Z historii krakowskich plantacji. Planty w twórczości polskich artystów

Abstract

FROM THE HISTORY OF KRAKÓW’S ‘PLANTACJE’. PLANTY PARK IN THE WORKS OF POLISH ARTISTS

In the 19th century Planty Park, established in place of the city’s mediaeval fortifications, became one of Kraków’s most significant symbols. Together with the road encircling it, and the main arteries radiating from that road, the Planty green belt formed the core of what is today considered the greatest achievement of urban planning in the era of the Free City of Kraków (1815–1846), i.e. the radial concentric spatial layout of the expanding, modern city. Planty Park was the first public park, and the largest outdoor sculpture gallery in Kraków; it was referred to as przechadzki (‘the strolls’), and gained prestige as the city’s most elegant avenue, and Cracovians’ favourite walking route. Planty Park also appeared in the works of numerous Polish artists, becoming the sentimental staffage and decorative supplement to images representing the romantic ruins of mediaeval fortifications, or ‘national historical monuments’. Sometimes it was also depicted as a subject in its own right, portrayed in picturesque compositions and painted studies. The motifs of Kraków’s ‘Plantacje’ (the term is derived from the Polish verb plantować which means ‘to level out’) were used many times by a local watercolourist Stanisław Tondos who popularized the relics of the old defensive walls and the city’s green belt in the wide range of postcards he produced. Jan Stanisławski (assisted by his students from the Kraków School of Landscape) was the author of some small, impressionistic compositions which he painted directly from nature during walks and plein-air workshops in the park, aka ‘Plantacje’, or ‘przechadzki’. Julian Fałat and Wojciech Weiss, on the other hand, often immortalized the views of Planty as they saw them from the windows of their studios, similar to Stanisław Wyspiański who created a unique, symbolic landscape in which reality mingles with a dream. Artists perceived Planty in Kraków in all sorts of ways, and their visions combined together create a colourful, elusive image of this most extraordinary of Kraków’s gardens.