DOI Artikel:
Violetta Korsakova: On Lviv Art Historians and a School that Never Was
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73804#0090
89
group of academics as a scientific school, as Zbysław
Muszyński proposes, is to invoke a prototype designate of
the term.49 For Małkiewicz the Vienna school of art his-
tory could have served as an intuitive example for such
a comparison, but instead its very concept seems to have
served him as an inspiration. Retrospectively it is easier,
perhaps, to perceive as integral small chairs and depart-
ments, whose history usually extended for no more than
two or three generations of scholars. Adam Redzik, a lead-
ing historian of Jan Kazimir University, identified in Polish
academic historiography a long list of scientific schools af-
filiated to it. With the two most prominent of these being
the Lviv mathematical school and the Lviv-Warsaw school
of philosophy, one can also find mention of Lviv schools
of anthropology, ethnology, history, geography, organic
chemistry, zoology, one of geophysics and meteorology,
surgery, internal diseases and pathology, ophthalmology,
pharmacology, economic history, history of ecclesiastical,
criminal, private, political, administrative and internation-
al law, economics and history of education.50
However, if the concept of the 'Lviv school' proves one
thing, it is that for some reason, at some point the Lviv art
historians were chosen to be recalled in this way.
One of the many things history does, according to
Franklin R. Ankersmit, is make myths. As he argues,
a traumatic experience, when it pertains to only a part of
the collective identity, can be both forgotten and remem-
bered: 'forgotten in the sense that it is successfully ex-
pelled from conscious memory; remembered in the sense
that the subject of a traumatic experience will be seriously
handicapped by it'.51 In this instance 'telling the right sto-
ry about the past may lead to a reconciliation between
the traumatic experience and identity'.52
Not only the chair of art history, but the whole univer-
sity and Polish Lviv itself were lost in the Second World
War, Soviet occupation and post-Yalta reality and that
loss could hardly be fully mourned in a socialist Poland.
A 2002 conference entitled Cracow and Lviv in European
civilization,53 though demonstrating interest in the topic,
drew a somber conclusion: such Lviv, dear Ladies and
Gentlemen, no longer exists and will never exist again'.54
49 Ibidem, p. 67.
50 Uniwersytet Jana Kazimierza we Lwowie, ed. A. Redzik, Kraków
2015, p. 28.
51 F. R. Ankersmit, 'The Sublime Dissociation of the Past: or How
to Be(come) What One is No Longer', History and Theory, 40,
2001, no. 3, p. 300.
52 Ibidem, p. 305.
53 Kraków i Lwów w cywilizacji europejskiej. Materiały międzynaro-
dowej konferencji zorganizowanej w dniach 15-16 listopada 2002,
ed. J. Purchla, Kraków 2005.
54 L. Unger, 'Kraków i Lwów w Europie jutra [panel discussion], in
ibidem, p. 20.
Who then reclaimed the Lviv art historical tradition as
part of their identity? Scholars like Mieczysław Zlat and
Jan Wrabec were not unwarranted to consider themselves
its heirs, with both having studied under Lviv professors -
Podlacha and Hornung respectively. For them Wrocław
art history was a continuation of that taught in Lviv and
both Małkiewicz and Miłobędzka-Gieysztor supported
this optimistic notion of the 'Lviv school's' fate. Neverthe-
less, it does not seem to be the historical legacy that mod-
ern-day Wrocław scholars cultivate, which once again
poses the question of whether there was anything other
than a personal inspirational example, that these Lviv
professors had passed on. No programme or set of meth-
odological guidelines is to be found in Wrabec's recollec-
tion of Hornung, where he writes that 'Lviv about him'
was the legacy of the 'Austrian monarchy court culture',
manifested in professor's courtesy [...] to university ad-
ministration, cleaning-ladies, assistants and students'.55
Zlat's recollections of Podlacha paint a similarly vague
picture.56
Instead the Lviv scholars' newly-created identity - 'Lviv
school of art history - was appropriated by a Cracow-
centered narrative, justifying its research as traditionalis-
tic, concrete and meticulous by choice, not limitation. The
legacy of the Lviv scholars proved methodological moder-
nity to be an innate feature of the Polish art history: 'for
creating the mental roots of current Polish art history, the
Lviv milieu should be awarded the highest laurel'57 stated
Miłobędzka-Gieysztor - and Małkiewicz agreed.58
In the end the whole concept seems more telling of the
desires and fears of the art history of Malkiewicz's times,
than those of Sokołowski and Bołoz. Howbeit, its instru-
mentality left no one to subsequently advocate against the
term (unlike the 'Cracow school', challenged recently by
Even for the contemporary historians the city became an unwel-
coming place of nationalized memories', whose overall Polish-
ness was now being questioned by the Ukranian or Jewish narra-
tives. J. Purchla, 'Lwów: przestrzeń znacjonalizowanych pamię-
ci', in Lwów nowoczesny = Lviv and modernity [katalog wystawy],
ed. Ł. Gałusek, J. Purchla, Kraków 2017. p. 6-13.
