National Museum, Warsaw

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National Museum in Warsaw
Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie.jpg
Established 1916
Location 3 Jerusalem Avenues
Warsaw, Poland
Type National museum
Director Agnieszka Morawińska
Website www.mnw.art.pl

The National Museum in Warsaw (Polish: Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie), Poland, is a national institution of culture, one of the largest museums in Poland and the largest in Warsaw. It comprises a rich collection of ancient art (Egyptian, Greek, Roman), counting about 11,000 pieces,[1] an extensive gallery of Polish painting since the 16th century and a collection of foreign painting (Italian, French, Flemish, Dutch, German and Russian) including some paintings from Adolf Hitler's private collection,[2] ceded to the Museum by the American authorities in post-war Germany.[3] The museum is also home to numismatic collections, a gallery of applied arts and a department of oriental art with the largest in Poland collection of chinese art assembling some 5,000 objects.[4]

Contents

History [edit]

The National Museum in Warsaw was established on 20 May 1862, as the "Museum of Fine Arts, Warsaw", and in 1916 renamed "National Museum, Warsaw"[5] (with the inclusion of collections from museums and cultural institutions such as the Society of Care for Relics of the Past, the Museum of Antiquity at Warsaw University, the Museum of the Society for Encouragement of the Fine Arts, and the Museum of Industry and Agriculture).

Main facade of the National Museum, 1938

The collection is housed in the building at Jerusalem Avenues which was developed between 1927 and 1938 (earlier the museum had been located at ulica Podwale 15). In 1932 an exhibition of decorative art was opened in the two earlier erected wings of the building.[1] A new building was inaugurated on 18 June 1938. From 1935 the museum director was Stanisław Lorentz.

During the invasion of Poland the building was damaged and after the Siege of Warsaw the collection was looted by the Gestapo led by Nazi historian Dagobert Frey, who prepared a meticulous list of the most valuable artwork already in 1937 on his official visits from Germany.[6] The Gestapo headquarters presented the Rembrandt as gift to Hans Frank in occupied Kraków and packed everything else to be shipped to Berlin.[7] After the war the Polish Government, under the supervision of Prof Lorentz, retrieved many of the works seized by the Germans.[8] Still more than 5.000 artefacts are missing.[9] Also many works of art of, at that time, unknown or uncertain provenance[10] (e.g. originating from Nazi German art repositories in Polish Recovered Territories in Kamenz, Karthaus, Liebenthal and Rohnstock among others) were nationalized by the imposed communist authorities[11] by subsequent decrees and acts[12] from 1945, 1946 and 1958 and included in the museum collection as so-called abandoned property.[13] At present, the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw includes over 780.000 items displayed in many permanent galleries, including the Professor Kazimierz Michałowski Faras Gallery and galleries given over to ancient art, medieval art, painting, gldsmithing, decorative art and oriental art, as well as many temporary exhibitions.

In 2008 the "Polish Archaeological Mission "Tyritake" of National Museum in Warsaw" commenced works at Tyritake, Crimea. It is headed by Alfred Twardecki curator of the Ancient Art Gallery. Since the 2011-2012 renovation the museum is also considered as one of the most modern in Europe with a computer-led LED lighting allowing to enhance unique qualities of every painting and exhibit.[14]

Permanent galleries [edit]

The Raising of Lazarus by Carel Fabritius is displayed in the Gallery of Old European Painting

In 2012 the permanent galleries undergone revolutionary changes.[15] The curators of the museum re-arranged it all over again and supplemented with some new works from the museum's warehouses.[15] Paintings were not hung chronologically, but thematically: genre painting, still lifes, landscapes, cityscapes, biblical, mythological, nudes.[15] Works by Italian, Flemish, Dutch, German and Polish artists were hung together, making it easy to observe and compare similarities and differences.[15] The Gallery of Ancient Art, Gallery of Faras, Gallery of Medieval Art, Gallery of Old European Painting, Gallery of Old Polish and European Portrait, Gallery of 19th-century Art and the Gallery of 20th and 21st-century, including the works of Polish painters and sculptors and displayed in the context of art in other countries and in different epochs.[15] The galleries reflects the richness and diversity of traditions and historical experience of individual nations, which, however, built their cultural identity on the same foundation of Greco-Roman antiquity and the Christian religion.[16]

In the new presentation of the Gallery of Old European Painting, the works are presented not according to national schools, but as a confrontation of artistic circles of the South and North.[17] The new system reflects the hierarchy of the genres created by Renaissance art theory and the former function of the paintings.[17] The aim of this exhibition is to show, for what purpose and for which recipients works of art were created.[17] The Gallery of Old European was divided into three levels. The second floor presents high "stories" or "high" biblical themes, mythological, allegorical. Landscape in its many varieties – heroic, beautiful, realistic-topographical is presented on the first floor, while the ground floor exhibits genre scenes, still lifes and animal themes.

