More info about Lithuania in wikipedia
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Is it true that:
1. Lithuanian national flag is of 3 colours: yellow, green, red.
2. Grand Duke Mindaugas, crowned king of Lithuania, is the founder of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.
3. Lithuania was the last country in Europe to be christianized.
4. The Lithuanian and Latvian languages are the last functioning languages of the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family.
5. Kibinai is Lithuanian national dish.
6. The Gates of Dawn can be found in Trakai.
7. The Neris flows through Vilnius.
8. Šiauliai is the 4th biggest city in Lithuania.
9. Lithuania has no seaports.
10. The Skrabalai is Lithuanian wood wind instrument.
11. The iron wolf is the symbol of Vilnius.
12. Under the rule of Vytautas Magnus in 14th-15th centuries the boundaries of Grand Dutchy of Lithuania stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
13. There are more than 250 various shades of amber.
14. Amber serves as a protection against many diseases e.g. a toothache, ear ache.
15. More than 30% of territory of Lithuania is covered by forests.
16. M.K. Čiurlionis was a painter and a composer, whose paintings remind of music, e.g. sonatas, symphonies.
17. Vilnius University was established in 1579.
18. D. Grybauskaitė is a newly elected president of Lithuania.
19. The date of Saulės battle (1236) is considered to be the birthday of Šiauliai.
20. The sun, the taurus and the bear are in the coat of arms of Šiauliai
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M.K. Čiurlionis, composer and painter.
The Columbus of a new spiritual continent
(1875-1911)
Čiurlionis’ works- are fragile, dreamy, occasionally naive, but at the same time highly original and unique. His works concentrated certain ideas belonging to future modernism of the 20th century. Many prominent personalities – Romain Rolland, Igor Stravinsky, Wassily Kandinsky- were interested in Čiurlionis. His works have been analysed by Lithuanian, Russian, French, German and American art critics.
Čiurlionis was not only a painter-poet and romanticist, but also a metaphysical thinker. To him, creation is a method of thinking, analysis of philosophical issues. The main theme and aim of his works are reflections on the essence of man, his purpose in his own time and eternity. He thinks of the cleansing of man’s soul as the key to the understanding of the universe.
Some consider the painter a self-taught enigma, others think he is a messiah of art, still others describe him as the sublime painter of wordly visions.
Rex.Tempera on canvas,1909
The language of Čiurlionis is one of symbols and metaphors.Frequent are the signs of the “sacred geometry“.The painter‘s vision was each time directed to higher and higher spheres of Earth, cosmos, the universe, up to the Sonata of the Stars and the great Rex. Rex represents worlds and spaces vertically transfixing each other.
The painter had an innate talent for synesthesia. His relatives, as well as the critics of his work, point out that he experienced impressions of optical visions when listening to music. Music gave him impulses for painting and consolidated the flights of his fantasy. The artist managed to apply them to painting, drawing them from the deep psychic state of the subconscious, and imparting them with plastic expression. Similarly, the beauty of nature aroused in Čiurlionis the feeling of musical sounds.
Zodiac XI.The Sun in the Sign of Sagittarius
Tempera onpasteboard, 1906/07
Another layer of symbols and hyperbole in Čiurlionis‘ creation comes from folk art, songs, tales and legends.Lithuanian folk art with its emotional attitude to the world abounds in elements of cosmology and metaphorical thinking.
Speaking about Lithuanian folk songs, Čiurlionis observes that their monotony „resembles the eternal movement of the sea and one hears in them almost religious longing and unearthly silent sorrow“.
The elements of nature, trees, streams, towers, the stars, the sun, etc. do not seem painted- outlined are their graphic forms, architectonies of nature and objects, and the graphic rhythm of world forms.
Landscapes are a peculiar feature of Čiurlionis’ art. There the viewer can experience the actual colouring and mood of Lithuanian nature. The panoramic stretch of fields and forests, the gentle sunshine and the modest, industrious people, singing melancholy and rhythmic folk songs at their work-this archaic Lithuania was deeply rooted in Čiurlionis’ memory, and its spirit permeated his landscapes and all of his creation.
The first impression made by Čiurlionis‘ paintings is the unusual unity of his world. A closer examination easily reveals two antipodal origins in each of his paintings- from the point of view of composition, content and colouring. The dualistic opposition of all this comprises the whole which gives birth to the integral feeling of Čiurlionis‘ world.
One of the most characteristic features of Čiurlionis is that music and painting, like separate branches or art, as well as the cycles of musical paintings were important to the painter as manifestations of his philosophical world; the Lithuanian artist approached the Wagnerian idea of synthetic art by himself and intuitively.
M.K.Čiurlionis was the first professional Lithuanian composer and was the first to have written compositions based on folk music. His music has a strong , individual creative spirit, a unique expression of new ideas. His works include two symphonic poems, In the Forest and The Sea, compositions for piano and organ, choral pieces, variations for string quartet, etc. The compositions for piano are the best and the most original of Čiurlionis’ works. Most of them are short pieces and preludes.
M.K.Čiurlionis, a gifted composer, painter and writer, was, and still is a versatile figure not only in Lithuanian art and music, but also in that of Europe. In his works he expressed ideas and themes which excited people then, and still do today. This prominent person searched for answers to the common questions of human existence. His philosophical attitudes to the world is best conveyed in his pictorial sonatas, where a peculiar vision and original perception of the surrounding world is evident, however is difficult to discern, understand and explain.
