DOI Heft:
Nr. 2
DOI Artikel:Henshaw, Julia Plummer: Images of Women in Polish Symbolist Art
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18901#0044
5. Jacek Malczewski, Polish Hamlet — Portrait of Aleksander Wielopolski, 1903, Warsaw
Muzeum Narodowe
Malczewski’s oevvre yields another aspect of the passive and powerless roles western society
has ascribed women in his large composition Melancholy (1890—94, National Museum in Poznań,
(fig. 8). Here, in the midst of a seething crowd od males, young, middle-aged, and old, many of
them armed, two women may be seen, both in tears. A third solemn female figure in mourning
appears just outside the window at the far right on a line directly across from the artist’s easel
at the left from which the turbulent crowd emerges. The painting-within-the-painting on the
easel depicts a woman kissing a young man’s temple as he bows towards her, a traditional symbol
of blessing before battle for the cause of freedom. This figure has also been interpreted as the
artist’s muse. In either case, woman is denied a role in the real struggle; there is nothing for
her to do between the act of blessing or inspiring and the act of mourning when her position in
society is one of powerlessness. Little seems to have changed in this role that male artists have
long been willing to ascribe to women. In the monumental Oath of the Horatii (1786, Musée du
Louvre, Paris) men swear to fight and take up arms while women can only cry helplessly, mour-
ning their fathers, sons, and lovers who will be taken from them in the masculine pursuit of
war. Perhaps this long heritage of tears explains in part the close association of twentieth-century
feminism and pacifism.
That Malczewski did hold an alarming personal opinion of woman’s power may be seen with
great clarity in his selfportrait Moment of Creation — Harpy in a Dream (1907, Collection of
Jerzy Nowakowski, Poznań, fig. 9). In this strange vision, the artist is interrupted in the very
moment of inspiration by the sensual image of a voluptuous buxom figure who is half alluring
female and half dangerous beast, as evidenced by the cruel talons placed in close conjunction
with the artist’s head. While the enormous size of the harpy’s breasts certainly suggests power,
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Muzeum Narodowe
Malczewski’s oevvre yields another aspect of the passive and powerless roles western society
has ascribed women in his large composition Melancholy (1890—94, National Museum in Poznań,
(fig. 8). Here, in the midst of a seething crowd od males, young, middle-aged, and old, many of
them armed, two women may be seen, both in tears. A third solemn female figure in mourning
appears just outside the window at the far right on a line directly across from the artist’s easel
at the left from which the turbulent crowd emerges. The painting-within-the-painting on the
easel depicts a woman kissing a young man’s temple as he bows towards her, a traditional symbol
of blessing before battle for the cause of freedom. This figure has also been interpreted as the
artist’s muse. In either case, woman is denied a role in the real struggle; there is nothing for
her to do between the act of blessing or inspiring and the act of mourning when her position in
society is one of powerlessness. Little seems to have changed in this role that male artists have
long been willing to ascribe to women. In the monumental Oath of the Horatii (1786, Musée du
Louvre, Paris) men swear to fight and take up arms while women can only cry helplessly, mour-
ning their fathers, sons, and lovers who will be taken from them in the masculine pursuit of
war. Perhaps this long heritage of tears explains in part the close association of twentieth-century
feminism and pacifism.
That Malczewski did hold an alarming personal opinion of woman’s power may be seen with
great clarity in his selfportrait Moment of Creation — Harpy in a Dream (1907, Collection of
Jerzy Nowakowski, Poznań, fig. 9). In this strange vision, the artist is interrupted in the very
moment of inspiration by the sensual image of a voluptuous buxom figure who is half alluring
female and half dangerous beast, as evidenced by the cruel talons placed in close conjunction
with the artist’s head. While the enormous size of the harpy’s breasts certainly suggests power,
34