The paper presents the history, primarily the twentieth-century history, of a painting titled Lamentation [Opłakiwanie], at the present moment displayed on the northern wall of the presbytery of the Church of the Visitation Order in Warsaw. The study is based primarily on documents held in the Archives of the Convent of the Visitation Order in Warsaw. The painting, created by Jan Reisner, in 1698 was donated by his wife to the convent of the Sisters of the Visitation in Warsaw. According to the preserved inventories, it decorated the main altar in one of the chapels and was later kept in the sacristy, while in the nineteenth century it hung on the northern wall of the presbytery, opposite the cloister choir. This was its location until the outbreak of the Second World War. Shortly after the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, it was removed from the church and disappeared in unclear circumstances. At the end of 1947 and in early 1948, one of the nuns came across it in the Church of the Holy Saviour in Warsaw. Extant correspondence records how the nuns attempted to recover the painting and reveals the dramatic fortunes of the work in the final months of the war and after its end. The painting, found shortly after the entry of the Red Army to Warsaw on 17 January 1945, was handed over to Father Wacław Majewski, the then parish priest in the arch-cathedral of St. John the Baptist. He commissioned its conservation and decided to place the work in the church. Eventually, the painting returned to the Church of the Visitation Order in October 1948. In 1968, it underwent thorough conservation which not only made it possible to determine the scale of damage, but also revealed the preserved original sections. Shortly after its completion, a paper by Mariusz Karpowicz was published; the author attributed the painting to Jan Reisner, a court painter of King Jan III, who at that time was quite unknown.
The article discusses the first stage in the artistic and social careers of Jerzy Szymonowicz and Jan Reisner, connected with their education in the milieu of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. On the basis of archival materials, held in the Accademia di San Luca Archive and until now unknown or not used to the full extent, the authors describe the circumstances of the Academy’s competitions in which both artists received first prizes. Owing to the delineation of a broad background linked with the operation of this institution and the principles effective therein, it proved possible to objectively assess the importance of Szymonowicz and Reisner’s achievements, which were erroneously interpreted and overvalued in earlier specialist literature.
PL
Artykuł omawia pierwszy etap artystycznej i społecznej kariery Jerzego Szymonowicza i Jana Reisnera, związany z ich edukacją w kręgu rzymskiej Akademii Świętego Łukasza. Na podstawie nieznanych do tej pory lub niewykorzystanych w pełnym zakresie materiałów archiwalnych, przechowywanych przede wszystkim w Archiwum Akademii Świętego Łukasza, autorzy przybliżają okoliczności konkursów, w których obaj artyści otrzymali pierwsze nagrody. Dzięki nakreśleniu szerokiego tła związanego z funkcjonowaniem i zasadami działania rzymskiej instytucji możliwe stało się obiektywne określenie wagi osiągnięć Szymonowicza i Reisnera, które w dotychczasowej literaturze przedmiotu były błędnie interpretowane i przeceniane.
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