Head of the Green Balloon

These are individualized, humoresque heads created in the years 1905-1913 while Szczepkowski was in Cracow. The heads are presented in variants: with short hair and deep eye sockets, with a beard and a cap, and with a smile on a long neck. These are full plaster casts covered with a dark orange color layer. The Green Baloon was the first Polish literary cabaret, bringing together the elite of Cracow’s poets, writers and artists at the Apolinary J. Michalik pastry shop. It began operating in October 1905 and ended in 1912 (although performances were staged sporadically until 1915). The idea of creating humorous heads is a consequence of the inspiration of members of the Green Balloon with the tradition of Cracow’s nativity scenes animated by unemployed bricklayers from Krowodrza in winter. The structure above them was inspired by the church in Modlnica and was built by young artists: Kamocki, Frycz, the Czajkowscy Brothers, Tadeusz Rychter, Szczygliński, Wojtkiewicz, Rzecki and Kuczborski. Jan Szczepkowski was responsible for the dolls together with the sculptor and ophthalmologist Dr. Brudzewski.