Gallery of 19th-century Art

The Gallery of Old Polish and European Portrait shows a variety of effigies, reflecting the multiplicity of social, political and private functions of portraiture.[18] The exhibition opens with monumental images of courtly and aristocratic portraits compiled with some examples of traditional Polish and Western European portraits en pied and followed with smaller, less formal, or private portraits, coffin portraits and the 18th-century portraits including miniature portraits and portraiture of Stanislaus Augustus' era.[18]

The core of the new exhibition of the Gallery of 19th-century Art, presenting the main trends shaping the art in the nineteenth century, is the work of Polish painters and sculptors, which is present in the context of selected works by representatives of other nationalities.[16] Confrontation of works by artists from different European countries shows their artistic aspirations, universal ideas or symbols, similar experiments carried out independently or workshop practice.[16]

Collections of modern and contemporary art are among the largest in Poland.[19] Paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings from the 1920s and 1930s, Polish avant-garde film, photographs, photomontages, along with selected works of the 1980s independent culture, video and performance of the last forty years are exhibited on the surface of 700 m2.[19] Information about the selected objects is available through mobile application and selected works are visualized and described by the gallery curator thanks to augmented reality.[19]

Collection highlights [edit]

European Painting [edit]

Aert van den Bossche, Martyrdom of Saints Crispin and Crispinian
Jacob Jordaens, The Holy Family with St. John, His Parents and Angels
Henryk Siemiradzki, Christian Dirce

Polish Painting [edit]

Other [edit]

See also [edit]

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ a b Murawska-Muthesius 2001, p. 31
  2. ^ Schwarz, Birgit (2009). Geniewahn: Hitler und die Kunst. Böhlau Verlag Wien. p. 312. ISBN 32-05783-07-7. "Mehrere Gemälde aus dem Berghof befinden sich heute im Nationalmuseum in Warschau. Bordones Venus und Amor etwa (Abb. 100) ebenso wie der Madonnen-Tondo Bugiardinis (Abb. 62) oder ein großes Ruinenbild von Pannini, das in der verglasten Veranda gehangen hatte (Abb. 113)." 
  3. ^ Lorentz, Stanisław (1984). Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie: malarstwo. Arkady. p. 28. ISBN 83-21332-01-3. 
  4. ^ "Oriental Art Collection". www.mnw.art.pl. Retrieved 2 March 2013. 
  5. ^ Folga-Januszewska 2008, p. 9
  6. ^ Warszawa oskarża (Warsaw accuses). Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki i Ministerstwo Odbudowy Kraju. 1945. p. 44. 
  7. ^ Folga-Januszewska 2008, p. 11
  8. ^ Folga-Januszewska 2008, p. 12
  9. ^ (Polish) Monika Kuhnke. Przyczynek do historii wojennych grabieży dzieł sztuki w Polsce. Druga wojna światowa (Contribution to the history of looting in Europe. World War II). 
  10. ^ Folga-Januszewska 2008, p. 12
  11. ^ (English) Anna Trosborg (1995). Interlanguage Pragmatics: Requests, Complaints, and Apologies. Walter de Gruyter. p. 497. ISBN 31-10144-68-9. "Compare the foreign partitioning powers in the nineteenth century, the Nazi occupation during World War II, the Soviet-imposed communist regime in post-war Poland." 
  12. ^ (English) Stefan Hambura (2004). "Ekspertyza BSiE nr 302. IP-105 P". Reparacje wojenne w stosunkach polsko-niemieckich (War reparations in Polish-German relations). p. 5-6. Retrieved 9 March 2013. 
  13. ^ "Nie zbadają zabytków w Bazylice Mariackiej. Wyjazd odwołano". polskalokalna.pl. Retrieved 9 March 2013. "W komunikacie przypomniano, że "Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie jest właścicielem tzw. "depozytów gdańskich" na mocy Ustawy z 6 maja 1945 r. o majątkach opuszczonych i porzuconych (Dz. U. z 1945, Nr 17, poz. 97 ze zmianami) oraz Dekretu z 8 marca 1946 r. o majątkach opuszczonych i poniemieckich (Dz. U. z 1946, Nr 13, poz. 87 ze zmianami), jak również Ustawy z 25 lutego 1958 r. o uregulowaniu stanu prawnego mienia pozostającego pod zarządem państwowym (Dz. U. z 1958, Nr 11, poz. 37)"." 
  14. ^ "Warsaw Top 10". Warsaw tour Edition nr 5, 2012. p. 20. Retrieved 1 March 2013. "The National Museum in Warsaw is also one of the most modern in Europe. Computer-led LED lighting is a feature of only select museums and galleries in Germany and the UK. The LED system allows to adjust the light to every painting so that its unique qualities are enhanced." 
  15. ^ a b c d e Monika Kuc. "Nowe galerie i światła". www.rp.pl. Retrieved 5 July 2012. 
  16. ^ a b c "Galeria Sztuki XIX Wieku". www.mnw.art.pl. Retrieved 5 July 2012. 
  17. ^ a b c "Galeria Dawnego Malarstwa Europejskiego". www.mnw.art.pl. Retrieved 5 July 2012. 
  18. ^ a b "Galeria Portretu Staropolskiego i Europejskiego". www.mnw.art.pl. Retrieved 5 July 2012. 
  19. ^ a b c "Galeria Sztuki XX i XXI Wieku". www.mnw.art.pl. Retrieved 1 March 2013. 

References [edit]

  1. Folga-Januszewska, Dorota (2008), Muzeum Sztuk Pięknych i Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie 1862-2004 (Museum of Fine Arts and the National Museum in Warsaw 1862-2004) (PDF direct download, 94.1 KB) (in Polish), National Museum in Warsaw, retrieved August 4, 2012 .
  2. (English) Murawska-Muthesius, Katarzyna; Folga-Januszewska, Dorota (2001), National Museum in Warsaw: guide : galleries and study collections, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, ISBN 83-7100-126-6 .

External links [edit]

Media related to National Museum in Warsaw at Wikimedia Commons Media related to Art lost in Poland during World War II at Wikimedia Commons

Museums in Warsaw
Flag of Warsaw

Coordinates: 52°13′54″N 21°1′29″E / 52.23167°N 21.02472°E / 52.23167; 21.02472

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