DOI article:
Kosiewski, Piotr: "Matejko i Historia": Sprawozdanie z przebiegu obrad i dyskusji
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27409#0039
SEMINARIUM „MATEJKO I HISTORIA”
37
A REPORT ON THE DEBATES AND DISCUSSION
AT THE SEMINAR ORGANIZED BY THE CHAIR OF
OF THE THEORY OF ART AND HISTORY OF ARTISTIC
DOCTRINES IN KAZIMIERZ DOLNY IN NOVEMBER 1992
S u m m a r y
A seminar entitled Matejko and History took place in Kazimierz Dolny in November 1992.
Its organizers were: Chair of the Theory of Art and Flistory of Artistic Doctrines of the History
of Art Section of the Catholic University of Lublin and the Lublin division of the Association of
the Historians of Art. The seminar was initiated within the frameworks of the research programme
Ideology of Artists and the Theory of Art in 19th-20th c., and carried out by the Chair under prof.
Elżbieta Wolicka.
The seminar was occasioned by the issue of Jarosław Krawczyk’s book Matejko and History
edited in 1990 by the Institute of Art of PAN (Polish Academy of the Sciences). We publish the
seminar materials in the first part of the présent fascicle of "The Humanities Annuals of KUL".
The book in question while putting into practice the famous calling of Wojciech Gerson of 1883
which postulated that "each work be analyzed according to what was probably meant by the artist,
and not what some critic would like it to mean". The book is an attempt at a reconstruction of
the historical imagination of this painter so important for Polish art. At the same time, on the
basis of some selected works (Skarga’s Sermon, Battle of Grunwald, Prussian Homage, May
Constitution), it revises many earlier judgements on Matejko’s painting. The author reviews
"historical" and "clearing" works of the painter within the frameworks of a finite and closed
whole, which allows him to place the painter in the context of the intellectual formation and
artistic situation of the day. Krawczyk turns our attention to numerous ideological manipulation
which Matejko’s output was many times subject to.
The book Matejko and History was intended by the seminar organizers to become a pretext
to take up a broader topie, namely, the question of an academie tendency in Polish art of the 19th
century, especially the work of artists who drew their inspiration from history. The problem of
studying styles of réception of art of the past age. It is in this perspective that Marek Wacławek
(.Matejko Read Anew) sought to show the book in his introduction to discussion. He put it together
with the works of Maria Poprzęcka (Imagined Time. On the Manners to Relate in Polish Painting
of the llth Century, Warszawa 1986) and Waldemar Okoń (especially with his book Art and
Narration. On the Visual Narration in Polish Painting of the Second Half of the 19th Century,
Wrocław 1988, and the article On Some Criteria of Evaluating of Polish Art in the 19th Century,
that is about the unwritten history of the Polish painting of the 19th century, published in the
volume Art and Value, ed. by M. Poprzęcka, Warszawa 1988). We hâve reprinted Marek
Wacławek’s text in this collection. The conclusions that one can draw from it as well as from the
discussion at the seminar on the first day tumed the participants’ attention, counter to assumptions
and hopes, to Matejko’s painting. What is morę, one can say that eventually the meeting was
dominated by the considérations conceming Jarosław Krawczyk’s book. The fact that its author
was présent madę the participants pinpoint questions and objections which come up after reading
this precious publication. Doubts arose when it came to apply Krawczyk’s method to the
interprétation of Matejko’s paintings which he had omitted. Juliusz Gałkowski, in a short text,
expressed his doubts as to the efficiency of "reading" Matejko’s painting in this manner. He said
that the method brought about the expected effects only in the case of huge compositions of the
artist, the composition which belong to "the great cycle" (and only the selected ones, as those
mentioned before). In order to prove this judgement one should answer the question whether
Matejko’s style of narration, creating tension between the centre of the painting and its
37
A REPORT ON THE DEBATES AND DISCUSSION
AT THE SEMINAR ORGANIZED BY THE CHAIR OF
OF THE THEORY OF ART AND HISTORY OF ARTISTIC
DOCTRINES IN KAZIMIERZ DOLNY IN NOVEMBER 1992
S u m m a r y
A seminar entitled Matejko and History took place in Kazimierz Dolny in November 1992.
Its organizers were: Chair of the Theory of Art and Flistory of Artistic Doctrines of the History
of Art Section of the Catholic University of Lublin and the Lublin division of the Association of
the Historians of Art. The seminar was initiated within the frameworks of the research programme
Ideology of Artists and the Theory of Art in 19th-20th c., and carried out by the Chair under prof.
Elżbieta Wolicka.
The seminar was occasioned by the issue of Jarosław Krawczyk’s book Matejko and History
edited in 1990 by the Institute of Art of PAN (Polish Academy of the Sciences). We publish the
seminar materials in the first part of the présent fascicle of "The Humanities Annuals of KUL".
The book in question while putting into practice the famous calling of Wojciech Gerson of 1883
which postulated that "each work be analyzed according to what was probably meant by the artist,
and not what some critic would like it to mean". The book is an attempt at a reconstruction of
the historical imagination of this painter so important for Polish art. At the same time, on the
basis of some selected works (Skarga’s Sermon, Battle of Grunwald, Prussian Homage, May
Constitution), it revises many earlier judgements on Matejko’s painting. The author reviews
"historical" and "clearing" works of the painter within the frameworks of a finite and closed
whole, which allows him to place the painter in the context of the intellectual formation and
artistic situation of the day. Krawczyk turns our attention to numerous ideological manipulation
which Matejko’s output was many times subject to.
The book Matejko and History was intended by the seminar organizers to become a pretext
to take up a broader topie, namely, the question of an academie tendency in Polish art of the 19th
century, especially the work of artists who drew their inspiration from history. The problem of
studying styles of réception of art of the past age. It is in this perspective that Marek Wacławek
(.Matejko Read Anew) sought to show the book in his introduction to discussion. He put it together
with the works of Maria Poprzęcka (Imagined Time. On the Manners to Relate in Polish Painting
of the llth Century, Warszawa 1986) and Waldemar Okoń (especially with his book Art and
Narration. On the Visual Narration in Polish Painting of the Second Half of the 19th Century,
Wrocław 1988, and the article On Some Criteria of Evaluating of Polish Art in the 19th Century,
that is about the unwritten history of the Polish painting of the 19th century, published in the
volume Art and Value, ed. by M. Poprzęcka, Warszawa 1988). We hâve reprinted Marek
Wacławek’s text in this collection. The conclusions that one can draw from it as well as from the
discussion at the seminar on the first day tumed the participants’ attention, counter to assumptions
and hopes, to Matejko’s painting. What is morę, one can say that eventually the meeting was
dominated by the considérations conceming Jarosław Krawczyk’s book. The fact that its author
was présent madę the participants pinpoint questions and objections which come up after reading
this precious publication. Doubts arose when it came to apply Krawczyk’s method to the
interprétation of Matejko’s paintings which he had omitted. Juliusz Gałkowski, in a short text,
expressed his doubts as to the efficiency of "reading" Matejko’s painting in this manner. He said
that the method brought about the expected effects only in the case of huge compositions of the
artist, the composition which belong to "the great cycle" (and only the selected ones, as those
mentioned before). In order to prove this judgement one should answer the question whether
Matejko’s style of narration, creating tension between the centre of the painting and its