bug Rivers. For the next several years the artist strived to receive his overdue salary signing his documents as ‘Tommaso Righi Scultore Accademico’ or ‘Tommaso Righi Scultore Accademico di Roma’. He did not return to Italy, most likely due to his ill health, but also to the lack of sufficient financial means, dying in Warsaw in late 1802. Until his last days he remained the epigone of the late Roman Baroque, while all his Polish art was but a repetition of the types, schemes, and solutions popular in Rome half a century earlier, and known to him from the times of the former glory.