DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41455#0026
Masters
of P o
outlines of his compositions also bear an affinity with
Toulouse-Lautrec and the newly-emerging Art Nouveau.
It was monumental art - wall paintings and stained-
glass windows - that Wyspianski considered to be his
true vocation. His largest project in this field was the
decoration of the Franciscan Church in Cracow. The
polychrome paintings of the church interior (1895)
contain several figurative representations and a wealth
of geometrical and heraldic motifs, as well as an
extensive repertory of floral ornaments with a specific,
partly naturalist and partly geometrical stylization. In the
Franciscan Church, Wyspianski raised the art of stained-
glass to heights not seen since the Middle Ages. The
monumental God the Father that fills the immense
window in the western wall is a stunning tour de force.
The treatment of the figure is inspired by Michelangelo’s
Last Judgment, while the entire surface of the window
dissolves into fluid, almost abstract forms of flamboyant
shapes. Wyspianski achieved a similarly high artistic
level in his cartoons of stained-glass windows for the
cathedral churches of Cracow and Lvov. Unfortunately,
these designs were never executed in glass.
In his easel painting, Wyspianski rarely used oils;
instead, he mastered pastel to perfection. His mature
style united decorative aspects and expression. The
sparing use of modelling meant that the principal means
of expression was the line. Supple and varied, it
enclosed flat patches of colour in calligraphic outlines.
The chief motif of Wyspiariski’s painting was that of the
human figure. It was used both in typical portraits and
in symbolic scenes and innumerable studies.
As a portraitist, Wyspianski aimed to create a gallery of
Young Poland celebrities. His main concern was with
lish Painting
the expressive value of his portraiture. He studied the
facial features of children with particular zest and left
numerous drawings and paintings of his own children.
He also took delight in depicting the monuments of
Cracow. Landscape occupied Wyspianski most
intensively in 1904-1905, when he produced a series of
pastels showing the changing view from his studio in
different seasons and at different times of day.
Wyspianski’s versatile literary and artistic output is of
tremendous importance for Polish culture. By taking up
the weightiest problems that preoccupied the nation,
Wyspianski became the successor of both the great
Romantic poets and Jan Matejko. He was the last artist
to create truly great works in response to the
nineteenth-century notion of Polish art in service of the
national cause.
Jozef Mehoffer (1869-1946) was in his youth a kind of
alter ego of Wyspianski. The work of both artists
stemmed from similar sources, but Mehoffer was less
radical in his quest for expressive effects and
contemporaries found his style easier to accept.
Mehoffer was destined to complete a great number of
monumental artistic projects, which culminated in a set
of thirteen enormous stained-glass windows at Fribourg
Cathedral. Numerous stained-glass windows and
polychrome decorations by Mehoffer can also be seen
in Polish churches, including Wawel Cathedral in
Cracow. All these works are a testimony to the artist’s
special gift for uniting traditional iconography with the
modern formal language of Art Nouveau.
Jozef Mehoffer also painted many portraits,
landscapes, still lifes and symbolic compositions. The
last-mentioned group can be exemplified by the highly
decorative Strange Garden (1903), dominated by an
enormous golden dragonfly in the foreground, and by
Europa Juhilans (1905), where the superficial mentality
of a Westerner is juxtaposed with the profundity of
Asian culture, which held a fascination for the artist.
Another important figure in Polish symbolism was
Ferdynand Ruszczyc (1870-1936). His most important
works, painted in 1897-1908, were landscapes
emphasizing the severity of nature in the north. Most of
them have dark tones and the paint is applied in a thick
and coarse layer. Ruszczyc frequently used the worm’s
eye view, which produced enlarged figures in the
foreground, or, alternatively, chose the bird’s eye
perspective. The objects illustrated by the artist are
invariably massive and rounded, as if about to be
ruptured by some invisible force within. All these
devices often give Ruszczyc’s paintings a distinctly
22
Vlastimil Hofman
Concert,
National Museum, Cracow
of P o
outlines of his compositions also bear an affinity with
Toulouse-Lautrec and the newly-emerging Art Nouveau.
