DOI issue:
Część III. Wspomnienia / Part III. Reminiscences
DOI article:Benesz, Hanna: Maria Skubiszewska: (31 marca 1930 - 13 kwietnia 2011)
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45360#0312
Maria Skubiszewska (31 March 1930 - 13 April 2011)
311
Her Work
Before completing her studies, in 1951-1952, Maria worked in the Department of Research
on the Origins of the Polish State in the research station of Wawel Castle, where her tasks
included archaeological research on fragments of a Romanesque cathedral from the era of
Duke Władysław I Herman. From 1 September 1952 to 31 December i960 she was employed
in the Wawel Castle’s State Art Collection. First, she served as an instructor in its Education
Department, and beginning on 14 January 1956 as a museum assistant in the Painting and
Sculpture Department, then from 1 October 1958 as an assistant curator. After she moved to
museum work, the director of the State Art Collection, Professor Jerzy Szabłowski, and de-
partment head Dr Anna Bocheńska entrusted her with creating a catalogue of Italian paint-
ings in the castle holdings, a decision that would define her main scholarly interests.
In 1956 Professor Szabłowski included Maria in his team charged with preparing a
volume about the relics on Wawel Hill in the series Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce.2 Her
job included creating an inventory of the castle’s Gothic chapels and sculptures and of the
royal tombs in its cathedral. This developed her interest in tomb sculpture and launched her
study of King Casimir Jagiellonian’s tomb. Its iconography later became the subject of her
doctoral dissertation, which she wrote under the guidance of Professor Lech Kalinowski
and defended at the Jagiellonian University on 30 January 1969. As its starting point, she
used Erwin Panofski’s newest direction in iconographie research, presented in his book
that introduced a division of sepulchral iconography into retrospective and prospective.
Skubiszewska added a third element, that of death itself as the most important moment of
transition from temporal to eternal life. This innovative interpretation of a unique repre-
sentation in sepulchral art of a medallion on the king’s chest with Mother Earth in labour
as a symbol was initially published in English,3 and only later in Polish as her complete dis-
sertation.4 The interpretation of the image of the earth as the mother of the dying and the
idea of death as birth into a new - eternal - life, supported with writings by authors from
antiquity and early Christianity, was the culmination of an exceptionally coherent, clear and
fascinating discourse on the iconography of the late-mediaeval masterpiece by Wit Stwosz
(Veit Stoss). This iconography on the one hand reflects humanistic ideals visibly inspired by
Filippo Buonaccorsi, called Callimachus, who was then active in Krakow, and, on the other
hand, is permeated with deep theological thought disseminated in its era in many moralistic
texts about ars moriendi. Skubiszewska’s work is not only an outstanding academic study,
but also an authentic expression of her humanistic and Christian worldview, to which she
remained faithful throughout her life.
After marrying Piotr Skubiszewski in i960, Maria moved to Poznań, where she became an
assistant curator in the Department of Foreign Painting of the National Museum in Poznań
2 Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce [Catalogue of historie monuments in Poland], vol. 4: Miasto Kraków
[The city of Krakow], part 1: Wawel [Wawel], a collective work directed and edited by Jerzy Szabłowski (Warsaw:
Instytut Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Państwowe Zbiory Sztuki na Wawelu, 1965).
3 Maria Skubiszewska, “Death as Birth. The Symbol on the Tomb of a King of Poland,” Journal of the British
Archaeological Association, vol. 36, third series (1973), pp. 43-51-
4 Skubiszewska, “Program ikonograficzny nagrobka Kazimierza Jagiellończyka w katedrze wawelskiej”
[The iconographie programme of the tomb of Casimir Jagiellonian’s tomb in the Wawel cathedral], Studia do Dziejów
Wawelu, vol. 4 (1978), pp. 117-214.
311
Her Work
Before completing her studies, in 1951-1952, Maria worked in the Department of Research
on the Origins of the Polish State in the research station of Wawel Castle, where her tasks
included archaeological research on fragments of a Romanesque cathedral from the era of
Duke Władysław I Herman. From 1 September 1952 to 31 December i960 she was employed
in the Wawel Castle’s State Art Collection. First, she served as an instructor in its Education
Department, and beginning on 14 January 1956 as a museum assistant in the Painting and
Sculpture Department, then from 1 October 1958 as an assistant curator. After she moved to
museum work, the director of the State Art Collection, Professor Jerzy Szabłowski, and de-
partment head Dr Anna Bocheńska entrusted her with creating a catalogue of Italian paint-
ings in the castle holdings, a decision that would define her main scholarly interests.
In 1956 Professor Szabłowski included Maria in his team charged with preparing a
volume about the relics on Wawel Hill in the series Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce.2 Her
job included creating an inventory of the castle’s Gothic chapels and sculptures and of the
royal tombs in its cathedral. This developed her interest in tomb sculpture and launched her
study of King Casimir Jagiellonian’s tomb. Its iconography later became the subject of her
doctoral dissertation, which she wrote under the guidance of Professor Lech Kalinowski
and defended at the Jagiellonian University on 30 January 1969. As its starting point, she
used Erwin Panofski’s newest direction in iconographie research, presented in his book
that introduced a division of sepulchral iconography into retrospective and prospective.
Skubiszewska added a third element, that of death itself as the most important moment of
transition from temporal to eternal life. This innovative interpretation of a unique repre-
sentation in sepulchral art of a medallion on the king’s chest with Mother Earth in labour
as a symbol was initially published in English,3 and only later in Polish as her complete dis-
sertation.4 The interpretation of the image of the earth as the mother of the dying and the
idea of death as birth into a new - eternal - life, supported with writings by authors from
antiquity and early Christianity, was the culmination of an exceptionally coherent, clear and
fascinating discourse on the iconography of the late-mediaeval masterpiece by Wit Stwosz
(Veit Stoss). This iconography on the one hand reflects humanistic ideals visibly inspired by
Filippo Buonaccorsi, called Callimachus, who was then active in Krakow, and, on the other
hand, is permeated with deep theological thought disseminated in its era in many moralistic
texts about ars moriendi. Skubiszewska’s work is not only an outstanding academic study,
but also an authentic expression of her humanistic and Christian worldview, to which she
remained faithful throughout her life.
After marrying Piotr Skubiszewski in i960, Maria moved to Poznań, where she became an
assistant curator in the Department of Foreign Painting of the National Museum in Poznań
2 Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce [Catalogue of historie monuments in Poland], vol. 4: Miasto Kraków
[The city of Krakow], part 1: Wawel [Wawel], a collective work directed and edited by Jerzy Szabłowski (Warsaw:
Instytut Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Państwowe Zbiory Sztuki na Wawelu, 1965).
3 Maria Skubiszewska, “Death as Birth. The Symbol on the Tomb of a King of Poland,” Journal of the British
Archaeological Association, vol. 36, third series (1973), pp. 43-51-
4 Skubiszewska, “Program ikonograficzny nagrobka Kazimierza Jagiellończyka w katedrze wawelskiej”
[The iconographie programme of the tomb of Casimir Jagiellonian’s tomb in the Wawel cathedral], Studia do Dziejów
Wawelu, vol. 4 (1978), pp. 117-214.