In Search of a Missing Frame. An Episode from the History of Printing in Ruthenia

professor Agnieszka Gronek (ORCID iD), Faculty of International and Political Studies of the Jagiellonian University, ul. Piłsudskiego 13, 31-109 Kraków

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Summary

In Search of a Missing Frame. An Episode from the History of Printing in Ruthenia

large architectonic frame encompassing the space of a leafis one ofthe most recognisable elements embellishing books published by Ivan Fyodoroy. The frame, arcade in character, built in two projections and enclosed in a perspective outline, is an original and innovative motive in the developing Cyrillic printing. Although its innovative form copies the composition of the German engraver Erhard Schoen, owing to its positioning on the title page of the first print of the Bibie in Old Church Slavonic (Ostróg 1581), it constitutes a elear and representative symbol of modern Ruthenian culture until today. Fyodorov used it in three books, after which it disappeared without tracę. However, its copies appeared again in Vilnius prints, not only Orthodox but also Protestant and Catholic.

The above-mentioned fact attests to the universality of decorative elements which freely cross the borders of confession and culture. It also enables us to analyse contacts between printers of the largest cultural centres in the Commonwealth and tracę the roots of the spread of patterns and inspirations. Originally not containing any content, the discussed ornamental motif, owing to the fame of Ivan Fyodorov and high value of his prints, became a symbol of Ruthenian culture, which could be used by Vilnius printers for financial purposes, and perhaps ideological purposes in interdenominational polemics. There is no doubt that in the 20th century it was a elear carrier of national ideology, to which Ukrainian activists of culture and science referred.

The Arrangement of the Presbytery in the Church of Poor Clares in Stary Sącz

Michał Kurzej PhD (ORCID iD), Institute of Art History, Jagiellonian University, ul. Grodzka 53, 31-001 Kraków

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Summary

The Arrangement of the Presbytery in the Church of Poor Clares in Stary Sącz

Despite the reconstruction conducted at the beginning of the 1 yth century, Poor Clares’ Church in Stary Sącz preserved its mediaeval shape. However, it gained new furnishings, whose most important element were three retables in the apse of the presbytery - the main retable and two side retables with the paintings of St Clare and St Anthony, tlanked by the figures of angels. They were madę in 1699 when marble was purchased; a stonecutter, a bricklayer, a burnisher and an assistant were employed; and on 29th July 1699 an agreement was signed with the stuccoist Baldassare Fontana, who agreed to make sculptural decorations of the altars for 3000 Polish zlotys. Remuneration for the artists and payment for the materials were given by nuns through the agency of priest Sebastian Piskorski. It was also he who mediated in paying 360 Polish zlotys for two paintings for the side retables in the presbytery.

The author of these paintings was not noted in the archives. One of the paintings depicting St Clare was acknowledged by Mariusz Karpowicz as a work by Karol Dankwart. Mariusz Karpowicz described the second painting as the re-painted and did not undertake to determine its authorship. This can as well be confirmed not only by the fact that both paintings were paid for, but that they were remarkably similar. These paintings are linked with the use of serious perspective outlines of faces, a method of painting with characteristic long brushstrokes visible in the drapery, and also detailed depiction of flowers. It can be inferred that the paintings by Dankwart were created in 1699, that is almost at the same time as a magnificent Baptism of Christ painted by the very artist to the order of priest Piskorski for the Cracow church of St Anne. These three works are the only known works of this artist in this techniąue, historically connected to Poland. They constitute a separate episode in his oeuvre and are characterized by the highest artistic level. We can see it even in the comparison with the most distinguished works from Moravia and Silesia of the previous decade, among which we can find a substantially dynamie Saint Michael Crushing the Heretics in the post-Jesuit church in Znojmo, a monumental and dramatic The Judgment of Caiaphas in the parish church in Kożuchów, and a large collection of paintings from the refectory of Carolinum in Nysa. Therefore, it is probable that the Polish period was particularly important for the oeuvre of this artist, as it was for the stuccoist Fontana, who left his most important work in Cracow. Hence, we can assume that in both cases priest Piskorski played the role of an indirect employer, who could in a special way motivate artists who worked for him. He was connected for many years to Poor Clares as their confessor and prebendary of the church in Grodzisko near Skała, where he realized his highly ambitious pilgrimage site, which commemorated Blessed Salomea, the founder of the first monastery of this Polish rule. Piskorski also played an important role in the transformation of the Cracow church of Poor Clares dedicated to St Andrew. Ergo, we can assume that also in Stary Sącz he was at least a consultant and a fellow of abbess Jordanówna and an initiator of bringing to Stary Sącz the workshop of Fontana and paintings by Dankwart - the artists who he employed while supervising the construction and decoration of a new university church dedicated to St Anne.

