DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31076#0102
canvas called Nero’s Torches, which depicts the martyrdom of
the first Christians in Rome. Numerous artists followed this
example in the following days.
The legal foundation of the museum was established with
statutes and authorities issued by the city council. Professor
Wladyslaw Luszczkiewicz, an archaeologist and art historian,
was appointed the first Director of the Museum; and the painter
Jan Matejko presided over its Executive Committee. The beau-
tifully renovated Cloth Hall housed the collections, and the first
public exhibition occurred in 1883. It was dedicated to the 200 th
anniversary of the Vienna Siege and to King Jan Sobieski.
The museum collections grew rapidly in all fields of art,
culture, and history through generous donations and select pur-
chases. Besides paintings, sculptures, and graphic prints, they
included various pieces of decorative arts, of arms and uni-
forms, and of standards and documents. At the end of the cen-
tury, the eminent collector Count Emeryk Hutten Czapski
bequeathed to the museum his full set of Polish coins and
medals—a gift accompanied by an excellent French-language
catalogue, which was a royal gift of intemational value. After
Matejko’s death in 1893, his house on Florianska Street, full of
precious objects, became a department of the museum.
At that time Cracow’s theatrical life also flourished. The
theater of the city possessed a long tradition that dated back to
the era of the Jagiellons, when performances, often by Italian
actors invited by Queen Bona, had been arranged on Wawel
Hill. Some halls of the Spiski Palace and the Krzysztofory
Palace in the Market Square were subsequently adopted for the
same aim.
92
the first Christians in Rome. Numerous artists followed this
example in the following days.
The legal foundation of the museum was established with
statutes and authorities issued by the city council. Professor
Wladyslaw Luszczkiewicz, an archaeologist and art historian,
was appointed the first Director of the Museum; and the painter
Jan Matejko presided over its Executive Committee. The beau-
tifully renovated Cloth Hall housed the collections, and the first
public exhibition occurred in 1883. It was dedicated to the 200 th
anniversary of the Vienna Siege and to King Jan Sobieski.
The museum collections grew rapidly in all fields of art,
culture, and history through generous donations and select pur-
chases. Besides paintings, sculptures, and graphic prints, they
included various pieces of decorative arts, of arms and uni-
forms, and of standards and documents. At the end of the cen-
tury, the eminent collector Count Emeryk Hutten Czapski
bequeathed to the museum his full set of Polish coins and
medals—a gift accompanied by an excellent French-language
catalogue, which was a royal gift of intemational value. After
Matejko’s death in 1893, his house on Florianska Street, full of
precious objects, became a department of the museum.
At that time Cracow’s theatrical life also flourished. The
theater of the city possessed a long tradition that dated back to
the era of the Jagiellons, when performances, often by Italian
actors invited by Queen Bona, had been arranged on Wawel
Hill. Some halls of the Spiski Palace and the Krzysztofory
Palace in the Market Square were subsequently adopted for the
same aim.
92