Ks. Leopold Textoris – fotograf. Addenda do biografii

Abstract

REV. LEOPOLD TEXTORIS – PHOTOGRAPHER. ADDENDA TO A BIOGRAPHY

In the article devoted to Rev. Leopold Textoris (1822– 1885), published in 2018 in Kraków Yearbook, we assumed that he had been not only the owner of the photographs discussed there, but also the author of some of them. Meanwhile, at the National Museum in Kraków, evidence unknown to us earlier has been found, confirming this hypothesis: a photograph of the parish church in Rzepiennik Biskupi, bearing the name of the author, Rev. Textoris. The view on it is almost identical to the two photographs we attributed to him, which not only confirms this attribution, but also allows us to consider him with near-certainty as the author of the other photographs ascribed to him. This means that Textoris was one of the few Polish amateur photographers active at the turn of the 1850s and 1860s, and at the same time the author of the oldest photographs of Kołaczyce and Rzepiennik Biskupi, and some of the oldest surviving photographs of Kraków. The biography of Rev. Leopold can also be enriched with details of family connections, which illustrate the rapid process of Polonisation of Galician officials. His grandfather most probably was Józef (Joseph) von Textoris; as an inspector of the buildings of the Jagiellonian University, he does not feature very gloriously in the history of the university, while his grandson was remembered as an eager Polish patriot. The figure of Rev. Textoris is also connected with the history of the bas-reliefs of the altar wings with scenes from the life of John the Baptist from the early 16th century, once to be found in the church of St. Florian. As we discovered in a previously unknown source, it was thanks to Textoris’ protection that the sculptor Józef Korwin Brzostowski obtained permission to make copies of the bas-reliefs, which today replace the originals lost during World War II.