DOI article:
Gawlikowski, Michał; Bernhard, Maria Ludwika [Honoree]: Maria Ludwika Bernhard: 1908-1998
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41273#0010
OBITUARY
The hostilities brought her incipient academic career to an abrupt stop; she was active instead in
the Resistance movement. Although she never spoke much about this time, it is known that she had
risked her life not only as a clandestine academic teacher, but also as a soldier, being the Warsaw
commandant of the underground Home Army's women's service. She also distinguished herself in
protecting whenever possible the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw against plunder and
destruction.
After 1945, Maria Bernhard was active in both the University and the National Museum in
Warsaw, where she acted as Curator of the reactivated Ancient Art Department. In 1954, she was
appointed to the chair of Classical Archaeology at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow and taught
there until her retirement in 1978. All the Classical archaeologists active in Cracow today count
themselves among her pupils.
Professor Bernhard is known to Polish students mainly for her monumental “History of Ancient
Greek Art” (four volumes, published between 1970 and 1989, later re-edited several times). The
international scholarly community remembers her for the seven volumes of the “Corpus Vasorum
Antiquorum”, covering the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw. Greek painted pottery
was indeed her favorite subject: Her last paper in 1996, like her first of 1936, concerned the former
Erazm Majewski Collection and the so-called Majewski Painter.
In her long academic career, she did not forgo the chance to participate in archaeological fieldwork
which started being carried out by Polish expeditions the moment it became possible in the late 1950s.
She worked at Mirmekion and Kalos Limen in the Crimea, and was in charge of the Palmyra team
when the 1967 war broke out. Leaving the safety of the oasis, she managed to reach the Center's
quarters in Cairo, where she accepted responsibility for a small group of resident young people with
her characteristic blend of courage and common sense.
For the last twenty years, she remained for those who visited her a trusted counselor and standing
reference, both scholarly and humane.
Michal Gawlikmvski
Oil portrait of Maria Ludwika Bernhard, painted in 1982 by Grazyna Korpal,
Jagiellonian University Museum collection (Photo J. Kozina)
8
The hostilities brought her incipient academic career to an abrupt stop; she was active instead in
the Resistance movement. Although she never spoke much about this time, it is known that she had
risked her life not only as a clandestine academic teacher, but also as a soldier, being the Warsaw
commandant of the underground Home Army's women's service. She also distinguished herself in
protecting whenever possible the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw against plunder and
destruction.
After 1945, Maria Bernhard was active in both the University and the National Museum in
Warsaw, where she acted as Curator of the reactivated Ancient Art Department. In 1954, she was
appointed to the chair of Classical Archaeology at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow and taught
there until her retirement in 1978. All the Classical archaeologists active in Cracow today count
themselves among her pupils.
Professor Bernhard is known to Polish students mainly for her monumental “History of Ancient
Greek Art” (four volumes, published between 1970 and 1989, later re-edited several times). The
international scholarly community remembers her for the seven volumes of the “Corpus Vasorum
Antiquorum”, covering the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw. Greek painted pottery
was indeed her favorite subject: Her last paper in 1996, like her first of 1936, concerned the former
Erazm Majewski Collection and the so-called Majewski Painter.
In her long academic career, she did not forgo the chance to participate in archaeological fieldwork
which started being carried out by Polish expeditions the moment it became possible in the late 1950s.
She worked at Mirmekion and Kalos Limen in the Crimea, and was in charge of the Palmyra team
when the 1967 war broke out. Leaving the safety of the oasis, she managed to reach the Center's
quarters in Cairo, where she accepted responsibility for a small group of resident young people with
her characteristic blend of courage and common sense.
For the last twenty years, she remained for those who visited her a trusted counselor and standing
reference, both scholarly and humane.
Michal Gawlikmvski
Oil portrait of Maria Ludwika Bernhard, painted in 1982 by Grazyna Korpal,
Jagiellonian University Museum collection (Photo J. Kozina)
8