Kestutis Zygas - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Kestutis Zygas

was hexagonal. Consecrated in 1674, the church's unusual format has intrigued investigators, prom... more was hexagonal. Consecrated in 1674, the church's unusual format has intrigued investigators, prompting speculation about its possible derivation, sources, and antecedents 3. The study at hand addresses the very same issue.

The Church of Holy Mary’s Visitation, dedicated in 1674, is the centerpiece of the Camaldolese Mo... more The Church of Holy Mary’s Visitation, dedicated in 1674, is the centerpiece of the Camaldolese Monastery at Pažaislis, near Kaunas, Lithuania. From the 11-th to the mid-17-th century the order traditionally built roofed, rectangular churches. By contrast and differing from customary Camaldolese practice, the church at Pažaislis was hexagonal and crowned with a dome. We propose that the Great Chain of Being helped generate and legitimize its unusual design. The Great Chain of Being is a broad notion, traceable to Plato and Aristotle, which explains that everything, whether small and large, living or inanimate, in the natural or supernatural realms, was hierarchically linked and arranged. Termed scala naturae (ladder of nature) by medieval scholastics, the idea that all things had their proper place in the Great Chain of Being was fundamental to their world view. The church at Pažaislis was dedicated to the Trinity and the Blessed Virgin. Accordingly, equilateral triangles, a hexagon, and the sexagram Marian Star framed its underlying plan. The same geometric armature shapes the chi-rho Christogram and the sexagram star in the Camaldolese Order’s coat of arms. Equilateral triangles and a hexagon may be discerned in the double lily armorial of Christopher Sigismund Pac, Grand Chancellor of Lithuania, the founder of Pažaislis. In the Mysterium cosmographicum (The Cosmographic Mystery) of 1596 Johannes Kepler demonstrated that the number of planets, their orbits, and the distances between them corresponded to a particular nesting of the five Platonic geometric forms. Four of those figures could be constructed from the equilateral triangle, symbol of the Trinity. Geometry evidently operated at the astrophysical level. Thus, the triadic geometry underlying the design of the church at Pažaislis mirrored cosmic order. Its layout also alludes to geometric order at microscopic scale. In 1611 Johannes Kepler published De nive sexangula (The Six-Cornered Snowflake), an early study of snowflakes and hexagonal beehive cells. In 1617 Robert Fludd issued Utriusque cosmic maioris (The metaphysical worlds) with a frontispiece illustrating the entire Great Chain of Being. Robert Hooke’s immensely popular Micrographia (Microscopy) of 1655 brought scientific attention to sexagram snowflakes and their radial symmetry. Cosmologists, astrologists, and scientists of the 17-th century discovered geometric order at microscopic and cosmic scales. Their differing perspectives strengthened the ancient belief in the omnipresence of a Divine Architect. Geometry reflected theology. The ancient Camaldolese monastic design could be modified at Pažaislis, because the Great Chain of Being provided a compelling rationale for the symbolic geometry underlying the monastery’s layout and the design of the Church of Holy Mary’s Visitation.

Art History & Criticism

Summary The present study takes issue with the accepted view (cf. Vikipedija) that the Chapel of ... more Summary The present study takes issue with the accepted view (cf. Vikipedija) that the Chapel of St. Casimir in the Cathedral of Vilnius (1623–1636) resembles the Pauline and the Sistine Chapels in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. A closer look and comparison of the dimensions, geometry, materials, and internal décor, however, reveals significant differences. The defining architectural features of the Chapel of St. Casimir do not derive from these Baroque chapels but from multiple Biblical and Early Christian sources. (This study focused on the Chapel’s interior features that survived the 1655–1661 occupation of Vilnius.) Its cubic core recalls the twenty-cubit amplitude of the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. The black marble walls (noir de Namur) allude to the blackening acacia wood of the Ark of the Covenant holding the Ten Commandment stone tablets that Moses received from the Lord on Mt. Sinai. The ox-blood colored pilasters (vieux rouge de Ran...

Journal of Baltic Studies, 1996

... Among other duties, he now had to acknowledge and respect post-Tridentine attitudes as well a... more ... Among other duties, he now had to acknowledge and respect post-Tridentine attitudes as well as ... When he had last been to the Vatican in the mid-1590s, Michelangelo's monumental Greek ... The Capella Paolina was but one entry in Paul V's extensive architectural agenda, as we ...

was hexagonal. Consecrated in 1674, the church's unusual format has intrigued investigators, prom... more was hexagonal. Consecrated in 1674, the church's unusual format has intrigued investigators, prompting speculation about its possible derivation, sources, and antecedents 3. The study at hand addresses the very same issue.

