DOI issue:
Nr. 3-4
DOI article:Profesor Jan Białostocki (14 VIII 1921 - 25 XII 1988)
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48916#0197
alike, including some of the most distinguished
representatives in the field, were approached with
a reąuest to contribute to the publication. Professor
Białostocki’s extraordinarily high status in the intemational
world of leaming, as well as the goodwill with which he
was remembered, were reflected in the warm response with
which this reąuest was received. As the materials began to
flow in it seemed that the publication under preparation
would be comparable with the monumental Ars auro
prior, a previous festschrift which had been published to
mark Jan Białostocki’s 60th birthday.
Unfortunately, events followed another course and the
publisher initially committed to bringing out the
commemorative book withdrew from the undertaking.
The moment at which this misfortune occurred, at the
beginning of the 1990s, was a particularly difficult one for
large and entirely unprofitable academic publications.
Both the formerly operating and newly arising publishing
houses were experiencing extreme difficulties in adapting
to the new conditions in which they had to function, and
nobody was prepared to run the risk of publishing
a non-profit-making work that was so exceptionally
complicated in respect to both its contents and in editorial
terms, not to mention its multilingual character. Reąuests
for Financial support madę to Polish and foreign institutions
or foundations were also tumed down.
The delay in publishing the commemorative book
prompted a number of authors to withdraw their texts.
Being fuli of understanding for the difficulties that the
publication had come up against, they declared their
willingness to dedicate their articles, which they had
published elsewhere, to the memory of Jan Białostocki.
This dwindling away of the materiał that had been
collected for the publication finally madę the prolonging of
efforts to get the commemorative book published pointless,
sińce it had become too incomplete.
In this situation the Bulletin of Art History has come to
the rescue as a source for publishing remnants of Porta
Mortis in a special commmorative double-issue dedicated
exclusively to the memory of Jan Białostocki in connection
with the approaching tenth anniversary of his death. The
most valuable of the remaining, unpublished materials
have been chosen for this issue, which is opened by Ernst
Gombrich’s Art History and the Republic of Learning.
Creighton Gilbert also went to the trouble of contributing
an entirely new text in honour of the late Professor about
Pius II as one of the earliest commentators of Sienese art.
The other authors who agreed to have their original
contributions to Porta Mortis published in the
Bulletin, Mosche Barasch, Philipp Fehl and Ben J. Broos,
while also being men of letters of the highest repute, were
at the same time close ftiends of Jan Białostocki.
While it is obvious that the numerous articles
dedicated to the late Professor’s memory, widely
dispersed in various publications and periodicals, can
never recompense an expansive festschrift such as Porta
Mortis, they, together with the smali series of texts
published in this double-issue of the Bulletin of Art
History, bear witness to the living memory of Jan
Białostocki and inextinguishable gratitude for everything
that he gave to us as a human being.
Maria Poprzęcka
Instytut Historii Sztuki UW
Translated by Peter Martyn
Kim był dla nas Jan Białostocki? Słowo wspomnienia
Gdy po dziesięciu latach ciągle nie mniej dotkliwie
odczuwamy brak w naszym środowisku Profesora Jana
Białostockiego, z natury rzeczy powraca pytanie kim dla
nas, polskich historyków sztuki, był Jan Białostocki.
Niech mi wolno będzie powtórzyć słowa, które pozwoli-
łem sobie wypowiedzieć w owym dniu grudniowym nad
Jego mogiłą.
Moje pokolenie studiowało w latach pięćdziesiątych,
w czasie, gdy wielki świat europejskiej sztuki, zagra-
niczne muzea i biblioteki, przodujące ośrodki naukowe,
wydawały się raz na zawsze niedostępne.
Uczyliśmy się nie tylko z wyblakłych fotografii i przed-
wojennych przestarzałych podręczników, lecz - co gorsze
-w atmosferze paraliżującego niekiedy kompleksu: że
gdzieś tam są wielkie, największe dzieła, że publikuje się
niedostępne dla nas książki, że uprawia naukę przez wiel-
kie N.
