Zbiór pierwszych japoników w Krakowie

Wokół nieznanej wystawy w Muzeum Techniczno-Przemysłowym 1872

Abstract

THE COLLECTION OF THE FIRST JAPANESE ARTEFACTS IN KRAKÓW. ABOUT AN UNKNOWN EXHIBITION AT THE TECHNICAL AND INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM 1872

The growing wave of interest in Japanese art in Europe in the second half of the 19th century swept over Kraków as either. An early manifestation of this phenomenon was the organisation by Dr Adrian Baraniecki of a Sino-Japanese exhibition at the Technical and Industrial Museum in 1872. This event has not yet been recorded in the history of Kraków’s Japanism. The exhibits were borrowed from Kraków aristocrats, academics, painters and wealthy townspeople, as well as academic institutions. The exhibition was accompanied by a series of lectures by Professor Władysław Łuszczkiewicz introducing the characteristic features of the two cultures. Since the foundation of the Technical and Industrial Museum in 1868, Japanese artefacts found a permanent place in the museum’s extensive and diverse collection. It was continuously enriched through purchases and donations made by travellers, emigrants and collectors of artefacts purchased from dealers in oriental objects in European capitals or at world exhibitions. The successive general exhibitions, presenting and inspired by original works, played an indispensable role in spreading the fascination with Japan. The assemblage of Japanese artefacts at the Technical and Industrial Museum, somewhat haphazard, of uneven value and consisting mostly of utilitarian objects, preceded the professionally established collection of Feliks Manggha Jasieński and artefacts collected since 1892 by the National Museum by nearly 30 years. For Cracovians, the collection of the Technical and Industrial Museum at the time was the first introduction to the fashionable world of an unknown culture and the beginning of the growing importance of collecting Japanese artefacts. After the museum was dissolved in 1950, the items were transferred to the National Museum, where they constitute only a small part of the rich and valuable collection.