by Gianluca D’Elia
Polish Iconography: The Wolynski Fund Print Collection
Polish Iconography: The Wolynski Fund Print CollectionThe Artur Wolynski Collection (1844-1893) at the Casanatense Library in Rome was founded in 1888 by the will of the Polish scholar of the same name with the intention of creating a real Polish Library within a prestigious Italian library, which would tell the story of the glories and history of his country.
Artur Wolynski managed to bring to the Casanatense an almost complete collection of books built up over the years with particular attention to Polish history and literature: many volumes from the already dissolved Adam Mickiewicz Academy of Bologna had been included in it.
He imposed precise conditions on the then director of the Library, Edoardo Alvisi, for the arrangement of this heritage: in total it is 2050 printed works (including single books, miscellanies and periodicals), 4497 prints, plus some medallions and various objects.
Of the entire collection, 740 volumes in Italian have been catalogued so far (and therefore available with their respective locations in the Casanatense OPAC).
The prints, recently reordered, photographed, subjected to individual recognition, are preserved in 30 boxes. A project of subject classification and cataloguing by author is underway on them under the direction of Dr. Iolanda Olivieri, head of the Prints and Drawings collection.
The singularity and frequent high quality of the pieces in this collection make it unique even within the Casanatense itself. Behind each individual print, a careful selection criterion can be perceived, evidence of a very specific desire to collect but also the mature fruit of a great season in the history of Polish engraving in the 19th century. 50% of the collection is composed of lithographs, followed by a percentage between 30 and 40% of woodcuts, with a remaining 10-20% of engravings on metal, copper and steel (side printing) and probable chromogravures and chromolithographs. Photographs are much rarer (about 2%).
The extremely rich variety of themes and topics linked to the Polish world makes it more difficult to group the prints and the sequential numerical logic of the individual signatures appears decidedly random, with the exception of a box dedicated entirely to the deeds of Napoleon Bonaparte and some boxes of portraits.
The prints come for the vast majority from three periodical publications, two Polish ones, TYGODNIK WIELKOPOLSKI and KLOSY Czasopismo ilustrowane tygodniowe and one Italian one, ILLUSTRAZIONE ITALIANA of the printing house of the Treves Brothers of Milan.
A very broad iconographic panorama that offers the possibility of reconstructing both a “history of Poland through images”, with particular attention to literature and geographical scenarios, and a part of the Italian one.
The scientific theme is present, which sees Wolynski as both a great enthusiast and a scholar (it was his idea to establish the Copernican Museum in Rome, to which he donated a surprising number of objects, including books and actual instruments).
Alongside the scientific ones, there are numerous geographical subjects and many portraits, to be evaluated especially in a celebratory context: particularly interesting are the series dedicated to Sovereigns, Pontiffs and politicians. Beautiful, in the ethnic and folkloric context, the numerous depictions of scenes of daily life, in the city and in the countryside and the female subjects.
There are also numerous literary subjects, which, in their treatment, however, presuppose a thorough knowledge of Polish history and literature. We have representations of some works by Teofil Aleksander Lenartowicz (1822-1893), a romantic poet, author of Lirenka (1855) who lived in Warsaw participating in the city’s literary bohemianism (cyganerja warszawska), with a sympathetic and attentive eye on the life of the poor peasants.
And again scenes taken from the writings of Witkiewicz Stanislaw Ignacy (1885-1939), Ludwika Wladyslawa Franciszka Kondratowicza (1823-1862) author of Urodzony Jan Deboróg; Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (1798-1855, perhaps the most famous of the Polish romantic poets, of whom a bust and funeral mask are preserved in Casanatense), author of Konrad Wallenrod and Dziada.
We could continue mentioning the names of Adam Suzin, Piotr Poweski (1536 – 1612, Jesuit theologian), Henryk Siemiradzki (1848-1902), Lucyan Siemienski (m.1877), Leon Sapieha (1803-1878), Juljusz Slowacki (1809- 1849) composer of Balladyna and Duma O Waclawie Rzewuskim.
A final mention deserves the novelist Eliza Orzeszka (1842-1910), author of Meir Ezofowicz (1878), a well-known Polish novel inspired by the life of the community of a small Lithuanian town, a work imbued with late-Romantic feelings, which inspired illustrated scenes in the same register.
As a good son of his time, Wolynski shows an undoubted predilection for the theme of lugubrious literature, so dear to Romanticism, which dominates the subjects of the illustrations. Thus, many prints bear explicit allusions to cemeteries, tombstones, graves, sepulchres and funerals, which, on the one hand, often form the backdrop to celebratory images (for example, referring to personalities from the political, literary or religious world), on the other, border on the occult-theosophical, with a great fluttering of angels and ghosts.
In addition to Elviro Michael Andriolli (1836-1893), the names of the most frequently encountered designers and engravers are A. Kozarski, Kurella Ludwik (1834-1902), Lepkowski L. (1829-1905), Pillati, J. Matejko, W. Pociecha, Podbielski, J. Eysmond, J. Rosen, T. Rybkowski (1848-1926), Jozef Ungra, S. Antoszewicz, P. Brzozowski (Warsaw 1836-1892), E. Gorazdowski E. (1843-1901), I. Holewinski (Warsaw, 1848-1917, famous above all for his portraits) A. Regulski (Warsaw 1839-1884), and among the Italians Tofani, Ettore Ximenes, Teja Casimiro, Eduardo Matania, Dante Paolocci, Barberis and Canedi.
The collection of prints from the Wolynski Fund can also be defined as a visual narrative of the life of the owner, the scholar, the political refugee, who brought prestige with his activity to the countries of his birth and adoption: Poland and Italy.
He had a special predilection for the city of Rome that adopted him, where he lived the most significant years of his life and which he chose as the place to preserve his memory.
From the analysis of this material, Wolynski’s desire to revive the suppressed Mickiewicz Foundation of Bologna at the Casanatense appears almost evident. The hypothesis arises spontaneously, having identified the guiding principle underlying the creation of this fund, books and prints together: the intense desire to document the history and culture of two peoples and two states almost in parallel, Poland and Italy, and to preserve a joint memory of them.
The homeland of birth and that of choice united “forever” beyond the transience of human life, a personal and collective monument entrusted to the institutions of yesterday to ensure its preservation and delivery to future generations.
A commitment for the institutions of today to spread its value and knowledge.