Books by Wojciech Walanus
[The Order of Heritage in the Nineteenth Century. Polish Notions and Representations]
Stosunek... more [The Order of Heritage in the Nineteenth Century. Polish Notions and Representations]
Stosunek do ogółu przedmiotów i zjawisk, współcześnie określanych mianem dziedzictwa, był jednym z ważniejszych aspektów kultury XIX wieku. Niniejsza książka została pomyślana jako przystępny przewodnik po tej problematyce. Wychodząc od pojęć, jakich używano do nazywania zabytków, dawnych zwyczajów czy otaczającego człowieka krajobrazu, autorzy omawiają w niej dziedzictwo jako fundamentalną kategorię poznania i tożsamości. Na równi z tekstem analizowane są wszelkiego rodzaju wyobrażenia: ryciny, fotografie, albumy, ekspozycje muzealne czy wystawy. Definiowanie i obrazowanie dziedzictwa rozpatrywane jest przy tym jako proces: przez całe stulecie poszerzał się katalog przedmiotów i zjawisk, które uznawano za warte zachowania; ciągle narastała wiedza na ich temat; lawinowo powiększały się zbiory; używano coraz to nowszych technik ich obrazowego dokumentowania i eksponowania, dzięki czemu trafiały one do coraz szerszej i coraz bardziej zróżnicowanej grupy odbiorców. Bogaty, ewoluujący i narastający zestaw pojęć i obrazów dotyczących dziedzictwa był pochodną dynamiki epoki. Czytelnik znajdzie więc w książce również omówienie zagadnień o ogólniejszym charakterze – fascynacji postępem, kultury wolnego czasu, czytelnictwa czy edukacji – niezbędnych dla zrozumienia, dlaczego, w jaki sposób, w jakich kontekstach społecznych, kulturowych, politycznych czy narodowych określano w słowie i obrazie przeszłość i jej materialne ślady, jak były one rozumiane w tym stuleciu i jak wpływały na postrzeganie teraźniejszości. W centrum uwagi znajdują się polskie definicje i wyobrażenia, które analizowane są jednak na szerszym europejskim i światowym tle: język, jakim mówiono w tym okresie o dziedzictwie, sposoby jego badania, publikowania, ilustrowania i popularyzowania były bowiem uniwersalne.
A Catalogue of the Photographic Collection at the Photo Library of the Jagiellonian University's ... more A Catalogue of the Photographic Collection at the Photo Library of the Jagiellonian University's Art History Institute : photographs of the works of Polish art executed before 1900
[incl. English summary]
History of Photography and Photo Archives by Wojciech Walanus
Biuletyn Historii Sztuki, 2025
“The Indispensable Convergence of the Word with the Demonstration”. Slide Projection in Teaching ... more “The Indispensable Convergence of the Word with the Demonstration”. Slide Projection in Teaching Art History at the Jagiellonian University (ca. 1900–1950)
The introduction of slide projection as a method of illustrating lectures is considered an important moment in the development of art history, as it established the value of photography as a fundamental research tool and teaching aid of the discipline. The aim of this article is to present the circumstances under which this method was implemented at the Department of Art History of the Jagiellonian University and how its collection of lantern slides came into being. The first Cracow art historian to use a projector device during his lectures was Feliks Kopera at the beginning of the 20th century. However, it was not until the early 1930s that this tool was used on a wider scale, when, on the initiative of Tadeusz Szydłowski and Julian Pagaczewski, two epidiascopes were purchased and lantern slides began to be collected. By the outbreak of the Second World War, the collection had already reached a few hundred. New conditions for its development emerged after the war, when a large and varied set of lantern slides was
acquired from the Kunsthistorisches Institut der Universität Breslau; this made it possible to create a set of reproductions that provided a comprehensive overview of works of medieval and early modern art. The period under analysis in this article ends with the establishment of the photographic atelier of the Department of Art History at the Jagiellonian University in 1950 and the beginning of the in-house production of slides.
Fotografia jako narzędzie dokumentacji i popularyzacji zbiorów Czartoryskich w XIX wieku. "Rozprawy Muzeum Narodowego w Krakowie", 13, 2024
Rozprawy Muzeum Narodowego w Krakowie. Seria nowa, 2024
Photography as a tool of documenting and promoting the Czartoryski collection in 19th century.
Af... more Photography as a tool of documenting and promoting the Czartoryski collection in 19th century.
After the mid-19th century, the reproduction of private and public collections by means of photography for academic, publishing and commercial purposes became increasingly common practice. The earliest known photographs of the artworks belonging to the Princes Czartoryski Museum were taken during exhibitions and their authors were Karol Beyer (1858), Franck (1865) and Adolphe Braun (1878). The latter published a separate catalogue of the photographs of paintings from the Czartoryski Museum in 1883. Some works were recorded also by other photographers (e.g. Awit Szubert). However, the crucial role in photographing the collection in the 19th century was played by the Cracow studio of Ignacy Krieger, from 1889 run by his son Natan. Between 1890 and 1891 he carried out an extensive recording campaign covering works of applied arts. This action was probably initiated by the museum’s director, Marian Sokołowski, who wanted to establish its photographic archive and make the collection available for research. Thanks to the high evaluation of his work, in 1891 Krieger was commissioned to photograph the collection of Izabela Działyńska (née Czartoryska) in Gołuchów.
(Nie)Utracone dziedzictwo : inwentaryzacja zabytków sztuki na ziemiach wschodnich dawnej Rzeczypospolitej, ed. Rafał Nestorow, Dagny Nestorow, Piotr Jamski, Kraków, 2022
Photographic documentation of the cultural heritage of the eastern lands of the former Polish Com... more Photographic documentation of the cultural heritage of the eastern lands of the former Polish Commonwealth in the collections of the Photo Library of the Art History Department of the Jagiellonian University : addenda
(Nie)utracone dziedzictwo. Inwentaryzacja zabytków sztuki na ziemiach wschodnich dawnej Rzeczypospolitej, ed. Rafał Nestorow, Dagny Nestorow, Piotr Jamski, Kraków, 2022
Biographies of photographers active in the eastern lands of the former Polish Commonwealth until ... more Biographies of photographers active in the eastern lands of the former Polish Commonwealth until 1939 (a selection)
Rocznik Biblioteki Narodowej, 2021
The Vilnius Cathedral by Władysław Zahorski : a contribution to the history of photography in Vil... more The Vilnius Cathedral by Władysław Zahorski : a contribution to the history of photography in Vilnius and its role in research on the city’s main church at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries
"The Vilnius Cathedral" by Władysław Zahorski (1858–1927), published in 1904, was the first monograph of this church illustrated almost exclusively with photographs. In this article, the illustrative material contained in the aforementioned book is analyzed: the problem of the authorship of the photos (in the vast majority taken by the famous Vilnius photographer Stanisław Filibert Fleury), and the time and circumstances of their creation is discussed. Moreover, the role of photography in Zahorski’s academic activities and in research on the history of the cathedral at the beginning of the 20th century is characterized.
