"Opening the Shrine of Memory". The Czartoryski Collection and the Origins of the Idea of Museum as an Institution in Poland

Herbst Palace Museum, Przędzalniana 72, Old Masters Gallery

Opening: 13 November 2015
For opening admission free

Till: 17 April 2016

The exhibition presents the history of the Museum, the first institution of this type in Poland and one of the oldest in Europe, and encourages reflections upon how it has influenced the course of the Polish culture.

The Museum was established in 1801 in Puławy by Princess  Izabela  Czartoryska nee  Flemming. Princess Izabela’s grandson, Prince Władysław Czartoryski – a politician and an outstanding art collector  – remarkably expanded the collection with masterpieces of, inter alia, early Renaissance Italian and Dutch painting, medieval and Renaissance European handicraft and antique art. He brought the collection to Krakow to open The Princes Czartoryski Museum   in 1876.

The aim of the exhibition is to demonstrate the richness and diversity of the Czartoryski Collection and to highlight its two powerful directions . The Polish, national strand with clearly patriotic touch and the European one stressing the artistic quality of acquired masterpieces and their relevance for European culture.

European part of the exhibition includes a vast presentation of Italian (e.g. Carlo Crivelli, Lorenzo di Credi, Palma Vecchio) and Dutch (Albert Bouts) painting, together with one of the most valuable painting in Polish art collections: Rembrandt’s  Landscape with the Good Samaritan. Another precious exhibit is Golden Rain tapestry wall hanging made in Brussels in the 1st half of the 16th century depicting the scene of a mythical story of Danaë.

The Museum established in the times of Romanticism, especially in its Puławy period, paid a lot of attention to historical memorabilia, objects often connected with great personalities or events. The exhibition in the Herbst Palace also highlights this important aspect of the Czartoryski Collection by presenting, inter alia, Shakespeare’s chair bought by Princess Czartoryska in Stratford on Avon and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s chair. The audience will also be introduced to numerous portraits and  portrait miniatures of famous people, e.g., Dante, Petrarch,   supposedly Wilhelm Tell, and Maria Stuart. This aspect is reinforced by the layout of the exhibition that makes references to the 19th century museum and its specific atmosphere.

The presentation of Izabela Czartoryska’s collecting methods and her engagement in rescuing cultural heritage is inspired by the history of Annunciation by Master George, a masterpiece of Krakow painting of the times of King Sigismund, which she found in the ruins of Saint Michael’s Chapel at Wawel Castle.

Polish Sarmatian culture is represented by 17th century  armours of Polish hussars from the battle of Vienna, coffin portraits,  a tomb flag, and military paintings. A separate section of the exhibition is devoted to World War II, the disaster during which Raphael’s Portrait of a Young Man ,one of the most valuable paintings from the collection, got missing.

Curator: Janusz Wałek
Coordinator: Beata Bocian