Three Sources of Michael Johann von der Borch’s Poem “The Sentimental Park of Varakļāni Palace”

History permits us to trace so-called Polish Inflanty, in the territoryof the former Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, to the contemporaryRepublic of Latvia. In this case we are particularly interested in theestate of Warkland (Warklany, Varakļāni). The ensemble of manorand park is typical for large estates in Eastern Europe, including avillage and its infrastructure and a separate manor and park as aspatial, architectural, botanical and social entity.Originating from Baltic-German nobility, ‘Polonised’ countMichael Johann von der Borch-Lubeschitz und Borchhoff (1753–1810) was the son of a Chancellor of Poland and Lithuania. He wasa member of several academies of science, in Siena, Dijon and Lion,and penfriend of Voltaire and academicians in Russia and France.After researching the mineralogy of Italy, Sicily, France, Germany,England, the Netherlands and Switzerland M. J. von der Borch leftfor his estate in Varakļāni, the Polonised part of eastern Livonia,called Polish Inflanty. At this time he also composed literary worksand poems, among which is one remarkable piece of didactic andemblematic content “The Sentimental Park of Varakļāni Palace” (Jardinsentimental du château de Warkland dans le Comté de Borch en RussieBlanche, 1795). This poem illustrates in a passionate and classicalway an emblematic approach to contemporary political structures,and the goals of education in general. In Jardin sentimental, whichis a theoretical and didactic manual, Borsch describes, through themetaphor of the estate park of Warkland, the route of an imaginativehero, full of expectation and temptation.The main subject of the report is an analysis of the text of thepoem contextualised by history and contrasted with evidence fromcontemporary Warkland

Zeugnisse der Epoche der Konfessionalisierung in Kunstwerken Livlands

How were the Reformation and a variety of different confessionalisations manifested in materialculture? The article discusses this issue by presenting a dozen examples of works of artrelating to the present territory of Latvia. In 1521, when urban citizens there responded tothe ideas of the Reformation for the first time, a large part of present-day Latvia belonged toa conglomerate of various holdings called the Livonian Confederation. The religious polarisationof society characteristic of the early period of the Reformation (the 1520s) is representedin works of art discussed in the first chapter. The second chapter discusses works from theperiod of political instability caused by the First Northern War (1558–1583). It is characterisedby Livonia’s political, cultural and confessional division, of which representations can also beseen in many examples of the visual arts.KEY WORDS: Livonia, Reformation, confessionalisation, visual art

THE WORLD OF VASTSELIINA ESTATE IN 1913: REINHOLD KARL VON LIPHARDT AS A PHOTOGRAPHER

The main subject of this article is a photo album created by ReinholdKarl von Liphardt Jr, an outstanding representative of the BalticGerman landed gentry in Estonia in the first half of the 20th century.In the early 1990s, the director of the “Bildarchiv Foto Marburg” ofthe Art History Institute of the Phillips University Marburg, Mrs.Brigitte Walbe made the duplicates of the photographic materialsfrom the collection of the Baltic German historian and genealogistGeorg von Krusenstjern available to the author of this article.The article classifies and analyses the 181 photographs pastedin the photo album which, with the highest degree of certainty,can be attributed to Reinhold Karl von Liphardt Jr. (1864–1940), theowner of Raadi, Vastseliina and several other estates. Judging by the photographs in the album, it can be concluded that von Liphardt usedphotography as a means of enriching his emotionally saturated lifewith yet another means of artistic self-expression. The photographstaken in the period from the winter of 1912–1913 to the winter of1913–1914, convey an inordinate amount of visual information aboutthe landscape, architecture and society in the Vastseliina manor.Reinhold Karl von Liphardt’s photo album presents a series ofchronologically consecutive images and it is similar to a poetic “diaryin pictures”. Reinhold Karl von Liphardt used photography as aperfect means of documenting his ecocultural environment. Hislandscape photographs are characterized by great attention to detail.The cultural and sociological significance of the rural scenes in thephotographs is further increased by the presence of local people inthem. The Seto ethnic group lived in the estates of Reinhold Karlvon Liphardt and, thanks to their ethnographic uniqueness, drewthe attention of an educated landlord.The photos with individual and group portraits of therepresentatives of the Seto ethnic group are not only vivid evidenceof the Estonian culture in the first decades of the 20th century, butalso striking works of art, whose power of expression elevates themconsiderably above the emotionality and artistic effect of ReinholdKarl von Liphardt’s lyrical landscapes and idyllic family portraits

Armenian conference dedicated to the 850th death anniversary of St. Nerses the Gracious

Conference section 1 Opening of the conference with speeches by official persons Boghos Levon Zekiyan, Archeparch of Istanbul and Turkey for the Catholic Armenians - Saint Nerses Shnorhali as a Unique Figure in Christian Thought And Praxis: Shnorhali’s Pioneering Vision of Christian Oecumenism Claude Mutafian, Dr.hist. (University of Paris) -- Mleh, a Successful Armenian Prince (1169- 1175) Andris Priede, Dr.hist.eccl. (Faculty of Theology, University of Latvia) - Marginal Forms of Armenian Monasticism in 13th Century Valda Salmiņa, M.A. - St. Nerses Shnorhali’s historical poem “Lament of Edessa” Conference section 2 Vahan S. Hovhanessian, Bishop PhD (Karekin the First Research Center) -Analysis of the Four Gospels attributed to St. Nerses the Graceful Abraham Terian, Prof. emeritus (St. Nersess Armenian Seminary) - Shnorhali’s Commentary on the Beatitudes Elizabete Taivāne, Dr.theol. (Faculty of Theology, University of Latvia) -Christology of St. Nerses Shnorhali at the Crossroads of Eastern and Western Theology: The Edifying Details Conference section 3 Ojārs Spārītis, Dr.habil.art. (Latvian Academy of Arts) - View on Sacral Architecture of Central Armenia Haig Utidjian, PhD (CESEM, New University of Lisbon) - The music of the Šnorhali Corpus: challenges and rewards Arusyak Tamrazyan, PhD (Matenadaran, Research Institute of Ancient manuscripts) - Mystical symbolism in melismatic performance: the odes by St Nersēs th

Vide un ilgtspējīga attīstība

Grāmata sagatavota un izdota ar Norvēģijas valdības divpusējā finanšu instrumenta projekta LV0044 "Vides zinātnes studiju satura attīstība un studiju materiālu izstrāde" atbalstu

Environment and Sustainable Development

The book has been prepared and published with the support of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism Project LV0044 "Development of environmental science study content and study materials