![Research paper thumbnail of Anna Bednarek, Wojciech Walanus, „Rzecz to zapewne niełatwa, gdzie mało światła słonecznego, a pełno zawsze pobożnych”. O najstarszych fotografiach ołtarza mariackiego Wita Stwosza. W: Jako serce pośrodku ciała… [...], red. M. Walczak, A. Wolska, Kraków 2020-2021](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/113320925/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Jako serce pośrodku ciała… Kultura artystyczna kościoła Mariackiego w Krakowie, red. Marek Walczak, Agata Wolska, 2020
Najstarsze zdjęcia Ołtarza Mariackiego, wykonane przez krakowskiego fotografa Walerego Rzewuskieg... more Najstarsze zdjęcia Ołtarza Mariackiego, wykonane przez krakowskiego fotografa Walerego Rzewuskiego, jako jedyne ukazują go w stanie sprzed konserwacji przeprowadzonej w latach 1866–1871. Są to trzy widoki przedstawiające korpus retabulum i awersy skrzydeł ruchomych, zachowane zbiorach kilku polskich instytucji w łącznej liczbie dziewięciu odbitek. Czas powstania tych zdjęć jest kwestią dyskusyjną. Część badaczy wskazuje na rok 1860 (za czym przemawiają przekazy źródłowe), inni przesuwają datowanie na okres tuż przed rozpoczęciem konserwacji lub na początek tych prac (czyli ok. 1866–1867), co jednak w świetle informacji źródłowych należy uznać za nieuzasadnione. Odrzucić należy tym samym przypuszczenie, że Rzewuski wykonał zdjęcia z rusztowań wzniesionych na potrzeby restauracji.
Wykonanie tych zdjęć stanowiło wówczas dużą trudność i należy uznać je za sukces. Wpisują się one zarazem w narastające w tym czasie zainteresowanie Witem Stwoszem i idące za tym zapotrzebowanie na wizerunki jego dzieł. Ze względów technicznych fotografie Rzewuskiego rozpowszechniane musiały być za pośrednictwem graficznych powtórzeń, z których najwcześniejsze ukazało się w 1862 roku w Opisie Krakowa i jego okolic.
Wspomniana restauracja ołtarza była okazją do wykonania kolejnych zdjęć Ołtarza, które Rzewuski miał wykonać jeszcze przed jego rozebraniem, jednak z niejasnych przyczyn do tego nie doszło. Już w trakcie konserwacji o fotografowanie retabulum zabiegał Oddział Archeologii Towarzystwa Naukowego Krakowskiego, doprowadzając na przełomie lat 1867 i 1868 do zawarcia umowy z Rzewuskim na wykonanie albumu. Choć ostatecznie nie został on zrealizowany, należy docenić zarówno ideę wydania obszernego zbioru zdjęć Ołtarza, jak i sam zamiar wykonania fotograficznej dokumentacji stanu dzieła przed konserwacją, gdyż na ziemiach polskich próby te miały charakter pionierski.
Rocznik Krakowski, 2020
Artykuł jest uzupełnieniem do studium o ks. Leopoldzie Textorisie (1822–1885), opublikowanego prz... more Artykuł jest uzupełnieniem do studium o ks. Leopoldzie Textorisie (1822–1885), opublikowanego przez autorów w 2018 roku. Zachowana w Muzeum Narodowym w Krakowie fotografia kościoła w Rzepienniku Biskupim, zgodnie z widniejącą na niej adnotacją wykonana przez Textorisa, stanowi dowód na to, że był on istotnie – jak przypuszczali autorzy – fotografem amatorem. Ponadto artykuł przedstawia informacje o Józefie von Textorisie, prawdopodobnym dziadku ks. Leopolda, oraz nieznane wcześniej źródło dotyczące kontaktów duchownego z rzeźbiarzem Józefem Korwinem Brzostowskim.
Krzysztofory. Zeszyty Naukowe Muzeum Historycznego Miasta Krakowa, 2019
Photographs from Ignacy Krieger’s studio in the collection of the photo library of the Jagielloni... more Photographs from Ignacy Krieger’s studio in the collection of the photo library of the Jagiellonian University’s Institute of art history: main characteristics and research perspectives
The Photo Library of the Jagiellonian University’s Institute of Art History is one of the oldest photographic archives in Poland, and its holdings, collected for over 130 years, are closely connected with the development and scope of art historical research in Kraków. This also applies to the over 900 photo prints produced by the well-known studio of Ignacy Krieger that operated in Kraków in the years 1860–1926. The images show historic buildings and works of art, mostly located in Kraków, but also in about a dozen other towns (e. g. Gołuchów, Nowy Wiśnicz, Baranów Sandomierski, and Biecz). The aim of the paper is primarily to present general characteristics of this group of photographs in terms of their physical features, subject matter, dating, and provenance. It gives a detailed description of the original markings used on the photographic prints, such as signatures, or inscriptions with reference numbers printed from negatives, corresponding with the extant lists of views offered by Krieger’s atelier. Strong emphasis has also been put on the provenance of the discussed photographs, since the markings which can be seen on the prints (stamps, annotations), as well as written sources (old inventories and account books) sometimes enable the researcher to determine precise details related to the purchase of the specific prints, which, in turn, makes it possible to determine the terminus ante quem of the creation of the negatives. Over a quarter of the group were purchased at the end of the 19th century by Prof. Marian Sokołowski for what was then called the Art History Cabinet of the Jagiellonian University, usually directly from the photographer; other items were donated by private persons or institutions, including in particular the Commission on Art History of the Polish Academy of Learning, and the Circle of Conservators of Western Galicia. An analysis of the discussed group of prints has enabled the author to outline several research perspectives, presented in the second part of the paper. On the basis of three examples (well documented in source materials), namely photographs of the Late Gothic polyptych representing St John the Almsgiver from the Augustinian church in Kraków; a reproduction of a painting from an ancient vase from the Gołuchów collection; and a photograph of an 18th-century town plan of Rzeszów – the author has demonstrated a close relationship between the activity of Kriegers’ studio and the academic research conducted by Kraków art historians, especially Marian Sokołowski.
