XVIII amžiaus studijos / The Eighteenth Century Studies

The article addresses the theme of peasants in the work of Pranciškus Smuglevičius (Franciszek Smuglewicz, 1745–1807) and discusses the most significant works on this theme extant in the collections of Lithuania and Poland. Special attention is devoted to the compositions depicting two Cracowians in a tavern. It is noted that a group of paintings of a similar composition exists and most of them are attributed to P. Smuglevičius. In this article, an attempt is made to figure out which works were painted by P. Smuglevičius himself, which paintings should be attributed to copies, and how the abundance of versions of this small modest composition can be explained. A discussion of the examples of the image of Cracowian peasants in other fields of eighteenth-century culture revealed that, unlike P. Smuglevičius’s numerous earlier works on the peasant theme, Cracowians in a Tavern is not just a manifestation of his interest in the life and daily round of the third estate. This composition can be read as an allegoric painting that hides a generalised picture of the peasantry as an inseparable part of the nation under a “mask” of an everyday scene and a study of folk types.

The article discusses the system of children’s education presented in Proiekt nieuskuteczniony prozą i wierszem (1788; The Unfulfilled Project in Prose and Verse) by Wincenty Ignacy Marewicz (1755–1822). The article examines how the writer, who came from the petty nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, adapted the new ideas of pedagogy that were spreading in Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century. An attempt is made to discern what was typical in W. I. Marewicz’s work and what individual nuances were given to it by a particular personality. In the work discussed, the author’s pedagogical views are presented in the chapter “Systema Edukacyi dla Płci oboiey” (A System of Education for Both Sexes). The writer sets out his system like a narrative to his future wife about