Renaissance cultural images in the period of the formation of Rzeczpospolita

The interpretation of the Renaissance style and its development in the art of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania usually presents two basic problems. Looted during historical cataclysms and poorly preserved, sixteenth-century Lithuanian art heritage barely allows reconstruction of a full picture of stylistic development. The previously common retrospective factography method leads to two conclusions: either considering it as a Renaissance-in-delay (and thus moving it chronologically to the first half of the 17th century or even to the 18th century, as in case of national literature) or recognizing only the exterior Renaissance influence in the form of formal fashion. Therefore the need to apply a new reinterpretation method becomes obvious. This article presents an attempt to use the interdisciplinary method based on comparison of different areas of culture (art, literature, political rhetoric, preferences of bibliophiles, customs and private behaviour forms) of the sixteenth-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania using the criterion of a cultural image. Here, the term cultural image is used to denote a verbal and visual figure bearing a set of fundamental qualities, which are functioning "above" Erwin Panofsky's iconospherc. Thus the crucial criterion of interpretation becomes the way of visualizing cultural images. The ontological concept of an individual is chosen for the analysis of cultural image visualization. It is revealed that the concept of an individual undergoes transformation: conceived as part of a theological or social hierarchical system in the Middle Ages, in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of the 16lh century an individual is seen as a set of various ontological and social roles (such as a religious individual, the head of a family, a citizen, or a courtier) combined in a sole person. This combination enables a new Renaissance understanding of a unique individual (personasingolarc). To investigate the changes in visualization, the cultural image of "A Knight and the Death" is examined. It is discovered that the social role of a Knight-Citizen visually prevails over its religious expression in numerous cultural artifacts (such as poetry, epilaphsand tombstones). Next, the analysis of political and literature texts, as well as paintings and prints reveals that the role of a citizen in the social sphere (the war, the court, or the state) also shows numerous radical changes, such as the dominance of the historical role over the ontological one, interest in rhetoric as a tool of individual's social expression, and the significance of a gesture for the visual expression of a courtier. However, during this period in the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the private sphere of an individual is vaguely exposed. The cultural or artistic expressions of private life (such as mode of everyday life, lyrics, courtesy, and erotica) characteristic of the "classical" Renaissance style cannot be noticed. This contradiction between the stylistic expressions of social and private life leads to an important conclusion, influenced by a specific cultural and political situation in the Grand Duchy of Lithuanian of the 16th century. This way, the rise of the Commonwealth of Two Peoples - a united Polish-Lithuanian republic, based on antique Roman model - gave an important impulse to the development of the Renaissance style. On the other hand, the Renaissance affected solely the social and political spheres, not trespassing into the private sphere of an individual