Katalog Fototeki Instytutu Historii Sztuki Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Fotografie dzieł sztuki polskiej wykonane przed rokiem 1900, red. Wojciech Walanus, Kraków, 2019
The History of the Photographic Collection of the Art History Cabinet at the Jagiellonian Univers... more The History of the Photographic Collection of the Art History Cabinet at the Jagiellonian University (1881–1921)
The paper is one of the introductory essays to the "Catalogue of the Photographic Collection at the Photo Library of the Jagiellonian University's Art History Institute: Photographs of the Works of Polish Art Executed before 1900" (ed. W. Walanus, Kraków 2019). It aims to describe the historical circumstances in which the core of the present collection of the Photo Library was formed, and the ways by which the photographs included in the catalogue were acquired. The paper begins with an outline of the history of the Art History Cabinet at the Jagiellonian University, an institution that was a precursor of the Photo Library. The Cabinet was established by Marian Sokołowski (1839–1911), the Jagiellonian University’s first professor of art history [Fig. 1, p. 9]. Already as Privatdozent, or junior lecturer (he submitted his Habilitation in 1879), Sokołowski employed in his lectures photographs, prints and illustrated publications, either his own or borrowed from Cracow’s libraries and museums. In 1881, having been awarded a grant from the Austrian Imperial and Royal Ministry of Religion and Education (k. k. Ministerium für Kultus und Unterricht), Sokołowski started to methodically assemble a collection of teaching tools which – a year later, after he had been appointed professor of art history and thus a chair of art history had been established – was given an independent status of the ‘scientific apparatus of art history’. For the next two years the collection was kept in Sokołowski’s private apartment, then, from 1884, it was provisionally housed in the chemistry department (currently the Wróblewski College) and finally, in 1887, it found a permanent location in the University’s then only recently completed, brand new headquarters, the Collegium Novum. Located in five rooms on the edifice’s ground floor, the Cabinet of Art History was arranged strictly according to the design of Sokołowski who had conceived it as a sort of museum of copies and reproductions of the works of art [Figs 3–4, pp. 12–13]. A turning point in the Cabinet’s history occurred in 1898, when it was combined with the Archaeological Cabinet, established in 1867 by Józef Łepkowski (1826–1894), the first professor of archaeology at the Jagiellonian University [Fig. 5, p. 14]. The holdings of the Archaeological Cabinet encompassed various ‘antiquities’ (excavated objects, artworks and memorabilia), books, prints, drawings and photographs, usually donated by eminent Polish collectors (such as Edward Rastawiecki and Władysław Czartoryski, among others). Sokołowski wanted to combine the Cabinet of Art History with the Archaeological Cabinet into a single ‘Institute of Art and Archaeology’ that would serve as an independent University museum under the immediate authority of the University’s Senate. When Łepkowski retired in 1893, Sokołowski temporarily took the holdings of the Archaeological Cabinet in his care. The situation was resolved by the ministry’s decision of 1898 which established the ‘Combined Collections of Art History and Archaeology’ with Sokołowski as their head and Piotr Bieńkowski, a professor of archaeology, as his deputy. The formal union, however, did not result in an actual fusion of the holdings of both Cabinets, each of which had been still assigned separate funds and kept its own inventory books. In 1921 the Archaeological Cabinet and the Cabinet of Art History were liquidated and their collections were distributed among four new entities: Seminar of Classical Archaeology, Department of Prehistoric Archaeology, the University Museum of Art and Archaeology, and Department of Art History. The last institution was given books, photographs and reproductions dealing with ‘art of the Christian era’, including those that used to belong to the Archaeological Cabinet. The Seminar of Classical Archaeology, in turn, took materials related to ancient art that had belonged to the Cabinet of Art History. In this way the ‘scientific apparatus’ assembled by Sokołowski was dispersed. A part of it that ended up in the Department (and since 1956, Institute) of Art History has been now kept in the Institute’s Photo Library (photographs, scarce drawings and prints) and Library (books).
The second part of the essay deals with the origins of the Cabinet’s of Art History photographic collection. Data provided by the account book from 1881–1899 and, regrettably incomplete, inventories from 1881–1892 and 1897–1930, make it clear that photographs were mainly donated to the Cabinet by private individuals and institutions. An important role at that was played by Sokołowski’s private contacts. The major benefactor of the Cabinet was Sokołowski’s collector friend, Count Karol Lanckoroński [Fig. 2, p. 11], who, from 1883 to 1912, donated about 2,800 photographic prints, mostly related to Italian art. Among important donors were also the writer Julian Klaczko, who bequeathed over 1,300 photographs to the Cabinet, and Sokołowski himself, who gave a total of approximately 900 photographic prints. The most important institution that supported the Cabinet was the Commission on Art History established at the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1873. Since 1892 Sokołowski had been its chairman and it was most likely through his good offices that photographs or drawings, previously presented at the Commission’s meetings and used for reproduction in its published Transactions, were donated to the University’s collection. These donations totalled almost 1,200 photographic prints related for the most part to Polish art. A far less important role in the shaping of the collection was played by purchases which were possible owing to the already mentioned grant of the Ministry of Religion and Education: only approximately 920 photographs were acquired in this way from 1887 to 1917. As a result of the 1921 division of the collections of the Archaeological Cabinet and the Cabinet of Art History, the latter was divested of reproductions of ancient art. The division, however, had also some advantages, providing the Photo Library’s current collection with about 180 nineteenth-century photographs which once used to belong to the Archaeological Cabinet, including about 70 prints of particularly high value, dating from the 1860s and 1870s, from the private collection of Józef Łepkowski (all of which have been included in the present catalogue).
The final part of the text discusses the place of photography within the structure of the Cabinet of Art History which consisted of four sections: ‘Furniture and furnishings’, ‘Casts’, ‘Books and publications’, and ‘Photographs and prints’. The last section included also drawings, watercolours and photomechanical reproductions, which very well reflects the diversity of media used by art historians in the second half of the nineteenth and at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is known that Sokołowski set as much store by acquiring high-quality photographic prints as by procuring copper engravings and chromolithographs. Still, this does not alter the fact that photography was the most numerous and most extensively used medium in Sokołowski’s Cabinet. The photographs were most likely organised by epochs, artistic genres and countries, and within each section they were probably arranged alphabetically according to the names of artists or places. Photographic prints, generally kept in cabinets or drawers, were made available in the ‘Study Room’ [Fig. 3, p. 12], but some of them – selected with regard to their subject matter – were permanently displayed in the Cabinet’s rooms – hung on the walls near plaster casts of ancient sculpture [Fig. 4, p. 13]. The arrangement of the Cabinet’s interiors in many respects resembled that of the so-called Photographic Room in Karol Lanckoroński’s palace at Rozdół [Fig. 7, p. 22], which may be explained by Sokołowski’s close contacts with the count.