The Synagogue in Koniecpol in the Light of the Unknonwn Documents. History - Form - Patterns

Kinga Migalska MA (ORCID iD), Department of Jewish Studies, Jagiellonian University, ul. Józefa 19, 30-056 Kraków

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Summary

The Synagogue in Koniecpol in the Light of the Unknonwn Documents. History - Form - Patterns

Architectural form of non existing synagogue in Koniecpol did not stand out among a large group of i9th-century neoclassical synagogues in former territory of Polish Commonwealth. But, because of a smali amount of research materiał (most of i9th-century synagogues vanished during ii w w and the Communist period) the possibility of reconstruction its architectural form can be helpful in In the study of Jewish architecture. So far in the scientific literaturę an opinion existed, that the synagogue in Koniecpol was erected in the mid nineteenth century. Insightful research has led to the correction of this information and moved the moment of the synagogues founding in its finał form to the nineties of the nineteenth century by conducting a comparative analysis of other synagogues with the spatial arrangement and architectonic decoration similar to the synagogue in Koniecpol, located in the Southern part of Congress Poland we can mark a linę of development of the type of a synagogue with longitudinal section and a faęade in the form of a portico. It also led us to determine the original pattern, which turned out to be a project created by Piotr Chrystian Aigner.

The problem of classical motifs in synagogue architecture in this area has not been sufficiently studied, primarily because of the smali group of preserved buildings. Therefore, the following article is not only a monographic work of the history of the synagogue in Koniecpol. It constitutes a basis for researching the architectonic type, widely represented in the i9th-century synagogue architecture in the Polish lands.

The Painting by Andrzej Żygadło. In the Retro Style?

Agnieszka Jankowska-Marzec PhD, Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, pl. Jana Matejki 13, 31-157 Kraków

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Summary

The Painting by Andrzej Żygadło. In the Retro Style?

The article attempts to present the oeuvre of Andrzej Żygadło, who acts today in the Kraków artistic circle. The aforementioned artist, belonging to the youngest generation of artists (b. in 1988), is a graduate of the Faculty of Painting and the Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. Education which he acąuired studying in both faculties translates into his creative practice, since it connects the activities leading to the preservation of local (subcarpathian) cultural legacy with the activities in the field of painting, in which he undertakes issues from the history of the Polish-Ukrainian borderland. The history of monumental Orthodox churches and folk ceremonies, e.g. funeral rites as well as the ceremonies involving collective and indiyidual memory, have become his inspiration. The eschatological reflection which pervades his works is expressed by their iconography and formal Solutions. His works reflect the connection with the methods of depiction present in Polish painting of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The creative strategy of the artist relies on originality. In addition, he simultaneously engages in a dialogue with present trends in Polish contemporary art (modern folklore, memorology). 

In Memory ofCasimir the Great - Jews-Poles. On the Forgotten Building Project of the Royal Monument in Kazimierz in Kraków

Alicja Maślak-Maciejewska PhD (ORCID iD), Institute of Jewish Studies, Jagiellonian University, ul. Józefa 19, 30-056 Kraków

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Summary

In Memory ofCasimir the Great - Jews-Poles. On the Forgotten Building Project of the Royal Monument in Kazimierz in Kraków

In 1883 progressive Cracow Jews, guided by patriotic enthusiasm, took the initiative of building a full-figure statuę of Casimir the Great in Kazimierz. Works connected to the erection of the statue (fund-raising, discussions on the shape of the future monument, the organization of subsequent boards of monument erection) lasted for almost three decades and actively  involved the progressive circles. At first it was the youth that were involved in this project. Later the leaders of this circle (e.g. Jonathan Warschauer, Jan Albert Propper) and sińce 1896 also the progressive women joined the project. At the end of the first decade of the 20th century a conception of a full-figure statuę was dismissed, and the funds raised were used to found a relief entitled The Admission ofjews to Poland by Casimir the Great, which was made by Henryk Hochman and which was hung in 1911 in the old Town Hall in Kazimierz.

