DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31076#0107
His entire life (1868-1907) was bound up with Cracow and
with the mission of stirring up the national conscience of
Poland. As the main representative of Young Poland, he
protested with vigor against the existing social order—particu-
larly against the smugness of the lower middle class. While he
respected Matejko’s historicism, Wyspianski chose a radically
different path of artistic creativity, which was greatly influ-
enced by the French Art Nouveau and the Secession of Vienna.
Pastel was his favorite medium in painting, and he
employed it in the portrayal of himself, his friends and children,
and Cracow. His dramas of deep political meaning, particularly
The Wedcling Day, were a deep shock to society. This drama
was inspired by an actual event: the marriage of Lucjan Rydel,
a poet and friend of Wyspianski, to a peasant girl, Jadwiga
Mikolajczyk. In the play, the wedding’s participants comprise
members of Cracow’s intelligentsia, peasantry, and Jewry. They
enjoy themselves in rustic fashion, singing and dancing to folk
music, even while they are haunted by both positive and nega-
tive phantoms of historical persons. The confrontation proves
fatal. When summoned to take part in the national uprising, the
people are stopped in a lethargic dance; and a lad sent with a
call to arms loses the magic sign—the Golden Hom. The drama
was staged again and again, and adapted to film by Andrzej
Wajda in 1975.
Two years after the debut of The Wedding Day, Wyspianski
presented a new drama entitled The Liheration. In it he attempts
to criticize the mentality of his contemporaries whose minds
were fixed on the myths of romantic poetry. His plays moved
the Poles profoundly, partly due to their concem with historical
97_
Univ.-Bibl.
Bamberg
with the mission of stirring up the national conscience of
Poland. As the main representative of Young Poland, he
protested with vigor against the existing social order—particu-
larly against the smugness of the lower middle class. While he
respected Matejko’s historicism, Wyspianski chose a radically
different path of artistic creativity, which was greatly influ-
enced by the French Art Nouveau and the Secession of Vienna.
Pastel was his favorite medium in painting, and he
employed it in the portrayal of himself, his friends and children,
and Cracow. His dramas of deep political meaning, particularly
The Wedcling Day, were a deep shock to society. This drama
was inspired by an actual event: the marriage of Lucjan Rydel,
a poet and friend of Wyspianski, to a peasant girl, Jadwiga
Mikolajczyk. In the play, the wedding’s participants comprise
members of Cracow’s intelligentsia, peasantry, and Jewry. They
enjoy themselves in rustic fashion, singing and dancing to folk
music, even while they are haunted by both positive and nega-
tive phantoms of historical persons. The confrontation proves
fatal. When summoned to take part in the national uprising, the
people are stopped in a lethargic dance; and a lad sent with a
call to arms loses the magic sign—the Golden Hom. The drama
was staged again and again, and adapted to film by Andrzej
Wajda in 1975.
Two years after the debut of The Wedding Day, Wyspianski
presented a new drama entitled The Liheration. In it he attempts
to criticize the mentality of his contemporaries whose minds
were fixed on the myths of romantic poetry. His plays moved
the Poles profoundly, partly due to their concem with historical
97_
Univ.-Bibl.
Bamberg