DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25050#0088
freely here. A system of state-sponsored public schools was
created, including two lyceums. The University regained its Polish
character, and a relatively good team of professors was soon
assembled, but the University could not compete with the acade-
mies in Wilna or Warsaw. The Academic Society of Cracow (later
transformed into the Academy of Sciences) was created in 1816,
followed in 1818 by the School of Fine Arts, which was first under
the aegis of the Jagiellonian University, to be anexed later to the
Institute of Technology. From 1817 to 1844, the Music Society
sponsored regular concerts and laid the foundations for a system
of musical education.
No significant literary community existed in Cracow at that
time, but the theatre was active, still housed in its Szczepanski
Square building, reconstructed and extended in 1842 by Karol
Kremer. A great contribution to theatrical life was made by
Hilary Meciszewski, director of the theatre in 1843—1845, who
endeavoured to create a permanent repertory of national drama,
including works by Boguslawski, Niemcewicz, Felirtski, Korze-
niowski and Fredro. Cracow was the only city in Poland where
plays with patriotic implications could be produced. In the stormy
days of the Springtime of the Nations of 1848, fragments of
Adam Mickiewicz’s Forefathers’ Eve were staged; and in 1851
Mazepa was the first play by Juliusz Slowacki to premier in
Poland.
Building projects were few, and none on a large scale. The
self-taught chronicler of the town’s history, Michal Stachowicz,
cut a familiar figure of a Cracow painter. After the creation of the
School of Fine Arts, almost all the talented painters in Cracow
were professors there. Jozef Brodowski drew sketches faithfully
documenting contemporary Cracow. A fine portrait painter was
Jozef Peszka. Among painters of a younger generation stood out
Wojciech Korneli Stattler, a reformer of the school. Landscape
painting was taught by Jan Nepomucen Glowacki. None of these
artists, working in a classical-romantic mode, rose above their
provincial background, which may not be said of Piotr Michalow-
80
created, including two lyceums. The University regained its Polish
character, and a relatively good team of professors was soon
assembled, but the University could not compete with the acade-
mies in Wilna or Warsaw. The Academic Society of Cracow (later
transformed into the Academy of Sciences) was created in 1816,
followed in 1818 by the School of Fine Arts, which was first under
the aegis of the Jagiellonian University, to be anexed later to the
Institute of Technology. From 1817 to 1844, the Music Society
sponsored regular concerts and laid the foundations for a system
of musical education.
No significant literary community existed in Cracow at that
time, but the theatre was active, still housed in its Szczepanski
Square building, reconstructed and extended in 1842 by Karol
Kremer. A great contribution to theatrical life was made by
Hilary Meciszewski, director of the theatre in 1843—1845, who
endeavoured to create a permanent repertory of national drama,
including works by Boguslawski, Niemcewicz, Felirtski, Korze-
niowski and Fredro. Cracow was the only city in Poland where
plays with patriotic implications could be produced. In the stormy
days of the Springtime of the Nations of 1848, fragments of
Adam Mickiewicz’s Forefathers’ Eve were staged; and in 1851
Mazepa was the first play by Juliusz Slowacki to premier in
Poland.
Building projects were few, and none on a large scale. The
self-taught chronicler of the town’s history, Michal Stachowicz,
cut a familiar figure of a Cracow painter. After the creation of the
School of Fine Arts, almost all the talented painters in Cracow
were professors there. Jozef Brodowski drew sketches faithfully
documenting contemporary Cracow. A fine portrait painter was
Jozef Peszka. Among painters of a younger generation stood out
Wojciech Korneli Stattler, a reformer of the school. Landscape
painting was taught by Jan Nepomucen Glowacki. None of these
artists, working in a classical-romantic mode, rose above their
provincial background, which may not be said of Piotr Michalow-
80