Poland: Where the West met the East - Polish art will be exhibited in the US

Magazine Antiques, March, 1999 by Allison Ledes Eckardt

From the mid-sixteenth century the Polish Commonwealth was the second largest state in Europe with borders stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea and from Silesia almost to Moscow. It was composed of the crown (Poland) and the grand duchy (Lithuania), and its diverse population - a result of its geography and shifting political tides - included Poles, Ruthenians, Jews, Armenians, and Tatars who followed numerous religious faiths.

Poland's political history is complex, and its alliances with many different countries in Europe and the East had far-reaching cultural and artistic implications. The fine and decorative arts produced there demonstrate the concurrent influence of West and East, yet its artistic tradition is little known outside Poland. One of the first extensive exhibitions of Polish art to be seen outside the country opens at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore on March 2, where it remains until May 9. Organized by Art Services International, it is entitled Land of the Winged Horsemen: Art in Poland, 1572-1764. Through more than 150 objects from 35 museums in Poland it surveys the artistic output of native-born artists and craftsmen as well as foreigners who moved to Poland and brought other European traditions with them. Future locations of this traveling exhibition will be listed in Calendar.

As Jan K. Ostrowski states in the catalogue, "Poland remained on the remote periphery of Latin Europe, no matter whether viewed from Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, or Antwerp." Over time Poles adopted many features of Eastern dress as they simultaneously looked to the West for artistic inspiration in other mediums. The wealthy lived on vast country estates, which were in many cases small towns populated by hundreds of individuals and protected by standing armies sometimes numbering in the thousands. This meant that cities did not become artistic centers as they did in other parts of Europe and artistic training was decentralized. Country houses were fitted with all the trappings of affluence, including objects as diverse as imported Flemish tapestries, locally made silver, and Oriental textiles. While these houses began as fortified structures, by the eighteenth century they had come to resemble their architectural counterparts in France (palaces and chateaux) and Italy (palaces and villas). Indeed, documents show that, by the early eighteenth century, rooms complete with furniture were commissioned from Parisian craftsmen for export to Poland. Native artisans had access to prints and pattern books that circulated all over Europe in large numbers starting in the sixteenth century. These were particularly influential since Poland did not have an art academy until the nineteenth century. Craftsmen learned their trade in guilds, which had been established in Poland in the Middle Ages, and in the Jesuit schools beginning in the second half of the seventeenth century.

The combination of Eastern and Western motifs was perhaps nowhere more successful than in the decorative arts. While this exhibition includes a number of examples, primarily glass and metalwork, much was lost during the world wars of the twentieth century, which, as the catalogue relates, caused "the annihilation of practically all noble residences and along with them the collections amassed for centuries."

The curator of the exhibition, Jan K. Ostrowski, is the curator of the Wawel Royal Castle in Krakow. The catalogue of the exhibition contains contributions by him and by five other scholars. It is available by telephoning Art Services International at 703-548-4554.