Art and Eye

  There are many who have been left out of the art historical canon and Lithuanian artist and composer Mikalojus Ciurlionis is one of them. Producing over 200 musical works and 300 paintings, his career was extensive, prolific and multifaceted. Yet, he was a 'genius cursed by fate' according to artist and critic Alexandre Benois, dying from exhaustion in 1911. Praised within his lifetime, Ciurlionis is virtually invisible today, especially to a Western viewer. Describing one artwork by Ciurlionis is not enough to appreciate his diversity and synthesis of artforms - pastels, as this work shows, vignettes, oils, designs for stained glass, even abandoning the easel for cardboard. More importantly, he was indebted to the Lithuanian landscape. Ichiro Kato refers to him as 'Lithuanian in nature and national feeling...a genius from the Baltic lands', reflected in works including  Serenity depicting idyllic, peaceful settings of mountains and lakes, devoid of humanity. Like man

  Within this complex, extensively illustrated liturgical book, one finds an image of Cardinal Jacopo Stefaneschi. The viewer uncovers him seated at the oblique angle of his desk, virtually falling out of his designated 'frame' as he leans over, hard at work completing the hymns that he wrote into this very missal. This volume is a form of meta-painting - Cardinal Stefaneschi contributed to its contents and the viewer sees him portrayed in pictorial form in that very act, a picture within a picture.  The general skills required for manuscript illumination were highly diverse. Stefaneschi is situated within the letter 'E', its blue form with gold, foliated details offering a barrier to prevent the Cardinal's descent out of the picture plane towards the reader. A decorative border frames the general text, pierced by the galero of Stefaneschi, his red Cardinal's hat, hovering at the top of the page over his hunched form. It implies the viewer has disturbed him at a