Anna Bednarek, Wojciech Walanus, Mało znane fotografie Krakowa i ich domniemany autor ks. Leopold Textoris (1822–1885). "Rocznik Krakowski", 84, 2018
Rocznik Krakowski, 2018
Ks. Leopold Textoris (1822‒1885) był wieloletnim proboszczem w Kołaczycach, wcześniej związanym z... more Ks. Leopold Textoris (1822‒1885) był wieloletnim proboszczem w Kołaczycach, wcześniej związanym z Krakowem, gdzie kierował Szkołą Sióstr Prezentek. Miał szerokie zainteresowania naukowe, prowadził obserwacje meteorologiczne i prawdopodobnie był jednym z niewielu fotografów amatorów działających na ziemiach polskich w latach 50.–60. XIX w. Związane z nim zdjęcia, przedstawiające Kraków, Kołaczyce i Rzepiennik Biskupi, zachowały się w Bibliotece Narodowej w Warszawie i Gabinecie Rycin Biblioteki Naukowej PAU i PAN w Krakowie. Można mu przypisać autorstwo części z nich, w tym czterech ujęć Krakowa z ok. 1859 r. ‒ należą one do najstarszych fotograficznych widoków miasta.
Mistrz i Katarzyna. Hans von Kulmbach i jego dzieła dla Krakowa, red. Mirosław P. Kruk, Aleksandra Hola, Marek Walczak, 2018
Fotografie cyklu legendy św. Katarzyny Aleksandryjskiej (kat. 59–67), fotografie retabulum Jana C... more Fotografie cyklu legendy św. Katarzyny Aleksandryjskiej (kat. 59–67), fotografie retabulum Jana Chrzciciela i kwater cyklu św. Jana Ewangelisty (kat. 68–72), reprodukcje rysunków według obrazu Hansa Suessa von Kulmbach Zstąpienie św. Jana Ewangelisty do grobu (kat. 73–76), fotografia obrazu Michaela Lancz von Kitzingena Nawrócenie św. Pawła (kat. 77), fotografia obrazu Hansa Suessa von Kulmbacha Ucieczka do Egiptu (kat. 78).
Spuścizny - co po nas zostaje? Zagadnienia metodologiczne. Materiały konferencji naukowych organizowanych przez Archiwum Nauki PAN i PAU i Polską Akademię Umiejętności, ed. A. Górski, Kraków, 2018
Photographs from the collections of Polish scholars in the Photo Library of the Institute of Art ... more Photographs from the collections of Polish scholars in the Photo Library of the Institute of Art History of the Jagiellonian Univeristy: an outline of issues
This is the German version of the paper published in Polish: "Fotografie Staatliche Bildstelle z ... more This is the German version of the paper published in Polish: "Fotografie Staatliche Bildstelle z Krakowa i okolic - dzieje, charakterystyka, recepcja", in: Kraków 1940. Kampania fotograficzna Staatliche Bildstelle, ed. W. Walanus, Kraków 2017.
Kraków 1940. Kampania fotograficzna Staatliche Bildstelle, ed. W. Walanus, Kraków (Skarby Fototeki Instytutu Historii Sztuki Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 3), , 2017
The Photographs of the Staatliche Bildstelle taken in Cracow and its Surroundings: Their History,... more The Photographs of the Staatliche Bildstelle taken in Cracow and its Surroundings: Their History, Characteristics and Reception
The essay focuses on the historical circumstances of the photographic campaign carried out by the Staatliche Bildstelle in occupied Cracow. Archival sources indicate that the planning of this action began as early as November 1939 (that is, fewer than two months after the Nazis had conquered Poland) and the campaign proper lasted from February until the beginning of September 1940 at the latest. During this period, at least 637 photographs were taken, most of them showing historic monuments of Cracow: the Wawel Castle and Cracow Cathedral were particularly amply documented. Meanwhile, the Deutscher Kunstverlag, a Berlin publishing house that had the exclusive rights to distribute photos of the Staatliche Bildstelle, took keen interest in the campaign. As early as March 1940 Burkhard Meier, director of the Deutscher Kunstverlag, decided to publish a book on Cracow and illustrate it with the new photographs taken by the Bildstelle. The book came out in 1941. It was written by Dagobert Frey, a prominent representative of the “Ostforschung” (“the Eastern Research”) in the field of art history. Most probably it was him who had provided the Staatliche Bildstelle with a list of objects to be photographed, because there are close parallels between the thematic scope of photos taken by Edgar Titzenthaler and Frey’s text: both the photographer and art historian concentrated on medieval and Renaissance artworks. During the campaign, the team of the Staatliche Bildstelle had to cooperate closely with the civil and military authorities of the General Government. Their permission was necessary, for instance, to photograph the Wawel Castle and the cathedral, as the former was the residence of General-Governor Hans Frank, and the access to the latter was strictly controlled by the occupants. The essay presents also a short biography of the photographer, Edgar Titzenthaler (1887-1955), and deals with technical and artistic aspects of his Cracow works. Additionally, the paper discusses the importance of retouching the negatives, a practice that was commonly employed in the Staatliche Bildstelle, as it helped to eliminate all contemporary elements from the images of historic cities or buildings (e.g. road signs, telephone wires, and passers-by). The article further explores the use of Titzenthaler’s photographs in German books and journals from 1940 to 1945 and in Polish art historical publications of the post-war period as well, and concludes with a brief analysis of the documentary value of the photographs in question. Taken during the first year of the Nazi occupation of Cracow, they should be treated as a valuable iconographic source.
Folia Historiae Artium. Seria Nowa, 2016
From the history of the photographic documentation of the Polish cultural heritage : the recordin... more From the history of the photographic documentation of the Polish cultural heritage : the recording campaigns of Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz and Stefan Zaborowski
One of the main objectives of the Commission on Art History of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cracow, established in 1873, was to assemble all kind of information and iconographic materials related to the historic artefacts from the lands of the former Commonwealth of Both Nations. At the time when Professor Marian Sokołowski was the head of the Commission (1892-1911), activities of this kind significantly intensified: numerous collaborators of the Commission conducted random fieldwork research in various regions of the partitioned country and the materials they acquired (photographs in particular) were sent to Cracow. The point of departure of the present paper were highquality photographic prints, in the number of about three hundred, currently held in the collection of the Photolibrary at the Art History Department of the Jagiellonian University, depicting mostly historic buildings from the area of the so-called Congress Kingdom of Poland and from Lithuania. The photographs are the result of a recording campaign initiated in 1905 by Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz, then a student of architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg. Thanks to the financial contribution of the Commission on Art History of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, during the following five years Szyszko-Bohusz, together with a few of his fellow students and the photographer Stefan Zaborowski, visited over seventy locations, took over 1200 photographs and made several hundred drawings. Thanks to the surviving correspondence between Szyszko-Bohusz, Zaborowski and Sokołowski, it was possible to follow the exact itinerary of the recorders and establish precise dates for taking the photographs. The ample archival material also enabled a discussion of the role that photography played in the work of the architects-recorders (as an aid in executing descriptions and survey drawings) and in the research of their mentor, Marian Sokołowski (as illustrations in scholarly papers). Special attention has been given to Stefan Zaborowski (Fig. 17), an amateur photographer from Rawa Mazowiecka, whose life and work are little known. He was a member of two public organisations in Warsaw: the Polish Society of Photography Lovers (from 1905) and the Society for the Protection of Historic Monuments (1906-1909); was vividly interested in art history and it was probably for that reason that he specialised in architectural photography. He considered this branch of photography as a ‘scholarly’ one, in contrast to ‘genre and artistic’ photography, although his own works show that a precise distinction between these two categories is often impossible to be made (see Figs 22-24). Worthy of mention is a proposal, formulated by Zaborowski in 1910, to set up a permanent photographic studio at the Academy of Arts and Sciences that would serve scholars of various disciplines and be in charge of a collection of negatives (see Appendix). This idea, however, was never realised, which was one of the reasons for a conflict between Zaborowski and Sokołowski. As a result, the photographer severed his collaboration with the Academy.
