Lithuanian Church art in the first half of the 20th century

XX a. I pusėje bažnyčių statybos, renovacijos ir puošybos darbai Lietuvoje pasiekė milžinišką mastą. Monografijoje nagrinėjami tam tikri valstybės ir Bažnyčios santykiai (įstatyminė bazė, materialinė parama) ir socialiniai visuomenės pokyčiai, turėję įtakos bažnyčių dailei. Aptariama to laikotarpio Bažnyčios pozicija, nuostatos sakralinės dailės atžvilgiu. Nurodomos priežastys, kodėl ir kokio pobūdžio vaizduojamosios dailės kūrinių anuomet daugiausiai pateko į bažnyčias. Atskleidžiama, kaip religinis gyvenimas ir tautinės aspiracijos paveikė bažnyčių dailės ikonografiją, aiškinamasi, kokiais pirmavaizdžiais naudojosi Lietuvos dailininkai.In the first half of the 20th century Lithuania experienced several dramatic events: the loss of independence, and two World Wars. Nevertheless, it was also the period reinforcing the existence of Lithuanian nation, when vision of the independent state matured and was realized. Lithuanian National Revival can not be isolated from religious revival experienced at the same time. [...] While writing the first study on the Lithuanian Church art of the first half of the 20th century, the author tried to answer questions, why and of what kind of visual art works were incorporated into church space. Author preferred to analyse not stylistic changes or art processes (publications on such fields already exist), but first of all essential factors which influenced this kind of art. Therefore, focuses of the book were: 1. to characterize influence of the government on the Catholic Church art; 2. to outline regulations of the Church and influence of the Holy See on the religious art; 3. to reveal directives on Church art in Lithuanian Ecclesiastical Province and attitude of Lithuanian Church hierarchy to Catholic art; 4. to demonstrate, how iconography of religious art was affected by changes of piety traditions, new cults, activity of religious organizations and national aspirations; 5. to assess the most popular subjects of visual art in Lithuanian churches and to find prototypes used by artists. Chronology of the research embraces period from the last decade of the 19th century to the Soviet annexation in 1940. This was determined by development of church construction, its equipment and decoration and by consistent patterns of religious art. Lithuanian identity of Catholic community, intertwining of national and religious aspirations and impact of the state are especially important for this study, therefore, the main attention was paid to Lithuanian Ecclesiastical Province, and to the church decoration within borders of the Republic of Lithuania. Thus, the situation in the Diocese of Vilnius was analyzed only until the World War I. [...