Crucifix from St. Mary's Basilica in Cracow

Leon Wyczółkowski is known mainly as a painter. He both painted himself and taught this discipline, including to such outstanding as Wojciech Weiss. Yet, despite the strong connection he had with painting, already as a mature and valued artist Wyczółkowski took an interest in graphic art, which became one of his favourite fields of art. He experimented with numerous techniques and often created his own methods of work which he did not reveal to anyone. His fascination with graphics developed very quickly, but despite this great interest Wyczółkowski remained a painter at heart and strived to represent painting effects in graphic form. Thus, unsurprisingly, lithography was the technique he was most fond of. The crucifix from St Mary's Church in Cracow is a colour lithograph produced in 1914. The work was created at the time when Wyczółkowski was a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow and it represents Wyczółkowski’s interest in subjects related to Cracow, typical for the artist at that time. The lithograph shows the Gothic sculpture against the background of the medieval panorama of Cracow. Saints and Polish rulers adoring the Cross are depicted in the lower part of the composition. This lithograph is a graphic rendering of the painting that Wyczółkowski made for the church in Ryki – his home town.