Teofila Piątkowskiego widoki i opisy kościołów. Nieznana karta z dziejów badań i inwentaryzacji zabytków w Polsce
Teofil Piątkowski’s Views and Descriptions of Churches: An Unknown Page in the History of Research and Inventory of Monuments in Poland

Summary/Abstract: The subject of the article is Teofil Piątkowski’s notebook-cum-sketchbook from the period 1855–1859, encompassing churches in the Miechów, Kielce and Olkusz districts, extant in the National Archive in Cracow and until now unknown to scholarship. The manuscript belongs to works of an antiquarian nature, associated with artistic journeys. It is unfinished. Its making is most likely linked with the process of preparing an illustrated publication devoted to historic churches in the above-mentioned districts. Its character is strictly factographic and descriptive; hence it must be counted among the early, and still rare at the time, attempts at a methodical documentation of the works of religious art. It is not only an interesting document of artistic historiography, but also a valuable source of information regarding a few dozen churches. It records the appearance of those buildings, many of which were later restructured or destroyed. Piątkowski’s drawings evince some similarities to analogous works by other Polish documenters of architectural monuments active in the mid-19th century. They were most probably intended to serve as patterns for engravings to illustrate the planned publication.

• Details
• Contents