In the following article the origins and the phases of the initiative of the aforementioned monument were analysed (including the unrealized projects of the monument by Stanisław Lewandowski and Jan and Mieczysław Zawiejski), and a hypothesis was formulated concerning the reasons of the failure to complete the first conception of the statute. An idea of the erection of the monument of Casimir the Great by the Cracow Jews, today completely forgotten, is for yarious reasons worth reminding. Above all, it represents an interesting example of the patriotic activities of the progressive Jews as well as the acculturational processes undergoing in this milieu. It also creates an absorbing context for other initiatives of monument erection of that period (e.g. the monument of Adam Mickiewicz in Kraków). And finally, it allows us to understand the context in which the work by Hochman was created, whose version can be seen in the Town Hall in Kazimierz sińce 1996. 

About the Photographs of the Paintings by Saturnin Świerzyński Given to Józef Łepkowski

Anna Bednarek MA, The Historical Museum of the City of Kraków, Rynek Główny 35, 31-011 Kraków

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Summary

About the Photographs of the Paintings by Saturnin Świerzyński Given to Józef Łepkowski

In the Polish private and institutional collections we can find a large collection of photographs connected to the Cracow painter Saturnin Świerzyński (1820-1885). The aforementioned collection comprises at least 73 prints taken in the second half of the 19th century, on which 30 paintings of this artist were presented. However, this collection is incomplete sińce at least two other paintings by Świerzyński were photographed, which we know from his manuscript which includes for instance a list of his works and expenses. The following article discusses four photographs kept in the Photo Library of the Institute of History of Art of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, which were given by Świerzyński to the historian Józef Łepkowski.

A problem of photographic reproductions of works of art in Poland, which has for years been neglected in the scientific research, reąuires a thorough analysis. The above-mentioned topie has been researched by photographs sińce the emergence of this techniąue, though in Poland not as often as in the West. It started to change in the 1850S owing to the Warsaw photograph Karol Beyer. The oldest photograph from the Photo Library discussed in this publication representing a painting The Second Hall, So Called Knights Hall, of the Antiquities Exhibition in Cracow is exactly from this period, that is 1859. The author of the photograph is “Biazoni”, who I identify with the Cracow merchant August Biasion, hitherto unknown photographer-amateur and one of a few in this period. One or two other paintings by Świerzyński were photographed in the 1860S, and the remaining paintings already in the 1870s and the first half of the 1880S. This group includes three discussed photographs from the Photo Library with the paintings The Third Hall of the Antiąuities Exhibition (1873), Interior of the Bathory Chapel in the Cracow Cathedral (1881) and Interior of the Cracow Cathedral Treasury (1883). During this period there were morę photographic studios in Cracow than earlier, and some of them specialized in reproducing works of art and monuments. The author of a greater number of the reproductions of the Świerzyńskis paintings, taken since 1867, was Awit Szubert who ran one of such studios. With reference to the remaining photographs, his authorship appears to be probable, though no conclusive evidence exists.

This long-term cooperation of the painter and the photographer constitutes one of a few examples of such cooperation in Poland. Nonetheless, insufficient research does not allow us to unequivocally State and locate them against the activities undertaken by other artists. There is every likelihood that the photographs of the Świerzyńskis paintings were taken to his order. However, the reasons for which he took photographs of them remain unknown. This act of taking photographs could have been linked to his care for documenting his own oeuvre. Most probably the photographs served as gifts for his family and friends, the example of which are the photographs from the Photo Library given to Łepkowski. Nevertheless, we do not know much about his acąuaintance with Świerzyński. The above-mentioned prints were kept in the collection of Łepkowski until 1892, when Konstanty Przezdziecki purchased it and gave it to the Archaeological Studio of the Jagiellonian University. In subseąuent years this Studio was numerously transformed, owing to which the analysed photographs became a part of the Photo Library of the Jagiellonian University. 