I oto, w drugiej połowie lat pięćdziesiątych, pojawił
się i coraz silniej zaczął istnieć w naszej świadomości
młody uczony - Jan Białostocki. Jego to, w kilku języ-
kach, ukazujące się prace, dotyczyły dzieł największych
Mistrzów: Diirera i Rembrandta, Memlinga i Brueghla,
representatives in the field, were approached with
a reąuest to contribute to the publication. Professor
Białostocki’s extraordinarily high status in the intemational
world of leaming, as well as the goodwill with which he
was remembered, were reflected in the warm response with
which this reąuest was received. As the materials began to
flow in it seemed that the publication under preparation
would be comparable with the monumental Ars auro
prior, a previous festschrift which had been published to
mark Jan Białostocki’s 60th birthday.
Unfortunately, events followed another course and the
publisher initially committed to bringing out the
commemorative book withdrew from the undertaking.
The moment at which this misfortune occurred, at the
beginning of the 1990s, was a particularly difficult one for
large and entirely unprofitable academic publications.
Both the formerly operating and newly arising publishing
houses were experiencing extreme difficulties in adapting
to the new conditions in which they had to function, and
nobody was prepared to run the risk of publishing
a non-profit-making work that was so exceptionally
complicated in respect to both its contents and in editorial
terms, not to mention its multilingual character. Reąuests
for Financial support madę to Polish and foreign institutions
or foundations were also tumed down.
The delay in publishing the commemorative book
prompted a number of authors to withdraw their texts.
Being fuli of understanding for the difficulties that the
publication had come up against, they declared their
willingness to dedicate their articles, which they had
published elsewhere, to the memory of Jan Białostocki.
This dwindling away of the materiał that had been
collected for the publication finally madę the prolonging of
efforts to get the commemorative book published pointless,
sińce it had become too incomplete.
In this situation the Bulletin of Art History has come to
the rescue as a source for publishing remnants of Porta
Mortis in a special commmorative double-issue dedicated
exclusively to the memory of Jan Białostocki in connection
with the approaching tenth anniversary of his death. The
most valuable of the remaining, unpublished materials
have been chosen for this issue, which is opened by Ernst
Gombrich’s Art History and the Republic of Learning.
Creighton Gilbert also went to the trouble of contributing
an entirely new text in honour of the late Professor about
Pius II as one of the earliest commentators of Sienese art.
The other authors who agreed to have their original
contributions to Porta Mortis published in the
Bulletin, Mosche Barasch, Philipp Fehl and Ben J. Broos,
while also being men of letters of the highest repute, were
at the same time close ftiends of Jan Białostocki.
While it is obvious that the numerous articles
dedicated to the late Professor’s memory, widely
dispersed in various publications and periodicals, can
never recompense an expansive festschrift such as Porta
Mortis, they, together with the smali series of texts
published in this double-issue of the Bulletin of Art
History, bear witness to the living memory of Jan
Białostocki and inextinguishable gratitude for everything
that he gave to us as a human being.
Maria Poprzęcka
Instytut Historii Sztuki UW
Translated by Peter Martyn
Kim był dla nas Jan Białostocki? Słowo wspomnienia
Gdy po dziesięciu latach ciągle nie mniej dotkliwie
odczuwamy brak w naszym środowisku Profesora Jana
Białostockiego, z natury rzeczy powraca pytanie kim dla
nas, polskich historyków sztuki, był Jan Białostocki.
Niech mi wolno będzie powtórzyć słowa, które pozwoli-
łem sobie wypowiedzieć w owym dniu grudniowym nad
Jego mogiłą.
Moje pokolenie studiowało w latach pięćdziesiątych,
w czasie, gdy wielki świat europejskiej sztuki, zagra-
niczne muzea i biblioteki, przodujące ośrodki naukowe,
wydawały się raz na zawsze niedostępne.
Uczyliśmy się nie tylko z wyblakłych fotografii i przed-
wojennych przestarzałych podręczników, lecz - co gorsze
-w atmosferze paraliżującego niekiedy kompleksu: że
gdzieś tam są wielkie, największe dzieła, że publikuje się
niedostępne dla nas książki, że uprawia naukę przez wiel-
kie N.
I oto, w drugiej połowie lat pięćdziesiątych, pojawił
się i coraz silniej zaczął istnieć w naszej świadomości
młody uczony - Jan Białostocki. Jego to, w kilku języ-
kach, ukazujące się prace, dotyczyły dzieł największych
Mistrzów: Diirera i Rembrandta, Memlinga i Brueghla,