Miejsce fotografii w badaniach humanistycznych, ed. M. Ziętkiewicz, M. Biernacka, Warszawa [2016] (Źródła do historii fotografii polskiej XIX wieku, 1), 2016
A photograph in the hands of an art historian: some examples from the Art History Institute of th... more A photograph in the hands of an art historian: some examples from the Art History Institute of the Jagiellonian University's Photo Library
The paper discusses how photography has helped shape methods of comparative visual analysis in the discipline of art history. Studying photographic prints made to illustrate lectures about painting in the early twentieth century, he investigates marks, notations and other traces of use that are now integral parts of the prints as material objects. Through his analysis, the author describes the specific ways in which Cracow scholars such as Józef Łepkowski and Marian Sokołowski employed the prints in teaching and learning activities, showing how photography has revolutionized teaching practices in the Polish system of art historical education.
Archiwa wizualne dziedzictwa kulturowego. Archeologia, etnografia, historia sztuki, t. 1, red. Ewa Manikowska, Izabela Kopania, Warszawa, 2014
Stamps, inventories, inscriptions: Photo Library of the Institute of Art History of the Jagiellon... more Stamps, inventories, inscriptions: Photo Library of the Institute of Art History of the Jagiellonian University as a case study for research on photographic archives
Late Gothic and Early Modern Art by Wojciech Walanus
Jako serce pośrodku ciała... Kultura artystyczna kościoła Mariackiego w Krakowie, red. Marek Walczak, Agata Wolska, Kraków, 2021
"Caemeterium circa hanc Ecclesiam est amplum". The appearance of the former churchyard at St. Mar... more "Caemeterium circa hanc Ecclesiam est amplum". The appearance of the former churchyard at St. Mary's Church in Cracow
The churchyard around St. Mary’s Church in Kraków was probably established with the erection of the parish church in the thirteenth century and remained in operation for over 500 years, until it was liquidated in the 1790s. The article’s objective is to present the most important architectural elements defining the spatial framework of the churchyard, the objects necessary for its functioning, and the works of art related thereto, both those preserved to this day, and those known only from written records. Firstly, the wall and the gates leading to the churchyard were discussed, of which there were six – since the sixteenth century at the latest. As evidenced by source materials, they were equipped with moats covered with iron bars (Latin crurifragium, German Beinbrecher), preventing animals from entering the churchyard. The wall and the gates were rebuilt many times, and they received their final, late Baroque shape in the eighteenth century: the gates were then decorated with sculptures, of which the figure of Our Lady of Graces has been preserved. Little is known about the appearance of the burial ground: it was probably overgrown with grass and intersected with paved paths. According to the sources, at the end of the sixteenth century at the latest, brick family tombs appeared in the churchyard, and there is reason to believe there were tombstones made of durable material (i.e. stone). Less frequently, ancestral chapels were also erected (by the Szwarc, Franckowicz, Lodwig, and Pipan families). The ossuary or charnel house was the indispensable facility, necessary for the functioning of any churchyard. The oldest ossuary at St. Mary’s Church was located in a chapel (later St. Barbara’s Church), built before 1338 by Mikołaj Wierzynek the elder. It probably functioned until the enlargement of the chapel in the years 1394–1402. The second charnel house in chronological order was located in the eastern part of the churchyard, and it can be assumed to have been a large building, partly located underground, covered with tiles. After its liquidation in 1633, another, third ossuary was built in the form of a long, underground crypt, situated in front of the vicarage, and only dismantled in 1822. Numerous artworks also shaped the cemetery’s decoration. Apart from the well-known stone representations of the Gethsemane (the relief by Veit Stoss, and the group in the chapel at the Church of St. Barbara), several seventeenth and eighteenth-century images were discussed that used to be located within the churchyard space (including the Triumph of Death, and numerous images, known only from secondary sources, showing Świętosław the Silent, a locally venerated saint). Finally, the problem of light is mentioned, which played an important symbolic role in church cemeteries. Although there is no evidence for the existence of the lantern of the dead by St. Mary’s Church, however probable, it can be assumed that there were many light sources there, possibly financed by private founders, associated either with particular tombstones or with venerated images.
Uploads
Books by Wojciech Walanus
Stosunek do ogółu przedmiotów i zjawisk, współcześnie określanych mianem dziedzictwa, był jednym z ważniejszych aspektów kultury XIX wieku. Niniejsza książka została pomyślana jako przystępny przewodnik po tej problematyce. Wychodząc od pojęć, jakich używano do nazywania zabytków, dawnych zwyczajów czy otaczającego człowieka krajobrazu, autorzy omawiają w niej dziedzictwo jako fundamentalną kategorię poznania i tożsamości. Na równi z tekstem analizowane są wszelkiego rodzaju wyobrażenia: ryciny, fotografie, albumy, ekspozycje muzealne czy wystawy. Definiowanie i obrazowanie dziedzictwa rozpatrywane jest przy tym jako proces: przez całe stulecie poszerzał się katalog przedmiotów i zjawisk, które uznawano za warte zachowania; ciągle narastała wiedza na ich temat; lawinowo powiększały się zbiory; używano coraz to nowszych technik ich obrazowego dokumentowania i eksponowania, dzięki czemu trafiały one do coraz szerszej i coraz bardziej zróżnicowanej grupy odbiorców. Bogaty, ewoluujący i narastający zestaw pojęć i obrazów dotyczących dziedzictwa był pochodną dynamiki epoki. Czytelnik znajdzie więc w książce również omówienie zagadnień o ogólniejszym charakterze – fascynacji postępem, kultury wolnego czasu, czytelnictwa czy edukacji – niezbędnych dla zrozumienia, dlaczego, w jaki sposób, w jakich kontekstach społecznych, kulturowych, politycznych czy narodowych określano w słowie i obrazie przeszłość i jej materialne ślady, jak były one rozumiane w tym stuleciu i jak wpływały na postrzeganie teraźniejszości. W centrum uwagi znajdują się polskie definicje i wyobrażenia, które analizowane są jednak na szerszym europejskim i światowym tle: język, jakim mówiono w tym okresie o dziedzictwie, sposoby jego badania, publikowania, ilustrowania i popularyzowania były bowiem uniwersalne.