It was monumental art - wall paintings and stained-
glass windows - that Wyspianski considered to be his
true vocation. His largest project in this field was the
decoration of the Franciscan Church in Cracow. The
polychrome paintings of the church interior (1895)
contain several figurative representations and a wealth
of geometrical and heraldic motifs, as well as an
extensive repertory of floral ornaments with a specific,
partly naturalist and partly geometrical stylization. In the
Franciscan Church, Wyspianski raised the art of stained-
glass to heights not seen since the Middle Ages. The
monumental God the Father that fills the immense
window in the western wall is a stunning tour de force.
The treatment of the figure is inspired by Michelangelo’s
Last Judgment, while the entire surface of the window
dissolves into fluid, almost abstract forms of flamboyant
shapes. Wyspianski achieved a similarly high artistic
level in his cartoons of stained-glass windows for the
cathedral churches of Cracow and Lvov. Unfortunately,
these designs were never executed in glass.
In his easel painting, Wyspianski rarely used oils;
instead, he mastered pastel to perfection. His mature
style united decorative aspects and expression. The
sparing use of modelling meant that the principal means
of expression was the line. Supple and varied, it
enclosed flat patches of colour in calligraphic outlines.
The chief motif of Wyspiariski’s painting was that of the
human figure. It was used both in typical portraits and
in symbolic scenes and innumerable studies.
As a portraitist, Wyspianski aimed to create a gallery of
Young Poland celebrities. His main concern was with
lish Painting
the expressive value of his portraiture. He studied the
facial features of children with particular zest and left
numerous drawings and paintings of his own children.
He also took delight in depicting the monuments of
Cracow. Landscape occupied Wyspianski most
intensively in 1904-1905, when he produced a series of
pastels showing the changing view from his studio in
different seasons and at different times of day.
Wyspianski’s versatile literary and artistic output is of
tremendous importance for Polish culture. By taking up
the weightiest problems that preoccupied the nation,
Wyspianski became the successor of both the great
Romantic poets and Jan Matejko. He was the last artist
to create truly great works in response to the
nineteenth-century notion of Polish art in service of the
national cause.
Jozef Mehoffer (1869-1946) was in his youth a kind of
alter ego of Wyspianski. The work of both artists
stemmed from similar sources, but Mehoffer was less
radical in his quest for expressive effects and
contemporaries found his style easier to accept.
Mehoffer was destined to complete a great number of
monumental artistic projects, which culminated in a set
of thirteen enormous stained-glass windows at Fribourg
Cathedral. Numerous stained-glass windows and
polychrome decorations by Mehoffer can also be seen
in Polish churches, including Wawel Cathedral in
Cracow. All these works are a testimony to the artist’s
special gift for uniting traditional iconography with the
modern formal language of Art Nouveau.
Jozef Mehoffer also painted many portraits,
landscapes, still lifes and symbolic compositions. The
last-mentioned group can be exemplified by the highly
decorative Strange Garden (1903), dominated by an
enormous golden dragonfly in the foreground, and by
Europa Juhilans (1905), where the superficial mentality
of a Westerner is juxtaposed with the profundity of
Asian culture, which held a fascination for the artist.
Another important figure in Polish symbolism was
Ferdynand Ruszczyc (1870-1936). His most important
works, painted in 1897-1908, were landscapes
emphasizing the severity of nature in the north. Most of
them have dark tones and the paint is applied in a thick
and coarse layer. Ruszczyc frequently used the worm’s
eye view, which produced enlarged figures in the
foreground, or, alternatively, chose the bird’s eye
perspective. The objects illustrated by the artist are
invariably massive and rounded, as if about to be
ruptured by some invisible force within. All these
devices often give Ruszczyc’s paintings a distinctly
22
Vlastimil Hofman
Concert,
National Museum, Cracow