DOI issue:
Nr. 4
DOI article:Poprzęcka, Maria: "And I still see their faces": on Jan Matejko's Physiognomies
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18938#0102
2. Jan Matejko, The Sermon of Skarga. 1864, detail: Jan Zamoyski, Warsaw, Muzeum Narodowe
aces, rooted in ancient and medieval tradition runs from Gaurieus through the prints of Giam-
battista delia Porta, and drawings of Leonardo, Rubens, and Le Brun12. The concept gained
peculiar popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries, not only in high art, but also in cartoons
and caricature. Animals acting like people, animals with human heads and people with animal
heads are especially frecjuent in political iconography. The French Revolution produced a whole
bestiary. Great 19th century draughtsmen and eartoonists, Grandville, Gavarni, Daumier,
were all obsessed with the idea of animal traits in people. Balzac confessed that his idea of the
Comedie Humaine sprang from a comparison between mankind and animal world, and his work
was intended as a kind of Buffon's zoology, though dealing with human society13. According
12. J. Białostocki, op. cił., p. 72: J. Baltruśaitis, Aberralions. Qnalre Essais sur la legendę des formes, Paris, 1957 (1 st. ed.). ch.
Physionomie Animale
13. H. Balzac, La comedie humaine, Avant-propos, I, Eliides de moęurs: scenes de la vii privue, Paria, 1965, p. 51, f.
88
aces, rooted in ancient and medieval tradition runs from Gaurieus through the prints of Giam-
battista delia Porta, and drawings of Leonardo, Rubens, and Le Brun12. The concept gained
peculiar popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries, not only in high art, but also in cartoons
and caricature. Animals acting like people, animals with human heads and people with animal
heads are especially frecjuent in political iconography. The French Revolution produced a whole
bestiary. Great 19th century draughtsmen and eartoonists, Grandville, Gavarni, Daumier,
were all obsessed with the idea of animal traits in people. Balzac confessed that his idea of the
Comedie Humaine sprang from a comparison between mankind and animal world, and his work
was intended as a kind of Buffon's zoology, though dealing with human society13. According
12. J. Białostocki, op. cił., p. 72: J. Baltruśaitis, Aberralions. Qnalre Essais sur la legendę des formes, Paris, 1957 (1 st. ed.). ch.
Physionomie Animale
13. H. Balzac, La comedie humaine, Avant-propos, I, Eliides de moęurs: scenes de la vii privue, Paria, 1965, p. 51, f.
88