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Contemporary Polish stained glass art is a field still little known and underestimated. A breakthrough in research was made by Jerzy Frycz, who in 1974 published a pioneering paper which, against the background of stained glass revival in Europe, presented the history of stained glass art in the Polish territories in the 19th and 20th centuries, and outlined the activity of several workshops. In subsequent...
Most studies of the art of the nineteenth and, particularly, twentieth centuries treat issues related to sacred art only marginally. In 'the age of avant-gardes,' as the last century is sometimes called, artistic phenomena were generally assessed according to the paradigm of their novelty and originality, and works of religious art were usually mentioned only if they belonged to an artist's output...
Analysis of tasks of designing contemporary sacred architecture in view of the author's own designing experience in the field encourages an attempt at a synthetic presentation of a number of problems. After 1970, obtaining planning permission for sacred objects was much easier than it had been before in Poland, e.g. in cases when the building area did not exceed 250 m2. Such a church was then called...
A special place in the Polish architecture of the second half of the twentieth century is occupied by sacred architecture. On the one hand, it is due to the fact that in the communist era architects designing and building churches had the greatest creative freedom and independence; on the other, it results from the same specificity and the role of places of worship. In such spaces it is necessary...
The text aims to show the crucial relationship between the creative process of an architect and artist, who undertakes a project for a church and for the Church, and his spiritual life and his faith. It is this relationship that has determined the creation of the greatest works of sacred art and architecture throughout the history of art and of the Church. The essence of good art is its universality...
In studies on the art of the past two hundred years there is a widespread view that stained glass windows reappeared in Poland after 1850, i.e. almost a hundred years later than in Western Europe, where interest in coloured glazing had been growing since mid-eighteenth century. The paper challenges that opinion and is aimed at preliminary understanding of the issues concerning stained glass of the...
The paper presents an overview of recent Polish stained glass developments rather than a certain category of artists and works of well-known stained glass studios, which would certainly imply a subjective evaluation and a falsification of the actual state. The quality and overall image of this field of art are not determined only by individual artistic achievements, especially when they constitute...
It is important, and even essential, to realize that both in the creative and in the perceptive process associated with Christianity one must have the minimum knowledge of theology, the Bible, liturgy, tradition, custom and a general idea of culture and art. Religious art as well as art made for a gallery or museum has a very open character and can even assume the form of an experiment. However, sacred...
In his Meditations on the Book of Genesis of The Roman Triptych, John Paul II gave a condensed definition of artistic creation and demonstrated the critical role it plays as a component of Christian identity. His poignant call on all artists to bear the fruit of their vision, to 'create the image', is deeply grounded in the basic tenet of Christianity - the Incarnation of God. The idea of man as created...
The purpose of the article is to discuss Via Crucis, a work by Marek Chlanda, which sets out to express one of the most important themes of Christian iconography in the language of abstract art. The author first asks whether the semantics of abstract forms can effectively convey the narrative and express the profound message of man's salvation by God. A positive answer is suggested by the manner in...
Religious art of the 19th century did not arouse the interest of art historians until relatively late. This is why there are still numerous gaps in the research on the subject. In addition, studies of 19th-century religious art are not always accompanied by adequate methodological reflection or an understanding of the specific nature of the artistic current in question. The article draws attention...
In the 19th century, France witnessed a significant revival of Marian piety, which manifested itself, among other things, in mass participation in May Masses and a surge in the number of Living Rosary Circles. Numerous apparitions of Mother Mary were reported in the country, some of which the Church recognized as 'worthy of credence'. It was under their influence that l'abbé Blanc came up with a proposal...
The Centre for Documentation of Modern Sacred Art was established by a resolution passed by the Senate of the University of Rzeszow on February 26th, 2009. It was integrated into the organizational structure of the university as part of the Faculty of Art and affiliated with the Research Laboratory for the History of Art. The Centre was founded in response to the request from the participants of a...
Given the widespread interest in the icon in the 20th century - in its form, profundity, rich religious content, and the aura of spirituality - it is hardly surprising that it also became an important source of artistic inspiration, multiple examples of which can be found in Polish art, especially that of the last 50 years. In the 1960s, artists such as Kazimierz Glaz, Jozef Halas, Henryk Musialowicz,...
The analysis of the abstract work by Otto Piene shows that the painting, which at first glance seems purely aesthetic, primarily intended to produce a sense of pleasure, can potentially speak to the most profound, existential (in the Jaspersian sense of the term) essence of man. The analysis discusses the visual qualities which, on the one hand, apply to the plane of the painting, and, on the other,...
The oeuvre of Michael Brötje, the creator of a new existential-hermeneutic research perspective in art history, includes numerous analyses of old art employing traditional religious iconography. The analysis of Otto Piene's work published in the current issue of Sacrum et Decorum is one of his rare interpretations of abstract art. In a key moment in the analysis, he invokes the famous concepts of...
Pierre Bourdieu argues that in modern times, every aesthetic choice is a factor of social classification. His theory demonstrates that the judgment of taste is socially constructed and at the same time itself serves to establish social distance and hierarchy. In his analysis of kitsch, however, Tomaš Kulka posits that kitsch cannot come under the judgment of taste since, by its very definition, it...
(Polish title: Kilka uwag o witrazach projektu Stanislawa Wyspianskiego i Jozefa Mehoffera w oknie zachodnim kosciola Mariackiego w Krakowie). The stained glass designs by Jozef Mehoffer and Stanislaw Wyspianski for the western window of St. Mary's Church in Krakow have been the subject of extensive research. However, the question of the authorship of individual panels has not been answered yet. On...
Jacek Malczewski's paintings often deal with biblical subjects, but strictly sacred pictures, i.e. intended for worship, are in his work very rare. When discussing the artist's faith, it should be mentioned that apart from the habit of prayer he learnt at home, as a young man he was a member of St. Vincent de Paul Society encouraging not only charity work, but also systematic reading of the Old and...
Franciszek Maczynski (1874-1947), a well-known architect, connoisseur and lover of ancient buildings, had an obvious penchant for designing stained glass through all of his professional life, which has remained relatively unnoticed by researchers, focusing on his work as an architect. Maczynski's stained glass decorates sacred and secular buildings, sometimes also those designed by him. Many of them...
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