THE WORK OF THE ARTIST-MONK OF THE TRINITARIAN ORDER, JOSEF PRECHTL (1737–1799) IN THE EASTERN LANDS OF THE POLISH–LITHUANIAN COMMONWEALTH THROUGH THE PRISM OF ARTISTIC VISIONS OF WESTERN EUROPEAN BAROQUE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the little-studied in domestic humanities issue of the artistic achievements of the outstanding artist of the late Baroque era – Josef Prechtl in the eastern lands of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Special place in the history of religion and the Church in the territory of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which included Volyn and Podillia during the second half of the 16th – the end of the 18th centuries, belongs to the Roman Catholic orders. Although, their activities were aimed at strengthening the positions of the Roman Catholic Church, at the same time, they played a leading role in the dissemination and consolidation of the cultural and artistic achievements of Western civilization, in particular the artistic achievements of the Baroque era. It is found out, that the creative work of the artist-monk of the Trinitarian Order, Josef Prechtl, is a vivid example of the contribution of the cultural and artistic achievements of the Western world to the domestic land. It was studied the artist’s style, which was characterized by a high level of esthetics, compositional and ideological content, exquisite coloristic, impeccable technical execution, as well as original stylistic solutions of the writings. In particular, thanks to his perfect mastery of the techniques of illusionistic-perspective painting, which was created under the direct influence of the pictorial heritage of the outstanding Italian artist Andrea del Pozzo, in the eastern lands of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the interiors of a number of religious buildings. Josef Prechtl created numerous pictorial ensembles of illusions of deep crash of areas, vaults and walls, through which the spectators could watch faraway sky spheres, as well as complicated multifigure scenes and groups presented in the bravest aspects. Properly, this is how he embodied the artistic principles of European Baroque with its striving for infinity and mysticism. It is concluded, that in the eastern lands of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, in particular Volyn and Podillia, thanks to the work of a pleiad of Western European educational leaders, as well as artists – architects, painters, sculptors, etc., whose creative destiny was closely connected to Catholic monastic orders, complex processes of selection and assimilation of achievements took place, which largely determined the whole following development of Ukrainian culture.