The Church of Holy Mary’s Visitation, dedicated in 1674, is the centerpiece of the Camaldolese Mo... more The Church of Holy Mary’s Visitation, dedicated in 1674, is the centerpiece of the Camaldolese Monastery at Pažaislis, near Kaunas, Lithuania. From the 11-th to the mid-17-th century the order traditionally built roofed, rectangular churches. By contrast and differing from customary Camaldolese practice, the church at Pažaislis was hexagonal and crowned with a dome. We propose that the Great Chain of Being helped generate and legitimize its unusual design. The Great Chain of Being is a broad notion, traceable to Plato and Aristotle, which explains that everything, whether small and large, living or inanimate, in the natural or supernatural realms, was hierarchically linked and arranged. Termed scala naturae (ladder of nature) by medieval scholastics, the idea that all things had their proper place in the Great Chain of Being was fundamental to their world view. The church at Pažaislis was dedicated to the Trinity and the Blessed Virgin. Accordingly, equilateral triangles, a hexagon, and the sexagram Marian Star framed its underlying plan. The same geometric armature shapes the chi-rho Christogram and the sexagram star in the Camaldolese Order’s coat of arms. Equilateral triangles and a hexagon may be discerned in the double lily armorial of Christopher Sigismund Pac, Grand Chancellor of Lithuania, the founder of Pažaislis. In the Mysterium cosmographicum (The Cosmographic Mystery) of 1596 Johannes Kepler demonstrated that the number of planets, their orbits, and the distances between them corresponded to a particular nesting of the five Platonic geometric forms. Four of those figures could be constructed from the equilateral triangle, symbol of the Trinity. Geometry evidently operated at the astrophysical level. Thus, the triadic geometry underlying the design of the church at Pažaislis mirrored cosmic order. Its layout also alludes to geometric order at microscopic scale. In 1611 Johannes Kepler published De nive sexangula (The Six-Cornered Snowflake), an early study of snowflakes and hexagonal beehive cells. In 1617 Robert Fludd issued Utriusque cosmic maioris (The metaphysical worlds) with a frontispiece illustrating the entire Great Chain of Being. Robert Hooke’s immensely popular Micrographia (Microscopy) of 1655 brought scientific attention to sexagram snowflakes and their radial symmetry. Cosmologists, astrologists, and scientists of the 17-th century discovered geometric order at microscopic and cosmic scales. Their differing perspectives strengthened the ancient belief in the omnipresence of a Divine Architect. Geometry reflected theology. The ancient Camaldolese monastic design could be modified at Pažaislis, because the Great Chain of Being provided a compelling rationale for the symbolic geometry underlying the monastery’s layout and the design of the Church of Holy Mary’s Visitation.

Art History & Criticism

Summary The present study takes issue with the accepted view (cf. Vikipedija) that the Chapel of ... more Summary The present study takes issue with the accepted view (cf. Vikipedija) that the Chapel of St. Casimir in the Cathedral of Vilnius (1623–1636) resembles the Pauline and the Sistine Chapels in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. A closer look and comparison of the dimensions, geometry, materials, and internal décor, however, reveals significant differences. The defining architectural features of the Chapel of St. Casimir do not derive from these Baroque chapels but from multiple Biblical and Early Christian sources. (This study focused on the Chapel’s interior features that survived the 1655–1661 occupation of Vilnius.) Its cubic core recalls the twenty-cubit amplitude of the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. The black marble walls (noir de Namur) allude to the blackening acacia wood of the Ark of the Covenant holding the Ten Commandment stone tablets that Moses received from the Lord on Mt. Sinai. The ox-blood colored pilasters (vieux rouge de Ran...

Journal of Baltic Studies, 1996

... Among other duties, he now had to acknowledge and respect post-Tridentine attitudes as well a... more ... Among other duties, he now had to acknowledge and respect post-Tridentine attitudes as well as ... When he had last been to the Vatican in the mid-1590s, Michelangelo's monumental Greek ... The Capella Paolina was but one entry in Paul V's extensive architectural agenda, as we ...