Krakow
Museums, Art, & Other Attractions
Juliusza Slowackiego Theater in Krakow's Old Town
November 2, 2004
I visited the Princes Czartoryski Museum, part of the National Museum in Krakow.
It’s famous for its da Vinci and Rembrandt, but quite honestly, although both were
good, neither was as impressive as the armory room. I guess I’m not a huge fine
art fan in general though.
The cost of getting in was 6zl (free on Thursdays though) which is much cheaper
than any museum in the States. There was also a person in each room, as if they
were guarding the art; I’m used to having high tech camera equipment everywhere
and not as many people physically in the rooms. Plus most museums in the States
have their art more protected so there is little threat to actually steal the works.
I was also shocked at how many pictures were simply titled “Portrait of a Man” there
must have been about 10 of them.
The one thing that caught my attention the most however was the way the museum used
different languages throughout. I was at first surprised to see that all the ticket
information and signs were in English and Polish. After getting upstairs I found
that most of the labels were only in Polish, and I was surprised at how much I actually
understood. The third or fourth room then went to Polish on the top and French on
the bottom. Another room had a couple labels in Polish with Latin underneath them;
this is truly a mystery to me. The more modern exhibits had Polish and English making
it very helpful.
November 21, 2004
I went to the museum of Jan Matejko, I learned a little about him and I’m glad I
went, especially since it’s free on Sundays. He did a lot of portraits though and
I’m not generally a fan of portraits. He did however have a number of sketches that
were great, particularly one at the end of the hall that was a battle scene; the
details were incredible including two soldiers fighting on the ground as the one
tried to strangle the other and the second grabbing the other's hand forcing
it off his neck.
The rest of the museum was alright until I reached the room with many of his portraits.
Like I mentioned these weren’t great, but on the left wall was a huge oil on canvas
called “students leaving Krakow” and it was phenomenal. The detail and expression
on each and every person’s face was portrayed; every individual's emotion and
the background showed the city of Krakow in a fascinating way.
Finally there was an oil on cardboard that was of Copernicus. I immediately recognized
it as that painting that hangs on the wall of the Aula in Collegium Novum. It said
that this copy was a test and that he donated the full sized painting to the university.
What really stuck me was that is said the face of Copernicus in the picture was
that of his friend and not actually of Copernicus.