DOI article:
Kunińska, Magdalena: The Collector (Karol Lanckoroński), the Scholar (Marian Sokołowski) and the Artist (Jacek Malczewski) Three Gazes upon Asia Minor
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73804#0024
Folia Historiae Artium
Seria Nowa, t. 22: 2024/PL ISSN 0071-6723
MAGDALENA KUNIŃSKA
Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Institute of Art History
THE COLLECTOR (KAROL LANCKOROŃSKI),
THE SCHOLAR (MARIAN SOKOŁOWSKI)
AND THE ARTIST (JACEK MALCZEWSKI)
THREE GAZES UPON ASIA MINOR
INTRODUCTION: LENSES IN TERMS
OF ORIENTALISM
I would like to begin with an explanation of the title of
the present article. In the original version it read: 'The
Collector (Karol Lanckoroński), the Scholar (Marian
Sokołowski) and the Artist (Jacek Malczewski). Three
Views of Asia Minor in the Context of the Beginnings
of Interest in Non-European Art'. However, this title was
shortened before a first presentation of the research be-
cause of the conclusions drawn from reading the texts of
Lanckoroński and Sokołowski and viewing the works of
Jacek Malczewski. The context of research into non-Euro-
pean art, although present in Lanckorońskis interests, is
overwhelmed in the case of the expedition under consid-
eration here by the prevailing views in the Austro-Hun-
garian Monarchy on the role of archaeological research
in constructing the history of post-Greco-Roman civilisa-
tion. And the research, as will be demonstrated, bears the
hallmarks of hegemonic discourse.
It should also be noted that the article is not intended
as another presentation of the journey, but as a bunch of
reflections derived from research into the history of art
history and its entanglements with archaeology and local
political and institutional circumstances.
The historical account of the dominant gaze, associated
with power in Michel Foucaults sense1, is one of the cen-
tral motifs of humanities based on paradigms developed
since the 1970s. The gaze as active while making the ob-
served an object [Fig. 1], has been subjected to critiques of
1 Foucault's publication of Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison
(1975) opened up the field and fast became a paradigmatic study
for the analysis of vision, knowledge and power.
intertwined feminist and post-colonial narratives, and the
literature on 'imperial gaze' occupies a considerable shelf
in the library.2 For a long time, however, it has not been
used for critical analysis of Polish art historiography.
Hence, this paper uses this notion to draw attention to
the perspectives/lenses of the participants of the 1884 ex-
pedition to Asia Minor. This particular case study focuses,
as if through a lens, on the orientalist tendencies present in
the Habsburg Empire at the time, based on the tension be-
tween the construction of the 'near' and 'far Orient', used -
as described by Johann Heiss and Johannes Feichtinger -
in the political strategy of incorporating 'near' Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and antagonising the Ottoman Empire,3
2 Starting with the psychoanalytical study of Lacan, who positions
the body as an object of the gaze, via the classic book of Franz
Fanon (F. Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, London 1986, first
edition 1952). See E. Ann Kaplan (E. A. Kaplan, Looking for the
Other: Feminism, Film and the Imperial Gaze, New York-London
1997; esp. Chapter 1: 'Travel, Travelling Identities and the Look'),
where Kaplan analises the process of the heightening of self-iden-
tity with travels. The particular case of it is travels to Asia Mi-
nor which are analysed in the article. As Kaplan writes: 'As not-
ed, looking relations are never innocent. They are always deter-
mined by the cultural systems people travelling bring with them'
(p. 6). The most moving example of making the local people the
object of study, documented in Malczewski's drawing, is the scene
of the anthropologist Felix Luschan measuring heads, reproduced
here as fig. 1.
3 J. Heiss, J. Feichtinger, 'Distant Neighbours. Uses of Oriental-
ism in the Late Nineteenth-Century Austro-Hungarian Empire',
in: Deploying Orientalism in Culture and History. From Germany
to Central and Eastern Europe, Rochester, NY 2013, pp. 148-165.
The authors based their differentiation on two questions posed
Seria Nowa, t. 22: 2024/PL ISSN 0071-6723
MAGDALENA KUNIŃSKA
Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Institute of Art History
THE COLLECTOR (KAROL LANCKOROŃSKI),
THE SCHOLAR (MARIAN SOKOŁOWSKI)
AND THE ARTIST (JACEK MALCZEWSKI)
THREE GAZES UPON ASIA MINOR
INTRODUCTION: LENSES IN TERMS
OF ORIENTALISM
I would like to begin with an explanation of the title of
the present article. In the original version it read: 'The
Collector (Karol Lanckoroński), the Scholar (Marian
Sokołowski) and the Artist (Jacek Malczewski). Three
Views of Asia Minor in the Context of the Beginnings
of Interest in Non-European Art'. However, this title was
shortened before a first presentation of the research be-
cause of the conclusions drawn from reading the texts of
Lanckoroński and Sokołowski and viewing the works of
Jacek Malczewski. The context of research into non-Euro-
pean art, although present in Lanckorońskis interests, is
overwhelmed in the case of the expedition under consid-
eration here by the prevailing views in the Austro-Hun-
garian Monarchy on the role of archaeological research
in constructing the history of post-Greco-Roman civilisa-
tion. And the research, as will be demonstrated, bears the
hallmarks of hegemonic discourse.
It should also be noted that the article is not intended
as another presentation of the journey, but as a bunch of
reflections derived from research into the history of art
history and its entanglements with archaeology and local
political and institutional circumstances.
The historical account of the dominant gaze, associated
with power in Michel Foucaults sense1, is one of the cen-
tral motifs of humanities based on paradigms developed
since the 1970s. The gaze as active while making the ob-
served an object [Fig. 1], has been subjected to critiques of
1 Foucault's publication of Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison
(1975) opened up the field and fast became a paradigmatic study
for the analysis of vision, knowledge and power.
intertwined feminist and post-colonial narratives, and the
literature on 'imperial gaze' occupies a considerable shelf
in the library.2 For a long time, however, it has not been
used for critical analysis of Polish art historiography.
Hence, this paper uses this notion to draw attention to
the perspectives/lenses of the participants of the 1884 ex-
pedition to Asia Minor. This particular case study focuses,
as if through a lens, on the orientalist tendencies present in
the Habsburg Empire at the time, based on the tension be-
tween the construction of the 'near' and 'far Orient', used -
as described by Johann Heiss and Johannes Feichtinger -
in the political strategy of incorporating 'near' Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and antagonising the Ottoman Empire,3
2 Starting with the psychoanalytical study of Lacan, who positions
the body as an object of the gaze, via the classic book of Franz
Fanon (F. Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, London 1986, first
edition 1952). See E. Ann Kaplan (E. A. Kaplan, Looking for the
Other: Feminism, Film and the Imperial Gaze, New York-London
1997; esp. Chapter 1: 'Travel, Travelling Identities and the Look'),
where Kaplan analises the process of the heightening of self-iden-
tity with travels. The particular case of it is travels to Asia Mi-
nor which are analysed in the article. As Kaplan writes: 'As not-
ed, looking relations are never innocent. They are always deter-
mined by the cultural systems people travelling bring with them'
(p. 6). The most moving example of making the local people the
object of study, documented in Malczewski's drawing, is the scene
of the anthropologist Felix Luschan measuring heads, reproduced
here as fig. 1.
3 J. Heiss, J. Feichtinger, 'Distant Neighbours. Uses of Oriental-
ism in the Late Nineteenth-Century Austro-Hungarian Empire',
in: Deploying Orientalism in Culture and History. From Germany
to Central and Eastern Europe, Rochester, NY 2013, pp. 148-165.
The authors based their differentiation on two questions posed