''Clothes in Poland 1200-1795'' (''Ubiory w Polsce'') is an album by
Jan Matejko
Jan Alojzy Matejko (; also known as Jan Mateyko; 24 June 1838 – 1 November 1893) was a Polish painter, a leading 19th-century exponent of history painting, known for depicting nodal events from Polish history. His works include large scale ...
, first published in 1860. The album contains ten boards made in
lithography technique, on which the author presented the appearance of Polish costumes across centuries and different social classes. ''Clothes in Poland'' have significant historical value and are one of the major publications on the history of Polish clothing.
Description of the work
On the title page, Matejko drew a
Gothic triptych
A triptych ( ) is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all m ...
with
Our Lady of Częstochowa
Our or OUR may refer to:
* The possessive form of " we"
Places
* Our (river), in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany
* Our, Belgium, a village in Belgium
* Our, Jura, a commune in France
Other uses
* Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), a governm ...
and bishops -
St. Adalbert and
St. Stanisław. The triptych is supported by an angel with shields and it contains images of:
* Piast Eagle
*
Lithuania's pursuit
* Lion – the sign of
Wenceslaus
Wenceslaus, Wenceslas, Wenzeslaus and Wenzslaus (and other similar names) are Latinized forms of the Slavic names#In Slovakia and Czech_Republic, Czech name Václav. The other language versions of the name are , , , , , , among others. It origina ...
, the Czech and Polish king
Below them, there is a
Cracow's coat of arms from the 14th century and the date 1860.
On the sides, there are figures representing various states, dressed in
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
costumes. Each of them was placed in a separate
arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game
** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware
** Arcad ...
referring to
the Romanesque style.
In the arcades, below the figures, there are two drawings of the oldest Polish seals, depicting
Queen Richeza and
Henry the Bearded
Henry the Bearded (, ; c. 1165/70 – 19 March 1238) was a Polish duke from the Piast dynasty.
He was Duke of Silesia at Wrocław from 1201, Duke of Kraków and High Duke of all Poland – internally divided – from 1232 until his death.
Li ...
.
On the reversed side of the title page, Matejko placed an arrangement of 9 groups of figures for all boards. The table layout, from the top:
* on the left side, most of them contain scholars, clergy, peasants, and sometimes Jews;
* centrally: nobility, king and court, townspeople;
* on the right: knights, magnates, guilds and brotherhoods.
Only on the first panel, instead of peasants, the artist draws townspeople, and instead of a group of townspeople, the artist placed the seal of
King Wenceslaus of Bohemia. On the central panel depicting the king and the court, the artist placed the dates of their reign, coats of arms, and seals.
History
The first edition of ''Clothes in Poland'' was published in 1860. It was made using the
lithography technique in the Czas printing studio in
Cracow. The dimensions of the first and second editions are 57.4 × 85.5 cm. The title page of the second edition from 1875 has the inscription: "Published by Jan Matejko. Printed in lithography. M Salba. Second edition, 1875 - ownership reserved".
In 1879, Matejko published ''Explanations of Ten Tables of Clothes in Poland'', an album gathering information about the works of art and places the artist referenced and used when drawing coats of arms and figures for individual groups. However, Matejko does not provide the names of the authors of foreign works or publications. There are several mistakes in ''the Explanations''. For example, on the third panel, the figure of the king, which is a drawing from a sculpture by
Veit Stoss
Veit Stoss (, also spelled Stoß and Stuoss; ; ; before 1450about 20 September 1533) was a leading German language, German sculptor, mostly working with wood, whose career covered the transition between the late Gothic art, Gothic and the North ...
, represents Kazimierz Jagiellończyk, and not
Władysław Jagiełło Władysław is a Polish given male name, cognate with Vladislav. The feminine form is Władysława, archaic forms are Włodzisław (male) and Włodzisława (female), and Wladislaw is a variation. These names may refer to:
People Mononym
* Włodzis ...
, as Matejko said. The figure of
Albrecht Łaski from Table V of the Magnates group was, according to the artist, drawn based on a medal and a woodcut. However, Łaski's medal has no resemblance to the figure in ''Clothes in Poland.''
