Staring into eternity, looking towards each other in the present – on the artistic partnership between Józef Ignacy Kraszewski and Henryk Siemiradzki

Abstract

The article examines the artistic relationship between the writer Józef Ignacy Kraszewski and the painter Henryk Siemiradzki. The starting point for these reflections is the fact that they were laid to rest opposite each other in the Crypt of Honour at the Skałka Church in Kraków, a circumstance which until now has been considered in academic writing to be rather coincidental, while at the same time no analysis of the artistic affinities between the painter and the writer has been undertaken. The paper points out that these relationships had a significant influence on Siemiradzki’s painting, beginning with his meeting with Kraszewski in Dresden in 1871, through the shaping of his view of Christian antiquity in Rome, to Kraszewski’s 50-year writing jubilee and their final shared moments near the end of the writer’s life. The analysis examines, in turn, Siemiradzki’s most important works from the first decade of his stay in Italy, which connect him with Kraszewski, namely: Christ and the Harlot[1], paintings of the early Christians in the catacombs, and finally Nero’s Torches. The article points out that these works are linked to Kraszewski’s writing, not so much through shared motifs (such as a borrowed anecdote), as through a common transcendent understanding of the person and mission of Christ in history, which stood in opposition to the contemporary secularist and scientistic modernist currents, as expressed, for example, by E. Renan. It also shows how Kraszewski’s writings shaped the “patriotic” reception of Siemiradzki’s painting, particularly in interpretation of Nero’s Torches, which led to Siemiradzki’s attempt to take on the role of the “national artist”.