DOI Heft:
Editorial
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26693#0016
14
Edilorial
Editorial
No museums mission can be completed satisfactorily without, as a pre-condition, stud-
ying its collections so as to build a footrest for the activities of all institutions, which,
like the National Museum in Kraków, have madę it their mission to protect and present
the European and national cultural heritage at permanent and temporary shows, and to
promote it through special educational programmes. Exhibition scenarios, lectures and
conservation work are all preceded by painstaking research to help set collections in prop-
er artistic contexts. What defines the direction of our research are the richness and variety
of the National Museums resources of paintings, sculptures and decorative items that
span the period from the 15th to the 21 st century. We wish to share that richness with
you, bringing research results into the public academic domain through the publication of
Papers ofthe National Museum in Kraków.
Volume III of the Papers, which is now available to the Reader, is meant to mark two
anniversaries. June 2009 saw the 80th death anniversary of Feliks Manggha Jasieński
(1861-1929) and the 90th anniversary of the datę (March 1920) this great art collector and
patron, man of letters, a person of wide interests and extensive education in liberał arts,
donated his remarkable collection to the National Museum in Kraków under a notarised
deed, thus becoming its most significant benefactor. The gift collection comprised a mul-
titude of fine works of Polish, European and Oriental art. It consists of superb selections of
paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture representing the period referred to as the Young
Poland; a significant collection of European prints of the turn of the 19th and 20th centu-
ries (including French engravings from Ambroise Vollard's portfolios); decorative works
of art (among them rich collections of outstanding pieces of textiles, gold, furniture and
ceramics); as well as a versatile book collection. The art of the Orient holds a separate place
in Jasieńskis collection, especially Japanese art, to which he devoted by far the greatest
part of his collecting passion, amassing priceless paintings, colour woodblock prints by
some celebrated artists such as Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige or Utagawa Ku-
niyoshi, arms and armour, and decorative arts.
This uniąue collection, where masterpieces originating from a variety of epochs, media
and cultural regions are brought together - on equal terms - with Hutsul kilims and folk
jewellery or ceramics, was a conscious creation that sought to prompt the development of
Polish art so it would “flourish in the most untramelled way in every direction on its own
soil”, wrote Jasieński in his Guide to the Japanese Section ofthe National Museum in 1906.
Japanese art, Jasieński believed, “offered the best object lesson for Polish artists and soci-
ety”. Jasieńskis collecting activity was accompanied by a very personal, theoretical reflec-
tion, recorded in Manggha, Promenades a travers le monde, lart et les idees (Paris, Varsovie
1901), whose title, just like Jasieńskis nickname, was borrowed from the Japanese name of
Katsushiki Hokusais sketchbook (Hokusai Manggha). Jasieńskis Manggha... might have
Edilorial
Editorial
No museums mission can be completed satisfactorily without, as a pre-condition, stud-
ying its collections so as to build a footrest for the activities of all institutions, which,
like the National Museum in Kraków, have madę it their mission to protect and present
the European and national cultural heritage at permanent and temporary shows, and to
promote it through special educational programmes. Exhibition scenarios, lectures and
conservation work are all preceded by painstaking research to help set collections in prop-
er artistic contexts. What defines the direction of our research are the richness and variety
of the National Museums resources of paintings, sculptures and decorative items that
span the period from the 15th to the 21 st century. We wish to share that richness with
you, bringing research results into the public academic domain through the publication of
Papers ofthe National Museum in Kraków.
Volume III of the Papers, which is now available to the Reader, is meant to mark two
anniversaries. June 2009 saw the 80th death anniversary of Feliks Manggha Jasieński
(1861-1929) and the 90th anniversary of the datę (March 1920) this great art collector and
patron, man of letters, a person of wide interests and extensive education in liberał arts,
donated his remarkable collection to the National Museum in Kraków under a notarised
deed, thus becoming its most significant benefactor. The gift collection comprised a mul-
titude of fine works of Polish, European and Oriental art. It consists of superb selections of
paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture representing the period referred to as the Young
Poland; a significant collection of European prints of the turn of the 19th and 20th centu-
ries (including French engravings from Ambroise Vollard's portfolios); decorative works
of art (among them rich collections of outstanding pieces of textiles, gold, furniture and
ceramics); as well as a versatile book collection. The art of the Orient holds a separate place
in Jasieńskis collection, especially Japanese art, to which he devoted by far the greatest
part of his collecting passion, amassing priceless paintings, colour woodblock prints by
some celebrated artists such as Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige or Utagawa Ku-
niyoshi, arms and armour, and decorative arts.
This uniąue collection, where masterpieces originating from a variety of epochs, media
and cultural regions are brought together - on equal terms - with Hutsul kilims and folk
jewellery or ceramics, was a conscious creation that sought to prompt the development of
Polish art so it would “flourish in the most untramelled way in every direction on its own
soil”, wrote Jasieński in his Guide to the Japanese Section ofthe National Museum in 1906.
Japanese art, Jasieński believed, “offered the best object lesson for Polish artists and soci-
ety”. Jasieńskis collecting activity was accompanied by a very personal, theoretical reflec-
tion, recorded in Manggha, Promenades a travers le monde, lart et les idees (Paris, Varsovie
1901), whose title, just like Jasieńskis nickname, was borrowed from the Japanese name of
Katsushiki Hokusais sketchbook (Hokusai Manggha). Jasieńskis Manggha... might have