The third edition was published in Warsaw in 1901, after the death of Jan Matejko. Dimensions have changed (21 × 29 cm), as well as the title: ''Clothes in Old Poland''. In this edition, each group was placed on a separate card, according to the order in ''the Explanations''.
The fourth edition of ''Clothes in Poland'' was published in 1967 by
Wydawnictwo Literackie in Kraków. For technical reasons, it has a similar size as the third edition from 1901. The ten plates and the vignette were based on the first edition, and the individual groups of plates were reproduced from color copies made by Roman Hennel according to the copy from
the Jagiellonian Library, colored by Jan Matejko. Sketches and studies of figures, costumes, weapons, and coats of arms mostly come from the collections of
the National Museum in Krakow, the Jan Matejko House.
Matejko developed ''Clothes in Poland'' based on materials collected from his youth. The artist's album and diary, called ''Skarbczyk,'' has expanded over the years with drawings on tracing paper, studies, and notes. During his studies, the artist was greatly impressed by the portfolios of researchers of the history of Polish culture and monuments: Ambroży Grabowski, Józef Łepkowski, and Józef Muczkowski. The files contained a variety of notes, watercolors, engravings, drawings, and reproductions, which were a great source of information from various fields of culture for him.
Matejko selected images of people in historical costumes based on thousands of copies and drawings collected in ''Skarbczyk'', Among the others, there are sculptures
by Veit Stoss from
St. Mary's Church and
Wawel Cathedral
The Wawel Cathedral (), formally titled the Archcathedral Basilica of Stanislaus of Szczepanów, Saint Stanislaus and St. Wenceslas, Saint Wenceslaus, () is a Catholic cathedral situated on Wawel Hill in Kraków, Poland. Nearly 1000 years old, it ...
, portraits of bishops from
the Franciscan church, portraits of kings, and images of professors of
the Jagiellonian University, an 18th-century painting of ''the Dance of Death'' from the Bernardine church, The drawings and notes made during the trips, as well as the analysis of sculptures, paintings, medals, and seals, allowed Matejko to see many figures in authentic clothes and to collect extensive material on the costumes of courts, scholars, clergy, townspeople, nobility, and magnates. For costumes from earlier eras, some details were based on monuments, and groups of villagers were modeled on regional costumes. For Matejko, it was important not only to faithfully recreate the clothes but also to recreate the face in a modern way, which made him draw copies of the seal
of Bolesław the Chaste several times.
The artist was aware of the enormous amount of material that needed to be collected to develop an accurate Polish costume design history album and he was the first to publish a source work in this field. The lack of the author's signature on the title pages and tables proves that Matejko considered ''Clothes'' a compiled collection of costumes worn in Poland, and not an artistic work, while work on the publication became the basis of Matejko's work in the field
of historical painting.
The group's drawings were transferred by Matejko onto tracing paper with lithographic ink and then impressed on the lithographic stone. Due to the inability to produce
chromolithographic illustrations in Krakow, the graphics are single-colored. This required the artist to color the boards with watercolor in the first two copies of ''Clothes'' and the rest of it was given to young painters to color them for him''.'' Colored copies were donated to
the Jagiellonian Library and the Ossoliński Library in Lviv.
References
Bibliography
* Adam Bochnak; Władysław Konopczyński (1975). "Stefan Batory". Polish Biographical Dictionary XX, p. 186
Unusual outfits collected by Jan Matejko Gazeta Wyborcza, October 24, 2012
* {{Cite web , title=Wystawa: Wielka rekwizytornia artysty. Stroje i kostiumy z kolekcji Jana Matejki , url=https://www.krakow.pl/kalendarium/1919,object,0,14044,2012-11-07,wystawa__wielka_rekwizytornia_artysty__stroje_i_kostiumy_z_kolekcji_jana_matejki__wystawa_ze_zbiorow_muzeum_narodowego_w_krakowie.html , website=krakow.pl
External links
Album Clothes in Poland 1200-1795, ed.1875
Jagiellonian Digital Library
Lithography
Fashion