55 J. Wrabec, 'Profesor Zbigniew Hornung - lwowski historyk sztu-
ki we Wrocławiu, Sobótka, 3-4, 1997, p. 258.
56 M. Zlat, 'Wspomnienia pośmiertne. Władysław Podlacha, Biule-
tyn Historii Sztuki, 24, 1962, no. 1, p. 418-419; idem, 'O twórczości
i poglądach Władysława Podlachy (1875-1951)', in Myśl o sztuce.
Materiały Sesji zorganizowanej z okazji czterdziestolecie istnienia
Stowarzyszenia Historyków Sztuki Warszawa, listopad 1974, War-
szawa 1976, p. 295-311; idem, 'Pierwsze lata historii na Uniwer-
sytecie i Politechnice we Wrocławiu' (as in note 20), p. 227-230;
idem, 'Władysław Podlacha (1875-1951)' , Rocznik Historii Sztuki,
36, 2012, p. 21-38.
57 E. Gieysztor-Miłobędzka, 'Polska historia sztuki — jej konser-
watyzm', p. 65 (as in note 34).
58 A. Małkiewicz, "'Szkoła krakowska" i "szkoła lwowska", p. 57,
fn. 93 (as in note 40).
group of academics as a scientific school, as Zbysław
Muszyński proposes, is to invoke a prototype designate of
the term.49 For Małkiewicz the Vienna school of art his-
tory could have served as an intuitive example for such
a comparison, but instead its very concept seems to have
served him as an inspiration. Retrospectively it is easier,
perhaps, to perceive as integral small chairs and depart-
ments, whose history usually extended for no more than
two or three generations of scholars. Adam Redzik, a lead-
ing historian of Jan Kazimir University, identified in Polish
academic historiography a long list of scientific schools af-
filiated to it. With the two most prominent of these being
the Lviv mathematical school and the Lviv-Warsaw school
of philosophy, one can also find mention of Lviv schools
of anthropology, ethnology, history, geography, organic
chemistry, zoology, one of geophysics and meteorology,
surgery, internal diseases and pathology, ophthalmology,
pharmacology, economic history, history of ecclesiastical,
criminal, private, political, administrative and internation-
al law, economics and history of education.50
However, if the concept of the 'Lviv school' proves one
thing, it is that for some reason, at some point the Lviv art
historians were chosen to be recalled in this way.
One of the many things history does, according to
Franklin R. Ankersmit, is make myths. As he argues,
a traumatic experience, when it pertains to only a part of
the collective identity, can be both forgotten and remem-
bered: 'forgotten in the sense that it is successfully ex-
pelled from conscious memory; remembered in the sense
that the subject of a traumatic experience will be seriously
handicapped by it'.51 In this instance 'telling the right sto-
ry about the past may lead to a reconciliation between
the traumatic experience and identity'.52
Not only the chair of art history, but the whole univer-
sity and Polish Lviv itself were lost in the Second World
War, Soviet occupation and post-Yalta reality and that
loss could hardly be fully mourned in a socialist Poland.
A 2002 conference entitled Cracow and Lviv in European
civilization,53 though demonstrating interest in the topic,
drew a somber conclusion: such Lviv, dear Ladies and
Gentlemen, no longer exists and will never exist again'.54
49 Ibidem, p. 67.
50 Uniwersytet Jana Kazimierza we Lwowie, ed. A. Redzik, Kraków
2015, p. 28.
