Enfilade

From IRSA, the Institute for Art Historical Research (founded in Venice in 1979 as the Istituto per le Ricerche di Storia dell’Arte, the institute was relocated to Florence and then to Vienna, before arriving in its current home in Cracow). Orders can be placed via email, irsa@irsa.com.pl.

Jan Ostrowski, Portraiture in Old Poland, translated by Nicholas Hodge and Sabina Potaczek-Jasionowicz (Cracow: IRSA, 2023), 508 pages.

Written by one of Poland’s foremost art historians, this landmark book—the first English-language study to tackle its subject in depth—is an essential text for readers keen to look beyond the Western European art centres that have dominated art history since the discipline’s inception.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth—in spite of its flaws—was once the largest state in Europe, and it produced a distinctive culture that was often at odds with those of the absolutist monarchies of the day. The author casts his net wide, considering forms of portraiture that were widespread across the continent as well as indigenous specialities such as coffin portraits and tomb banners. He likewise demonstrates how the 18th-century Partitions of Poland affected portraiture and national identity. This book serves both as an incisive exploration of the subject and as a thought-provoking—and at times witty—resource on how to approach art in general, with the author spotlighting several pitfalls that can mislead the researcher. Finally, he shows how context and rational deduction can help solve iconographic puzzles. The English translation was made possible by a grant from the Lanckoroński Foundation.

Jan K. Ostrowski (b. 1947) grew up surrounded by family portraits at home, which sparked a fascination that stayed with him for life. He studied at Cracow’s Jagiellonian University and the University of Nancy. Later, he was a visiting scholar in Florence, Munich, and at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He taught the history of art at the Jagiellonian University from 1973 to 2018, becoming a full professor in 1992. In 1989 he was appointed director of Wawel Royal Castle in Cracow and he held this post for three decades. Since 2018, he has been president of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. He conceived and directed a programme of inventorying historic sites in the Lviv region (western Ukraine; 23 vols, 1993–2015). He has extensively researched and published on late Baroque sculpture in Lviv (Johann Georg Pinsel), Polish Romantic painting (Piotr Michałowski), and Baroque painting in Flanders and Italy (Anthony van Dyck, Sinibaldo Scorza). He has been decorated both at home and abroad, including with the Order of Polonia Restituta and France’s Legion of Honour.

c o n t e n t s

Preface to the English Edition
Preface to the Polish Edition

1  Introduction
2  Paths to the Early Modern Independent Portrait
3  A Short History of Portraiture in Old Poland
4  The Portrait in Society: Function and Reception
5  Attire, Attributes, and Furnishings in Portraits: What Objects Tell Us about the Sitter and Their Time
Conclusion

Glossary
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index of Names
List of Figures