Death-mask of Władysław Skoczylas

The mask is a plaster cast of the face without a neck and with fragments of ears, showing an elderly man. Covered with gray patina. It is reinforced with a wooden element with a metal handle.

Władysław Skoczylas died on 8 April 1934 in Warsaw. Jan Szczepkowski was responsible for taking this death mask. Skoczylas was considered to be the father of the Polish school of woodcut, i.e. a graphic technique belonging to relief printing.

The most characteristic element of Skoczylas style was the so-called “comb” - the interlocking of black and white - which rhythms the compositions. One of the largest collections of this artist's works is in the Cracow’s Saltworks Museum in Wieliczka. There are over 400 woodcuts, watercolors, drawings and documents related to the artist there.

Jan Szczepkowski collaborated with Władysław Skoczylas at the Urban School of Decorative Arts and Painting in Warsaw, where Skoczylas was the principal. After Skoczylas took up the post at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Jan Szczepkowski became the next head of the facility. The artists also met in a private setting, for example spending holidays at the Baltic Sea. They also had similar artistic ideals, similarly defining the decorative style. Both of them were associated with the Zakopane School of Wood Industry. A tribute to Skoczylas by Szczepkowski was the creation of his death mask and the design of the tombstone.