51 F. R. Ankersmit, 'The Sublime Dissociation of the Past: or How
to Be(come) What One is No Longer', History and Theory, 40,
2001, no. 3, p. 300.
52 Ibidem, p. 305.
53 Kraków i Lwów w cywilizacji europejskiej. Materiały międzynaro-
dowej konferencji zorganizowanej w dniach 15-16 listopada 2002,
ed. J. Purchla, Kraków 2005.
54 L. Unger, 'Kraków i Lwów w Europie jutra [panel discussion], in
ibidem, p. 20.
Who then reclaimed the Lviv art historical tradition as
part of their identity? Scholars like Mieczysław Zlat and
Jan Wrabec were not unwarranted to consider themselves
its heirs, with both having studied under Lviv professors -
Podlacha and Hornung respectively. For them Wrocław
art history was a continuation of that taught in Lviv and
both Małkiewicz and Miłobędzka-Gieysztor supported
this optimistic notion of the 'Lviv school's' fate. Neverthe-
less, it does not seem to be the historical legacy that mod-
ern-day Wrocław scholars cultivate, which once again
poses the question of whether there was anything other
than a personal inspirational example, that these Lviv
professors had passed on. No programme or set of meth-
odological guidelines is to be found in Wrabec's recollec-
tion of Hornung, where he writes that 'Lviv about him'
was the legacy of the 'Austrian monarchy court culture',
manifested in professor's courtesy [...] to university ad-
ministration, cleaning-ladies, assistants and students'.55
Zlat's recollections of Podlacha paint a similarly vague
picture.56
Instead the Lviv scholars' newly-created identity - 'Lviv
school of art history - was appropriated by a Cracow-
centered narrative, justifying its research as traditionalis-
tic, concrete and meticulous by choice, not limitation. The
legacy of the Lviv scholars proved methodological moder-
nity to be an innate feature of the Polish art history: 'for
creating the mental roots of current Polish art history, the
Lviv milieu should be awarded the highest laurel'57 stated
Miłobędzka-Gieysztor - and Małkiewicz agreed.58
In the end the whole concept seems more telling of the
desires and fears of the art history of Malkiewicz's times,
than those of Sokołowski and Bołoz. Howbeit, its instru-
mentality left no one to subsequently advocate against the
term (unlike the 'Cracow school', challenged recently by
Even for the contemporary historians the city became an unwel-
coming place of nationalized memories', whose overall Polish-
ness was now being questioned by the Ukranian or Jewish narra-
tives. J. Purchla, 'Lwów: przestrzeń znacjonalizowanych pamię-
ci', in Lwów nowoczesny = Lviv and modernity [katalog wystawy],
ed. Ł. Gałusek, J. Purchla, Kraków 2017. p. 6-13.
55 J. Wrabec, 'Profesor Zbigniew Hornung - lwowski historyk sztu-
ki we Wrocławiu, Sobótka, 3-4, 1997, p. 258.
56 M. Zlat, 'Wspomnienia pośmiertne. Władysław Podlacha, Biule-
tyn Historii Sztuki, 24, 1962, no. 1, p. 418-419; idem, 'O twórczości
i poglądach Władysława Podlachy (1875-1951)', in Myśl o sztuce.
Materiały Sesji zorganizowanej z okazji czterdziestolecie istnienia
Stowarzyszenia Historyków Sztuki Warszawa, listopad 1974, War-
szawa 1976, p. 295-311; idem, 'Pierwsze lata historii na Uniwer-
sytecie i Politechnice we Wrocławiu' (as in note 20), p. 227-230;
idem, 'Władysław Podlacha (1875-1951)' , Rocznik Historii Sztuki,
36, 2012, p. 21-38.
57 E. Gieysztor-Miłobędzka, 'Polska historia sztuki — jej konser-
watyzm', p. 65 (as in note 34).
58 A. Małkiewicz, "'Szkoła krakowska" i "szkoła lwowska", p. 57,
fn. 93 (as in note 40).