'God the Creator' Stanisław Wyspianski Pocket Square
Stained glass: 'God the Creator'" collection of the National Museum in Krakow
Artist: Stanisław Wyspiański
God the Father - Arise is a stained glass window by Stanislaw Wyspianski in the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Kraków, Poland. From about 1904, the work has bright modern motifs, geometric and natural shapes, heraldic elements.
Stanislaw Wyspianski was versatile. In his literary works he left behind a lot of drawings, paintings and pastel pictures with views of Kraków, portraits, various illustrations and graphics. Wyspianski designed the stained glass windows and a series of murals for churches, and proposed the reconstruction of Wawel castle although the project was never implemented.
In collaboration with Josef Mehofferom, Wyspianski created 36 stained-glass windows for St. Mary's in Kraków, Jan Matejko when helping in the restoration of the building. The creative tandem proved successful, and among other distinguished participation in the competition decorative arts in Paris, and the development of the exterior curtain for the Juliusz Slowacki theater, in Kraków. On his own, Wyspianski designed for the Franciscan church, and created the stained glass artworks Rise, Blessed Salome, and Wounds of St. Francis.
God is depicted as an elderly man with a white beard, in a coat. He holds his left hand over his head, and the right points to the Earth. The artist described the creation of the world (Genesis 1:1, 1:16): "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth ... And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also."
The last of God's creations was man (Genesis 1:26): "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
About Artist:
Playwright, poet, theatre director, originator of modern Polish theatre. Born January 15, 1869, in Kraków, died November 28, 1907, in Kraków.
Wyspiański grew up in Kraków during the late nineteenth century when the city was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The place and the community in which he was raised were instrumental in shaping his artistic imagination. His father, Franciszek, a sculptor, had an atelier at the foot of the Wawel hill, home to a cathedral rich with evidence of the strength of the former Polish state, and to a royal castle, by then an Austrian army barracks.
Stanisław attended St Anne's Gymnasium. Many of his schoolmates, including Jozef Mehoffer, Lucjan Rydel, Stanislaw Estreicher, were to play major roles in Kraków's cultural life. Instruction was bilingual so the students were thoroughly versed in German language, literature, and culture. A classical gymnasium, St Anne's also equipped its pupils with a thorough knowledge of antiquity - antique motifs would always be present in Wyspiański's work. A former capital city of a once powerful country, now reduced to the status of a smallish, inferior, provincial town, Kraków was a magical place, a point of reference and a challenge to the Polish consciousness of the late nineteenth century. On one hand, tradition was celebrated with pomp, and objects of the past were venerated. On the other, a group of historians emerged from the city's Jagiellonian University, challenging the Poles' vision of history, identifying the causes of national failures and the reasons for undesirable social behaviour. Kraków was also the birthplace of Polish modernism. More: link
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One of our pocket squares from the 'Artworks Collection'.
Limited edition: only 30 pieces.
- Fabric: 100% silk
- Size: 40 cm x 40 cm
- Author: Stanisław Wyspianski
- Hand rolled in Poland