[incl. English summary]
History of Photography and Photo Archives by Wojciech Walanus
The introduction of slide projection as a method of illustrating lectures is considered an important moment in the development of art history, as it established the value of photography as a fundamental research tool and teaching aid of the discipline. The aim of this article is to present the circumstances under which this method was implemented at the Department of Art History of the Jagiellonian University and how its collection of lantern slides came into being. The first Cracow art historian to use a projector device during his lectures was Feliks Kopera at the beginning of the 20th century. However, it was not until the early 1930s that this tool was used on a wider scale, when, on the initiative of Tadeusz Szydłowski and Julian Pagaczewski, two epidiascopes were purchased and lantern slides began to be collected. By the outbreak of the Second World War, the collection had already reached a few hundred. New conditions for its development emerged after the war, when a large and varied set of lantern slides was
acquired from the Kunsthistorisches Institut der Universität Breslau; this made it possible to create a set of reproductions that provided a comprehensive overview of works of medieval and early modern art. The period under analysis in this article ends with the establishment of the photographic atelier of the Department of Art History at the Jagiellonian University in 1950 and the beginning of the in-house production of slides.
After the mid-19th century, the reproduction of private and public collections by means of photography for academic, publishing and commercial purposes became increasingly common practice. The earliest known photographs of the artworks belonging to the Princes Czartoryski Museum were taken during exhibitions and their authors were Karol Beyer (1858), Franck (1865) and Adolphe Braun (1878). The latter published a separate catalogue of the photographs of paintings from the Czartoryski Museum in 1883. Some works were recorded also by other photographers (e.g. Awit Szubert). However, the crucial role in photographing the collection in the 19th century was played by the Cracow studio of Ignacy Krieger, from 1889 run by his son Natan. Between 1890 and 1891 he carried out an extensive recording campaign covering works of applied arts. This action was probably initiated by the museum’s director, Marian Sokołowski, who wanted to establish its photographic archive and make the collection available for research. Thanks to the high evaluation of his work, in 1891 Krieger was commissioned to photograph the collection of Izabela Działyńska (née Czartoryska) in Gołuchów.
"The Vilnius Cathedral" by Władysław Zahorski (1858–1927), published in 1904, was the first monograph of this church illustrated almost exclusively with photographs. In this article, the illustrative material contained in the aforementioned book is analyzed: the problem of the authorship of the photos (in the vast majority taken by the famous Vilnius photographer Stanisław Filibert Fleury), and the time and circumstances of their creation is discussed. Moreover, the role of photography in Zahorski’s academic activities and in research on the history of the cathedral at the beginning of the 20th century is characterized.
Wykonanie tych zdjęć stanowiło wówczas dużą trudność i należy uznać je za sukces. Wpisują się one zarazem w narastające w tym czasie zainteresowanie Witem Stwoszem i idące za tym zapotrzebowanie na wizerunki jego dzieł. Ze względów technicznych fotografie Rzewuskiego rozpowszechniane musiały być za pośrednictwem graficznych powtórzeń, z których najwcześniejsze ukazało się w 1862 roku w Opisie Krakowa i jego okolic.
Wspomniana restauracja ołtarza była okazją do wykonania kolejnych zdjęć Ołtarza, które Rzewuski miał wykonać jeszcze przed jego rozebraniem, jednak z niejasnych przyczyn do tego nie doszło. Już w trakcie konserwacji o fotografowanie retabulum zabiegał Oddział Archeologii Towarzystwa Naukowego Krakowskiego, doprowadzając na przełomie lat 1867 i 1868 do zawarcia umowy z Rzewuskim na wykonanie albumu. Choć ostatecznie nie został on zrealizowany, należy docenić zarówno ideę wydania obszernego zbioru zdjęć Ołtarza, jak i sam zamiar wykonania fotograficznej dokumentacji stanu dzieła przed konserwacją, gdyż na ziemiach polskich próby te miały charakter pionierski.
The Photo Library of the Jagiellonian University’s Institute of Art History is one of the oldest photographic archives in Poland, and its holdings, collected for over 130 years, are closely connected with the development and scope of art historical research in Kraków. This also applies to the over 900 photo prints produced by the well-known studio of Ignacy Krieger that operated in Kraków in the years 1860–1926. The images show historic buildings and works of art, mostly located in Kraków, but also in about a dozen other towns (e. g. Gołuchów, Nowy Wiśnicz, Baranów Sandomierski, and Biecz). The aim of the paper is primarily to present general characteristics of this group of photographs in terms of their physical features, subject matter, dating, and provenance. It gives a detailed description of the original markings used on the photographic prints, such as signatures, or inscriptions with reference numbers printed from negatives, corresponding with the extant lists of views offered by Krieger’s atelier. Strong emphasis has also been put on the provenance of the discussed photographs, since the markings which can be seen on the prints (stamps, annotations), as well as written sources (old inventories and account books) sometimes enable the researcher to determine precise details related to the purchase of the specific prints, which, in turn, makes it possible to determine the terminus ante quem of the creation of the negatives. Over a quarter of the group were purchased at the end of the 19th century by Prof. Marian Sokołowski for what was then called the Art History Cabinet of the Jagiellonian University, usually directly from the photographer; other items were donated by private persons or institutions, including in particular the Commission on Art History of the Polish Academy of Learning, and the Circle of Conservators of Western Galicia. An analysis of the discussed group of prints has enabled the author to outline several research perspectives, presented in the second part of the paper. On the basis of three examples (well documented in source materials), namely photographs of the Late Gothic polyptych representing St John the Almsgiver from the Augustinian church in Kraków; a reproduction of a painting from an ancient vase from the Gołuchów collection; and a photograph of an 18th-century town plan of Rzeszów – the author has demonstrated a close relationship between the activity of Kriegers’ studio and the academic research conducted by Kraków art historians, especially Marian Sokołowski.
