“None of us is this Zeuxis Heracleotes”: The Illustrational Dilemmas of Cracow Publishers
Journal Title: Ikonotheka - Year 2017, Vol 27, Issue
Abstract
Renaissance publishers very often directly addressed the readers of the books that were published in their printing houses. In various dedications, prefaces, afterwords, etc., they presented the broad behind-the-scenes view of their editorial efforts, thus in this suggestive way attempting to shape universal views on the status and significance of ars artium. These authorial texts are an important source of information regarding the editors’ scholarly, social and professional contacts, as well as of the circumstances in which the various texts were created and all kinds of issues the editors encountered in their endeavours to publish them. Together with the development of the art of printing, an increasing amount of attention was given to the illustrations that were to accompany the texts. A critical analysis of these allegedly autobiographical texts must, of course, take under consideration their extreme subjectivism and reputation-building rhetorical strategies, which at times were highly conventional. Nevertheless, the intentional self-exposure contained in these texts reveals to us either the real or proclaimed intentions and frustrations of Renaissance publishers. An examination of authorial texts by Cracow publishers indicates that the issues of book illustration began to more clearly impinge on the publishers’ awareness in the second half of the 16th century. Interestingly, their direct statements on this topic, even though few, clearly show their critical approach to the images that were included in their own publications. An analysis of the contents of those texts, supported by an investigation of the pictorial material in question, shows that the publishers’ objections were not only conventional expressions of modesty, but an indication of their growing awareness of how complex the matter of book illustration truly was; these publishers understood that the functions of book illustrations varied and transcended a simple pictorial interpretation of the text. The forewords written by the Szarfenbergers (Biblia Leopolity, 1561; Herbarz, to iest ziół tutecznych, postronnych y zamorskich opisanie by Marcin Siennik, 1568) and Jan Januszowski (Ikones Książąt y Królów Polskich x. Jana Głuchowskiego, 1605) reveal the extent of their awareness of the current professional challenges and transformations in expectations concerning book illustrations, which mirrored, perhaps even on a magnified scale, the central artistic and cognitive challenges of the era. An analysis of these texts reveals that the publishers were well aware of the conflicts between creeds, in which the intellectual and polemic potential of images was often brought into play. They were also conscious of the cognitive qualities of illustrations and cognizant of theories regarding the mimetic nature of art. Another topic recurring in their forewords was that of the difficulties connected with finding a qualified woodblock cutter. Financial problems were an integral part of the history of early printing, and the topic of (excessive) expenses connected with preparing a large set of woodcuts is equally noticeable in these forewords, thus showing that Renaissance Cracow was not an exception to this rule. Thanks to these authorial confessions of Cracow publishers, a growing circle of recipients was increasingly more aware of the “art of the book”, i.e. of the complex processes of editing a text and the value of its appropriate presentation.<br/><br/>
Authors and Affiliations
Joanna Sikorska
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP360359
- DOI 10.5604/01.3001.0012.2330
- Views 62
- Downloads 0
The Icon of the Holy Unmercenaries (Greek: Άγιοι Ανάργυροι) Cosmas and Damian, as Bequeathed by Zofia Ruebenbauer, in the Collection of the National Museum in Cracow
In 2011 the National Museum in Cracow received a bequest that had been specified in the last will and testament of Zofia Ruebenbauer from Ottawa. The gift was described as a 19th century Russian icon. Comparative stylist...
Turning “Polish Boxes into German Houses”: On the Transformations of Architecture in Poland during the Second World War as Exemplified by the Changing Design of the Zajdensznir Tenement in Radom
The issue of construction projects conducted by the Germans in occupied Poland is researched with increasing frequency by both historians and historians of architecture. One of the reasons for this is certainly the excep...
Modernity and Compromise: The Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Warsaw and its Designer Władysław Pieńkowski
Despite the considerable influence he exerted on post-war church architecture in Poland, the designer Władysław Pieńkowski (1907–1991) is today an altogether forgotten figure. The current paper outlines his biography and...
A State of Latent Life: The Paintings of Olga Boznańska
Olga Boznańska’s painting is the epitome of a new approach to the physical matter of painting, refl ecting the late nineteenth-century myth of the organic communion of work and life. The artist herself declared her art a...
Käthe Kollwitz and Otto Nagel: Two Exhibitions of “Progressive Artists” at the Zachęta in the Framework of Cultural Cooperation with the German Democratic Republic
The essay focuses on a discussion of two exhibitions hosted at the Zachęta Central Bureau of Art Exhibitions in Warsaw that were organised in collaboration with the Committee for Cultural Cooperation with Foreign Countri...