Stanisław Wyspiański: monumental project

The National Museum in Krakow has a valuable collection, containing some hundred and fifty items, of pastel designs, tracing patterns and pounced drawings executed for painting decoration in the Franciscan church in Krakow. And although this assemblage does not include all the artist’s ideas implemented on the walls of the church, it is the only collection of this type in Polish museum holdings. It gives an insight not only into the stage of the artist’s work connected directly with the creative process of making the artwork, but also into the one related to the technical aspect of its execution.

To find out how Stanisław Wyspiański became involved in the work on the painting decoration of the Franciscan church it is necessary to go back to the events which had occurred in Krakow in the latter half of the 19th century. In July 1850 a huge fire broke out in Krakow, which gutted a considerable part of the city, including some of the Franciscan church. The aim of the restoration works was not only to rebuild the church, but also to restore it to its medieval appearance.

From Stanisław Wyspiański’s letter to his friend Lucjan Rydel we can learn he had been thinking about the decoration of the Franciscan church even before he was chosen in the competition. On 16 November 1894 he wrote to his friend, who was staying in Paris at the time: “Now I am busy composing decoration for the Franciscan church, which I am doing on my own initiative and for my own satisfaction, – but who knows..."

Before Wyspiański's project there was a competition for a new arrangement of the church. Because the winning design by Józef Mikulski and Franciszek Górski aroused controversy, another competition was held. On 15 March 1895 the jury chose again Mikulski and Górski’s design, recommending that it be executed under the supervision of Władysław Ekielski. Before starting work, Ekielski asked the two artists to carry out painting tests in the church. Because they were unsuccessful, the contract with the designers was broken. In the end Wyspiański did receive a commission for polychrome decoration in the Franciscan church, which happened on 12 June 1895.

Figural compositions, which required “greater artistry”, were painted on the walls by Wyspiański himself.

Scene of the fall of angels: “here we can see the fall of the creatures associated with fault and sin. Stupefied, without fight, without opposition against their fatal destination their tangled bodies fall down, and an army of young angles send in their direction fiery bullets from their tightened bows".

Wyspiański blended the figural and floral motifs for the church interior into the fields, strips and borders filled with ornamental decoration. The holdings of the Krakow Museum include over forty pastel designs for these ornaments.

And although their diversity is immense, it does not cover the entire “polycolouredness” and variety which can be admired on the church walls. “The richness of this ornamentation – Rydel wrote – is such that it is difficult to realise its entire wealth even for me, and I have been following the progress of painting works in the church week by week and watching everything up on the scaffolding".

The artist’s commitment and lively pace of work on these stained glass designs are well conveyed by an account given in his next letter drafted to Rydel on 5 July: “I have just finished drawing the third stained glass window from left. As you know they will show the elements. I have completed the element of water. Now I am drawing the element of fire".

"However, I haven’t introduced the whole huge apparatus yet, e.g. I’m not depicting (for the time being) fish or reptiles in water, contenting myself with water plants, actually not marine flora, but the more modest one (which will be more appropriate for us)".

The Report on 1897 listed the following works by Wyspiański: Stained Glass Cartoons, Saint Francis – stained glass composition, God Creating the World from Chaos. For the cartoon for the stained glass window Saint Francis Wyspiański received the first award (1,000 Guldens). Another exhibition at which the artist presented his cartoons was held at the Zachęta [Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts] in Warsaw at the end of January and the beginning of February 1898.

Wyspiański’s works were awarded out of competition. This was the only way, because according to the regulations only paintings and sculptures representing pure art could take part in the competition, and Wyspiański’s works clearly had features of the applied arts. They are in the form of huge cartoons, and all can serve as designs for stained glass windows in the Franciscan church in Krakow. There are five of them: Good the Father, Saint Francis, Three Saint Nuns, The Element of Fire and The Element of Water. What is most important about these compositions is their originality. Wyspiański’s stained glass windows can be regarded as his own unique style, showing his enormous creative power in this field.

The conflict between Wyspiański and the Franciscans was exacerbated at the beginning of 1899. From then on work on the stained glass windows was continued without Wyspiański. Designs for the eastern window and traceries were in the end produced by Bernard Rice. It was also him that transferred an image of Blessed Salomea to a cartoon. Wyspiański did not accept the decisions of the order and tried to prevent them.

According to an account given by Julian Pagaczewski, “Shortly before starting work on the production of the stained glass window with God the Father for the western window in the Franciscan church, the cartoon was spread in one of the halls of the National Museum in the Sukiennice, and a case with numbered samples of colored glasses was sent from the stained glass company. At the Museum Wyspiański selected glasses, watching them against the light and comparing their shades with the colors in the cartoon.

It turned out, however, that it was not possible to find among the samples the hues that would be identical to the ones in the cartoon. Therefore Wyspiański chose one of the colors as the basic one, and based on it he selected the other colors so that they harmonised with one another. As a result the combination of colors and their intensity in the final stained glass window are different from the ones in the cartoon; nevertheless, in terms of color the stained glass window should also be regarded as the work of Wyspiański, as he was the one who decided on the selection of colors and their shades.”