The paper is one of the introductory essays to the "Catalogue of the Photographic Collection at the Photo Library of the Jagiellonian University's Art History Institute: Photographs of the Works of Polish Art Executed before 1900" (ed. W. Walanus, Kraków 2019). It aims to describe the historical circumstances in which the core of the present collection of the Photo Library was formed, and the ways by which the photographs included in the catalogue were acquired. The paper begins with an outline of the history of the Art History Cabinet at the Jagiellonian University, an institution that was a precursor of the Photo Library. The Cabinet was established by Marian Sokołowski (1839–1911), the Jagiellonian University’s first professor of art history [Fig. 1, p. 9]. Already as Privatdozent, or junior lecturer (he submitted his Habilitation in 1879), Sokołowski employed in his lectures photographs, prints and illustrated publications, either his own or borrowed from Cracow’s libraries and museums. In 1881, having been awarded a grant from the Austrian Imperial and Royal Ministry of Religion and Education (k. k. Ministerium für Kultus und Unterricht), Sokołowski started to methodically assemble a collection of teaching tools which – a year later, after he had been appointed professor of art history and thus a chair of art history had been established – was given an independent status of the ‘scientific apparatus of art history’. For the next two years the collection was kept in Sokołowski’s private apartment, then, from 1884, it was provisionally housed in the chemistry department (currently the Wróblewski College) and finally, in 1887, it found a permanent location in the University’s then only recently completed, brand new headquarters, the Collegium Novum. Located in five rooms on the edifice’s ground floor, the Cabinet of Art History was arranged strictly according to the design of Sokołowski who had conceived it as a sort of museum of copies and reproductions of the works of art [Figs 3–4, pp. 12–13]. A turning point in the Cabinet’s history occurred in 1898, when it was combined with the Archaeological Cabinet, established in 1867 by Józef Łepkowski (1826–1894), the first professor of archaeology at the Jagiellonian University [Fig. 5, p. 14]. The holdings of the Archaeological Cabinet encompassed various ‘antiquities’ (excavated objects, artworks and memorabilia), books, prints, drawings and photographs, usually donated by eminent Polish collectors (such as Edward Rastawiecki and Władysław Czartoryski, among others). Sokołowski wanted to combine the Cabinet of Art History with the Archaeological Cabinet into a single ‘Institute of Art and Archaeology’ that would serve as an independent University museum under the immediate authority of the University’s Senate. When Łepkowski retired in 1893, Sokołowski temporarily took the holdings of the Archaeological Cabinet in his care. The situation was resolved by the ministry’s decision of 1898 which established the ‘Combined Collections of Art History and Archaeology’ with Sokołowski as their head and Piotr Bieńkowski, a professor of archaeology, as his deputy. The formal union, however, did not result in an actual fusion of the holdings of both Cabinets, each of which had been still assigned separate funds and kept its own inventory books. In 1921 the Archaeological Cabinet and the Cabinet of Art History were liquidated and their collections were distributed among four new entities: Seminar of Classical Archaeology, Department of Prehistoric Archaeology, the University Museum of Art and Archaeology, and Department of Art History. The last institution was given books, photographs and reproductions dealing with ‘art of the Christian era’, including those that used to belong to the Archaeological Cabinet. The Seminar of Classical Archaeology, in turn, took materials related to ancient art that had belonged to the Cabinet of Art History. In this way the ‘scientific apparatus’ assembled by Sokołowski was dispersed. A part of it that ended up in the Department (and since 1956, Institute) of Art History has been now kept in the Institute’s Photo Library (photographs, scarce drawings and prints) and Library (books).
The second part of the essay deals with the origins of the Cabinet’s of Art History photographic collection. Data provided by the account book from 1881–1899 and, regrettably incomplete, inventories from 1881–1892 and 1897–1930, make it clear that photographs were mainly donated to the Cabinet by private individuals and institutions. An important role at that was played by Sokołowski’s private contacts. The major benefactor of the Cabinet was Sokołowski’s collector friend, Count Karol Lanckoroński [Fig. 2, p. 11], who, from 1883 to 1912, donated about 2,800 photographic prints, mostly related to Italian art. Among important donors were also the writer Julian Klaczko, who bequeathed over 1,300 photographs to the Cabinet, and Sokołowski himself, who gave a total of approximately 900 photographic prints. The most important institution that supported the Cabinet was the Commission on Art History established at the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1873. Since 1892 Sokołowski had been its chairman and it was most likely through his good offices that photographs or drawings, previously presented at the Commission’s meetings and used for reproduction in its published Transactions, were donated to the University’s collection. These donations totalled almost 1,200 photographic prints related for the most part to Polish art. A far less important role in the shaping of the collection was played by purchases which were possible owing to the already mentioned grant of the Ministry of Religion and Education: only approximately 920 photographs were acquired in this way from 1887 to 1917. As a result of the 1921 division of the collections of the Archaeological Cabinet and the Cabinet of Art History, the latter was divested of reproductions of ancient art. The division, however, had also some advantages, providing the Photo Library’s current collection with about 180 nineteenth-century photographs which once used to belong to the Archaeological Cabinet, including about 70 prints of particularly high value, dating from the 1860s and 1870s, from the private collection of Józef Łepkowski (all of which have been included in the present catalogue).
The final part of the text discusses the place of photography within the structure of the Cabinet of Art History which consisted of four sections: ‘Furniture and furnishings’, ‘Casts’, ‘Books and publications’, and ‘Photographs and prints’. The last section included also drawings, watercolours and photomechanical reproductions, which very well reflects the diversity of media used by art historians in the second half of the nineteenth and at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is known that Sokołowski set as much store by acquiring high-quality photographic prints as by procuring copper engravings and chromolithographs. Still, this does not alter the fact that photography was the most numerous and most extensively used medium in Sokołowski’s Cabinet. The photographs were most likely organised by epochs, artistic genres and countries, and within each section they were probably arranged alphabetically according to the names of artists or places. Photographic prints, generally kept in cabinets or drawers, were made available in the ‘Study Room’ [Fig. 3, p. 12], but some of them – selected with regard to their subject matter – were permanently displayed in the Cabinet’s rooms – hung on the walls near plaster casts of ancient sculpture [Fig. 4, p. 13]. The arrangement of the Cabinet’s interiors in many respects resembled that of the so-called Photographic Room in Karol Lanckoroński’s palace at Rozdół [Fig. 7, p. 22], which may be explained by Sokołowski’s close contacts with the count.
