Senses And Sensations
5 December 2024 – 4 May 2025
We feel happy, sad, and angry, we love, laugh, cry, fear or worry – we experience many emotions every day. Human feelings and the five senses that enhance them (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch) have long attracted the attention of thinkers and creators who carefully observe the world.
Depicting the rich, complex and intricate palette of human emotions was not easy. Through perspective, shadow and colour management skills, it was possible to create evocative physical forms. Still, much more effort and sensitivity were required to reveal the feelings and psychological state of the characters. The situation was complicated further by the fact that for a long time, the unrestrained expression of feelings in works of art was not welcomed. In the representative portraits of the nobles, which were most profitable to the artists, emotional expressions were considered inappropriate, offensive to the dignity and disturbing the monumentality of the image. On the other hand, the display of feelings could flow freely in mythological, religious scenes or in portraits representing the lower classes who had significantly less respect for the established moral and social norms. Over time, as life became more modern, the interest in human psychology grew and the science of psychoanalysis developed, uninhibited displays of emotions in the artists’ works became more common, and creators began to be praised for their ability to convey the mood convincingly.
The exhibition is dedicated to the expression of senses and emotions in art and consists of two thematic parts: sensations (five senses) and feelings. Each of them is illustrated by the works of visual or applied art from the 16th to the early 20th centuries, the works of modern philosophers and scientists, which were employed by writers, thinkers and artists, seeking to explore, discover, and classify the passions of the soul or the senses of the body. At the exhibition, visitors are invited not only to follow the footsteps of the curators’ story but also to use their imagination to interpret the artworks, and to feel the individual emotions and physical senses the works evoke.
Exhibition Organiser Vilniaus paveikslų galerija
Curators: Gabija Kasparavičiutė-Kaminskienė, Joana Vitkutė
Architect Sigita Simona Paplauskaitė
Designer Julija Lečaitė
Translator Dr Raminta Bumbulytė
Partners: National Museum of Lithuania, M.K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, Kaunas City Museum, Latvian National Museum of Art, the Art Museum of Estonia, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Kretinga Museum, Samogitian Museum Alka, Šiauliai Aušros Museum, Lithuanian State Historical Archives, Vilnius University Library, The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Tartu universiteto biblioteka, Scientific Library of the PAAS and the PAS in Krakow, Dr Jaunius Gumbis, Dr Kristina Sabaliauskaitė, Rūta and Rimvydas Baranauskai, Jonas Žilinskas
Media partners:LRT, JCDecaux Lietuva
- Click here to buy an e-ticket for the exhibition
- Plan your visit
- Book a tour in English: +370 681 90329, gidai.vpg@lndm.lt
4 Didžioji st, Vilnius, Lithuania
+370 5 261 1685
vpg@lndm.lt