[book review]

Zoltán Gyalókay PhD, Institute of Art History, University of Warsaw, ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28, 00-927 Warszawa

[book review] 

A szórvany emlekei [Monuments of the Diaspora], ed. Tibor Kollar et al., Teleki Laszló Alapitvany, Budapest 2013, ss. 349, il. 501.

[book review]

Tanita Ciesielska MA, Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, pl. Jana Matejki 13, 31-157 Kraków

(DOI)

[book review] Joanna Kłysz-Hackbarth, Wzory ornamentalne Erazma Kamyna  - złotnika poznańskiego z XVI wieku, Wydawnictwo DiG, Warszawa 2014, ł~ ss. 404, il. 360,19 tablic.

Maurycy Gottlieb: In Search of Identity [exhibition review]

Agnieszka Yass-Alston MA, Institute of Jewish Studies, Jagiellonian University, ul. Józefa 19, 30-056 Kraków

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Summary

Maurycy Gottlieb: In Search of Identity  [exhibition review]

One wonders what purpose there can be for an exhibition catalog in the second decade of the 21^st century of a well-known artist, whose first retrospective one-man exhibition took place almost a century earlier. In 1932 a commemorative exhibition on Maurycy Gottlieb (1856‒1879) organized in the midst of anti-Semitic events was initiated by Jewish artists and intellectuals living in Krakow motivated by a desire to show and educate the public about a great Jewish artist. At the time Leo Schönker, a Jewish painter wrote: “We believe that Gottlieb’s exhibit and spirit will help into brotherhood coexistence and bright future”. Rudolf Beres was the driving force behind that exhibit. One of the very innovative approaches to exhibitions of the time was publishing accompanying publication with a comprehensive artist’s biography and a catalog of the artworks with details including media, size and history of ownership, private and institutional. The exhibition comprised of ninety-two artworks by Gottlieb including several works located in Poland, however with a few large canvases from Austria, Germany and Russia missing. Only some of these are included in the “Maurycy Gottlieb. In the Search of Identity” exhibition catalog under review here.

Subsequently in 1991 Nehama Guralnik took on the enormous challenge of organizing “In the Flower of Youth. Maurycy Gottlieb 1856–1879” a travelling exhibition that was shown at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (May 16 – July 20, 1991), the National Museum in Warsaw (Aug. 19 – Oct. 20, 1991) and at the Jüdisches Museum, Frankfurt am Main (Nov. 27, 1991 – Feb. 23, 1992). Guralnik, a curator at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, traveled all over the world to gather Gottlieb’s artworks which had been dispersed by World War II and the post-War Communist regime in Poland. She succeeded in bringing together seventy-nine paintings and drawings; moreover she collected an enormous amount of information about them and those that had been lost. The essays included in the catalog are scholarly and presented with a considered analysis incorporating various aspects of Maurycy’s life and work. The final sections of the publication titled: Catalog, Exhibitions, and Bibliography demonstrate a thorough, professional and exhaustive endeavor. The Catalog not only provides a physical description of the artworks, including information about their exhibitions and analysis within the catalog text but also, for the first time, establishes the history of ownership with a confirmed trail of provenance of Maurycy Gottlieb’s exhibited paintings and drawings.

The exhibition “Maurycy Gottlieb. In Search of Identity”, opened in the Herbst Palace Museum, a branch of the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź (Oct. 10, 2014 – Jan. 2 2015) and was exhibited in the Feliks Jasieński Szołayski House of the National Museum in Krakow (Feb. 13, 2015 – May 3, 2105). The exhibition included forty-six artworks, including two copies of Maurycy’s paintings by his brother, Marcin: Shylock and Jessica, 1887 (a copy of painting of 1876) and Self-Portrait in Bedouin Attire, 1887 (the original was painted in 1877); in addition to two paintings with highly questionable attribution. One, included in the catalog as a work of Maurycy Gottlieb titled King Casimir the Great and His Jewish Mistress, which is commonly only attributed to Maurycy, and another new arrival in his oeuvre Historical Scene. The inclusion in a serious catalog published by reputable cultural institutions of misattributed artworks can easily confuse future research and may also lead to is an erroneous and unethical misrepresentation in the market place.

