| Abstract [eng] |
After the Council of Trent (1545-1563), during the time of the Catholic renewal, various art forms were of significance – paintings, carvings, illustrated and meditative prints, emblem books, fiction and pilgrimage literature and poetry. It was through these relatively minor works that the postulates of the Catholic doctrines were mediated; they were designed to inspire and return the prodigals to the real faith, and to fight the Protestants and the teachings they spread. In this work, the relation between art and theology from the end of the 16th to the beginning of the 17th century is described, all according to the life and activities of one person – Tomasz Treter (1547–1610). First of all, the context of the period he lived in is presented – the resolutions of Trent, the works and ideas of the most important of the Catholic theoreticians of art, the Jesuit visual theory, the forming of the emblem and the iconography in the 16th century. Secondly, works of Treter yet to be discussed by Lithuanian scholars are covered by presenting ten different examples of them, which reveal Catholic propaganda and the means by which it was used. Finally, by analyzing a certain piece by Treter, the Theatrum Virtutum Domini Stanislai Hosii (1588), specific instances of Counter-Reformation iconography are presented and explained. Eventually a conclusion was drawn that after the Council of Trent art started being regarded as an ideological tool, capable not only to enlighten and teach the dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church, but also to affect spiritually, to return to the way of ‘true faith’. |