The essay focuses on the historical circumstances of the photographic campaign carried out by the Staatliche Bildstelle in occupied Cracow. Archival sources indicate that the planning of this action began as early as November 1939 (that is, fewer than two months after the Nazis had conquered Poland) and the campaign proper lasted from February until the beginning of September 1940 at the latest. During this period, at least 637 photographs were taken, most of them showing historic monuments of Cracow: the Wawel Castle and Cracow Cathedral were particularly amply documented. Meanwhile, the Deutscher Kunstverlag, a Berlin publishing house that had the exclusive rights to distribute photos of the Staatliche Bildstelle, took keen interest in the campaign. As early as March 1940 Burkhard Meier, director of the Deutscher Kunstverlag, decided to publish a book on Cracow and illustrate it with the new photographs taken by the Bildstelle. The book came out in 1941. It was written by Dagobert Frey, a prominent representative of the “Ostforschung” (“the Eastern Research”) in the field of art history. Most probably it was him who had provided the Staatliche Bildstelle with a list of objects to be photographed, because there are close parallels between the thematic scope of photos taken by Edgar Titzenthaler and Frey’s text: both the photographer and art historian concentrated on medieval and Renaissance artworks. During the campaign, the team of the Staatliche Bildstelle had to cooperate closely with the civil and military authorities of the General Government. Their permission was necessary, for instance, to photograph the Wawel Castle and the cathedral, as the former was the residence of General-Governor Hans Frank, and the access to the latter was strictly controlled by the occupants. The essay presents also a short biography of the photographer, Edgar Titzenthaler (1887-1955), and deals with technical and artistic aspects of his Cracow works. Additionally, the paper discusses the importance of retouching the negatives, a practice that was commonly employed in the Staatliche Bildstelle, as it helped to eliminate all contemporary elements from the images of historic cities or buildings (e.g. road signs, telephone wires, and passers-by). The article further explores the use of Titzenthaler’s photographs in German books and journals from 1940 to 1945 and in Polish art historical publications of the post-war period as well, and concludes with a brief analysis of the documentary value of the photographs in question. Taken during the first year of the Nazi occupation of Cracow, they should be treated as a valuable iconographic source.
One of the main objectives of the Commission on Art History of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cracow, established in 1873, was to assemble all kind of information and iconographic materials related to the historic artefacts from the lands of the former Commonwealth of Both Nations. At the time when Professor Marian Sokołowski was the head of the Commission (1892-1911), activities of this kind significantly intensified: numerous collaborators of the Commission conducted random fieldwork research in various regions of the partitioned country and the materials they acquired (photographs in particular) were sent to Cracow. The point of departure of the present paper were highquality photographic prints, in the number of about three hundred, currently held in the collection of the Photolibrary at the Art History Department of the Jagiellonian University, depicting mostly historic buildings from the area of the so-called Congress Kingdom of Poland and from Lithuania. The photographs are the result of a recording campaign initiated in 1905 by Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz, then a student of architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg. Thanks to the financial contribution of the Commission on Art History of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, during the following five years Szyszko-Bohusz, together with a few of his fellow students and the photographer Stefan Zaborowski, visited over seventy locations, took over 1200 photographs and made several hundred drawings. Thanks to the surviving correspondence between Szyszko-Bohusz, Zaborowski and Sokołowski, it was possible to follow the exact itinerary of the recorders and establish precise dates for taking the photographs. The ample archival material also enabled a discussion of the role that photography played in the work of the architects-recorders (as an aid in executing descriptions and survey drawings) and in the research of their mentor, Marian Sokołowski (as illustrations in scholarly papers). Special attention has been given to Stefan Zaborowski (Fig. 17), an amateur photographer from Rawa Mazowiecka, whose life and work are little known. He was a member of two public organisations in Warsaw: the Polish Society of Photography Lovers (from 1905) and the Society for the Protection of Historic Monuments (1906-1909); was vividly interested in art history and it was probably for that reason that he specialised in architectural photography. He considered this branch of photography as a ‘scholarly’ one, in contrast to ‘genre and artistic’ photography, although his own works show that a precise distinction between these two categories is often impossible to be made (see Figs 22-24). Worthy of mention is a proposal, formulated by Zaborowski in 1910, to set up a permanent photographic studio at the Academy of Arts and Sciences that would serve scholars of various disciplines and be in charge of a collection of negatives (see Appendix). This idea, however, was never realised, which was one of the reasons for a conflict between Zaborowski and Sokołowski. As a result, the photographer severed his collaboration with the Academy.
The paper discusses how photography has helped shape methods of comparative visual analysis in the discipline of art history. Studying photographic prints made to illustrate lectures about painting in the early twentieth century, he investigates marks, notations and other traces of use that are now integral parts of the prints as material objects. Through his analysis, the author describes the specific ways in which Cracow scholars such as Józef Łepkowski and Marian Sokołowski employed the prints in teaching and learning activities, showing how photography has revolutionized teaching practices in the Polish system of art historical education.
Late Gothic and Early Modern Art by Wojciech Walanus
The churchyard around St. Mary’s Church in Kraków was probably established with the erection of the parish church in the thirteenth century and remained in operation for over 500 years, until it was liquidated in the 1790s. The article’s objective is to present the most important architectural elements defining the spatial framework of the churchyard, the objects necessary for its functioning, and the works of art related thereto, both those preserved to this day, and those known only from written records. Firstly, the wall and the gates leading to the churchyard were discussed, of which there were six – since the sixteenth century at the latest. As evidenced by source materials, they were equipped with moats covered with iron bars (Latin crurifragium, German Beinbrecher), preventing animals from entering the churchyard. The wall and the gates were rebuilt many times, and they received their final, late Baroque shape in the eighteenth century: the gates were then decorated with sculptures, of which the figure of Our Lady of Graces has been preserved. Little is known about the appearance of the burial ground: it was probably overgrown with grass and intersected with paved paths. According to the sources, at the end of the sixteenth century at the latest, brick family tombs appeared in the churchyard, and there is reason to believe there were tombstones made of durable material (i.e. stone). Less frequently, ancestral chapels were also erected (by the Szwarc, Franckowicz, Lodwig, and Pipan families). The ossuary or charnel house was the indispensable facility, necessary for the functioning of any churchyard. The oldest ossuary at St. Mary’s Church was located in a chapel (later St. Barbara’s Church), built before 1338 by Mikołaj Wierzynek the elder. It probably functioned until the enlargement of the chapel in the years 1394–1402. The second charnel house in chronological order was located in the eastern part of the churchyard, and it can be assumed to have been a large building, partly located underground, covered with tiles. After its liquidation in 1633, another, third ossuary was built in the form of a long, underground crypt, situated in front of the vicarage, and only dismantled in 1822. Numerous artworks also shaped the cemetery’s decoration. Apart from the well-known stone representations of the Gethsemane (the relief by Veit Stoss, and the group in the chapel at the Church of St. Barbara), several seventeenth and eighteenth-century images were discussed that used to be located within the churchyard space (including the Triumph of Death, and numerous images, known only from secondary sources, showing Świętosław the Silent, a locally venerated saint). Finally, the problem of light is mentioned, which played an important symbolic role in church cemeteries. Although there is no evidence for the existence of the lantern of the dead by St. Mary’s Church, however probable, it can be assumed that there were many light sources there, possibly financed by private founders, associated either with particular tombstones or with venerated images.