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OdetaŽukauskienė
Il.1JurgisBaltrużaitiswithotherFocillon’sstudents,
about1925.PhotographyfromJurgisBaltrużaitis’s
Archive(JBA)
SchoolofMoscowandgrantedtheBachelordiplo-
mainLithuania,heplannedtostudyinGermany,
EnglandorFrance.In1923hebeganhisstudiesin
Heidelberg,butin1924hewenttoPariswerehe
cameintocontactwithFocillon(il.1).
Thestudentsofdifferentnativeoriginscame
tostudyattheSorbonneinthe1920s:Sterling
andGrodecki,amongothers,camefromPoland,
BaltrużaitisfromLithuania,LadislasGalfromHun-
gary.Atthattimeintheacademicmilieutherewere
verylivelydiscussionsontheEuropeanidentity
(likenowadayswhenwearesearchingforthecen-
tralconceptofEuropeanidentity).Focilloncreated
TheGroupofArtHistoryattheSorbonne,which
consistedofthestudentsofdifferentnationalities,
andorganizedthecentreformedievalartstudies
fortheexplorationoftheidentityofWesternart.
TheFrenchprofessororganisedexpeditionsfor
studentsalloverEuropeinordertodiscoverthe
complexityofWesternculture.Subsequently,they
startedtostudythemonumentsattheborderre-
gionsofwesternworldandintheLatinEast.
NewterritoriesofEuropeanartwerediscov-
ered.Inthisway,Focillondiscoveredthatthe“life
offorms”wassodifferentfromidealmodels.The
diversityofartisticcurrentsandthecontributions
ofNorthandEastwererecognized,andtheatten-
tionwasdirectedtothevisualdocumentary,which
testifiedtotheartisticdiversityandencouragedto
questionthetraditionallinearsuccessionof-ism’s.
Focillon’sconceptofthe“lifeofforms”wasthe
commonmethodologicalapproachforallrepre-
sentativesofhisschool.Italsoleftalargefootprint
ontheformationofBaltrużaitis’worldview.How-
ever,Baltrużaitisestablishedastructuralapproach
andcreatedadistinctlyoriginalsystemforthein-
terpretationofart,inwhichaseriesofdrawings
andsketchesmadebyhimgroundedthenarrative
ofarthistory.
StudyingattheSorbonne,Baltrużaitisused
tovisithisparentsinMoscowandreturntoPar-
isthoughLithuania.Whilestayingindifferent
countriesandobservingtheirmultilayeredcul-
turallandscape,hewasmuchmoresensitiveto
cross-culturalphenomena.Asforthebiography
ofBaltrużaitis,itshouldbenotedalsothathisfa-
therwasnotonlyLithuania’sAmbassadorinRus-
sia,butalsotheLithuania’senvoytoTurkeyand
Persia.So,hissonhadtheprivilegeoftravellingto
theEastwithdiplomaticpassport.Whilearthis-
torians(especiallyJosefStrzygowski)haveargued
theimportanceofEarlyChristianartoftheCau-
casusregionintheevolutionofWesternmedieval
art,FocillonencouragedBaltrużaitistoexplorethe
medievalartinArmeniaandGeorgia.In1927and
1928,Baltrużaitismadeseveralarchaeologicalex-
peditionstotheTranscaucasia.“InSeptember1928
JurgisBaltrużaitisobtainedexceptionalauthoriza-
tionofSovietauthoritiestogetintoArmeniansite,
whichwassituatedontheborderlineofUSSRand
Iran,theaccesstotheareawasstrictlyinterdicted
andnooneofwesternresearchershadevervisited
thissitebefore.Itwasthemedievalcemeteryof
OldArmeniantownJulfa,situatedintheregionof
Nakhchivan,from1921undertheauthorityofAz-
erbaijan,andabsolutelyinaccessibletotheexternal
world”5.Theseexpeditionswouldhavebeenimpos-
siblewithoutthesupportofBaltrużaitis’fatherwho
alsostimulatedhissontocarryouttheresearchin
theregion.Ithastobesaid,however,thatliving
inMoscow,Baltrużaitis’fatherinteractedwiththe
culturaldiasporaofArmeniansandappreciatedAr-
menianpoetry,theatreandfineart.Hehadsympa-
5Donabédian(2000:165).
