Antanina Sulistrovskytė-Sniadeckienė ir jos atvaizdai

Abstract

Straipsnyje pristatomi trys naujai atributuoti įdėmesnio tyrėjų žvilgsnio dar nesulaukę vienos garsiausių XIX a. pirmosios pusės Lietuvos moterų Antaninos Sulistrovskytės-Sniadeckienės (Antonina z Sulistrowskich Śniadecka, 1805–1853) atvaizdai, saugomi Lietuvos mokslų akademijos Vrublevskių bibliotekos Rankraščių skyriuje. Siekiant kuo išsamiau atskleisti šių kūrinių istoriją, daug dėmesio skiriama ir pačiai herojei, jos biografijai. Tyrimas atskleidė, kad anksčiau atvaizdai priklausė iškiliai XIX a. skulptorei Elenai Skirmantaitei-Skirmantienei (Helena Skirmunttówna-Skirmuntt, 1827–1874) ir jos palikuonims. Dviejų piešinių pieštuku autore laikytina ši kūrėja, o vieno siluetinio pomirtinio portreto, datuojamo 1853 metais, – nežinoma XIX a. siluetistė. XIX a. 2-ajame dešimtmetyje Jono Damelio ( Jan Damel, 1780–1840) nutapyto portreto – vienintelio žinomo aliejinės tapybos technika sukurto A. Sulistrovskytės-Sniadeckienės atvaizdo – fragmento kopija, kurią eskiziškai pieštuku atliko E. Skirmantaitė-Skirmantienė, leidžia tikėtis, kad bus atpažintas bei identifikuotas ir pats originalas, jei tik jis išliko Antrojo pasaulinio karo sūkuriuose.

The article presents three newly-attributed portrait images of one of the most famous women of early- 19th-century Lithuania, Antonina Śniadecka (or Antonina z Sulistrowskich Śniadecka, 1805–1853). These images, which until now have not drawn much attention from researchers, are kept in the Collection of Drawings and Sketches by Artists of Lithuania (F320) of the Manuscript Department of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. Antonina Śniadecka was a descendant of a well-known noble family; the daughter-in-law of the acclaimed scientist, Vilnius University professor Jędrzej Śniadecki (1768–1838); and the mother of his four grandchildren. A known philantropist and patriot of Lithuania, she was sentenced in a political case. Full of upheavals and painful losses, her too-short life was, at first glance, hardly different from those of other women from her social class: Śniadecka strove to be exemplary in fulfilling women’s most important, by the standards of those times, social role, that of wife, mother, homemaker. Nevertheless, the name of this woman burned itself deeply into historical memory. Her noble birth, active participation in philantropic movements, patriotism, effort to preserve the memory of the radical democratic politician and participant in the 1830–1831 uprising, Szymon Konarski (1808–1839), repressions by the Russian imperial authorities – all this actively contributed to the emergence of her legend. The iconography of Śniadecka is rather scarce. Three recently-attributed portrait images testify to her contemporaries’ efforts to honour this remarkable woman and to preserve her memory. Our research shows that before 1940, the images belonged to a prominent 19th-century sculptor, Helena Skirmuntt (1827–1874) and her descendants. Two portrait drawings may be attributed to the former, and another image, a posthumous silhouette portrait dated to 1853, to an unknown 19th-century silhouettist. One of the above-mentioned drawings by Helena Skirmuntt is a pencil-sketch copy of a fragment of the only known oil-painted portrait of Śniadecka, which was created in the 1810s by Jan Damel (1780–1840). Hopefully, the pencil copy could help to identify the original portrait, supposing that the latter survived the vagaries of World War II.