Why was the painting hung on exhibition. Comments on the review of the exhibition "On the High Carpathian" Art of Huculszczyna - Huculszczyzna in art on the 40th anniversary of the death of Stanisław Vincenza. Exhibition at the Main Building of the National Museum in Krakow, March 18 - May 29, 2011

professor Mirosław Piotr Kruk (ORCID iD), National Museum in Kraków, al. 3 Maja 1, 30-062 Kraków

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Summary

Why was the painting hung on exhibition. Comments on the review of the exhibition "On the High Carpathian" Art of Huculszczyna - Huculszczyzna in art on the 40th anniversary of the death of Stanisław Vincenza. Exhibition at the Main Building of the National Museum in Krakow, March 18 - May 29, 2011

It has been many years since the exhibition, which I was a curator. Nevertheless, I decided that one should refer to the criticisms of her devoted, and included in the review published in 2013 in the journal "Modus" authored by Dr. Agnieszka Jankowska Marzec. I am glad that the exhibition lasting only two and a half months, attracted attention among so many other exhibitions that at that time, both earlier and later, were held at the National Museum in Krakow.
To begin with, rectification. The patron of the exhibition was Stanisław Vincenz, but not because "it was organized as an event accompanying the International Hutsul Festival". The concept of the presence of an extraordinary prose writer was included in the submission of the exhibition plan in June 2004 and initially did not involve cooperation with other institutions. The temporary exhibition project planned for implementation in 2011 and presented for approval by the directorate of the NMK has hardly changed much. All documentation related to the preparation of the exhibition remains to be seen. The idea of combining the exhibition with the festival appeared much later, when it turned out that it was planned in the same year 2011, as it was then the fortieth anniversary of Vincenz's death.

In my opinion, the Palm Sunday triptych of Kazimierz Sichulski in question is the quintessence of the vitality and color of Hutsul folklore, interpreted subordinately, constituting an exalted vision of the religiousness of the mountain people, that is, features that were present in both Vincenz's and academic artists' works. I see in it a synthesis of elements of folklore and his artistic vision. The religious experience, shown so loftily and ardently, goes beyond the framework of a simple illustration, moreover - the luminosity and references to the early morning contained in the picture can be understood metaphorically, on many levels. Children in Hutsul costume, in spiritual poses, were to be perceived through the prism of a religious theme, both lyrical and heroic. They were captured in a peculiar symbiosis with the rhythm of nature. It contains, in the triptych, a promise of prosperity, development, in relation to young people entering a mature age as well as to nature in which new life begins to arise, but also in relation to the region and the country, as in Stefan's Eve Żeromski. In the general sense, cognitive enthusiasm, which was attended not only by artists but also by landlords, socialists and intelligentsia, directed at the Hutsul region, was accompanied by the enthusiasm accompanying the rebirth of Poland. That is why this picture seemed to me to be the proper opening of the exhibition. On the other hand, I am not convinced by the author's praise for finding links between the vision of "sadized Hutsul children who are the main heroes of the triptych" with the Hutsul spectrum of forest death ", i.e. too intense logging of trees, which did not promise a successful future".

Returning to the issue of the triptych suspended at the beginning of the exhibition, I am ready to accept material remarks, but not brusque. The recipient may not agree to the proposal of the author of the exhibition, he may reject it, he may undermine its meaning, but he must also be aware that imputing the lack of reflection he himself exposes himself to the same objection. There is, therefore, one more important, in my opinion, nuance about the style of criticism. Well, there is a fundamental difference between the statements: "I do not agree", "I reject", "I do not understand", "does not convince me" and statements like: "the curator [...] did not ask himself", "should make the curator think about it", "The organizers lacked in-depth reflection", "for a missed idea to be recognized "etc. Here the author gives opinions ex cathedra, as she knows everything better. Such a patronizing style of criticism is unacceptable and I recommend the reviewer with special attention for the future.

Chronicle of the Jagiellonian University Institute of Art History for the year 2015

professor Andrzej Betlej (ORCID iD), Institute of Art History, Jagiellonian University, ul. Grodzka 53, 31-001 Kraków

(DOI)

Chronicle of the Jagiellonian University Institute of Art History for the year 2015

About the Authors