Zapoznane dzieło Jana Styki w kościele ojców jezuitów w Łodzi
The forgotten work of Jan Styka in the church of the Jesuits in Łódź

Summary/Abstract: The current church of the Jesuit fathers in Łódź (The Sacred Heart of Jesus) is the former Evangelical-Augsburg church of Saint John the Evangelist, built in 1880–1884. On its main altar there is a work by Jan Styka entitled Christ Teaching the Disciples and the Crowd, funded by one of the most famous industrialists from Łódź, Juliusz Kunitzer. The painting was created in 1885 and hung in the church in January of the following year. It aroused great interest in Łódź and Warsaw. Its raw artistic form was adapted to the requirements of Lutheran worship.This probably resulted in the fact that when the church was taken over by the Jesuits in 1945, the painting was removed from the main altar and moved to the gallery, where it stayed for several decades. Interest in it came only at the end of the last century, when the renovation of the temple began. The painting underwent conservation and plans were made to hang it on the wall of the presbytery. However, they have not been implemented to date. The painting was kept in the Jesuit monastery for several years, and is now hung on the back wall of the chapel of St. Christopher. This high-class work of religious art, one of Styka’s best works, the fate of which is significant for the changes taking place in Poland after 1945, is still waiting to be appreciated and properly exposed.

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