Priests, Artists and Heretics, or Meetings of the Resurrectionists with Wojciech Korneli Stattler and Adam Mickiewicz in Rome and Paris
Priests, Artists and Heretics, or Meetings of the Resurrectionists with Wojciech Korneli Stattler and Adam Mickiewicz in Rome and Paris

Summary/Abstract: The article examines various ideological attitudes among the Great Emigra-tion, represented by a circle of Adam Mickiewicz’s friends, the painter Wojciech Kor-neli Stattler, and the Congregation of the Resurrectionists, especially Father Hieronim Kajsiewicz and Father Piotr Semenenko. The starting point for the discussion of the atti-tudes is a painting discovered during the inventory and documentation of the art collec-tion of the Resurrectionist Order in Rome, depicting the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan River, where John the Baptist has the facial features of Adam Mickiewicz. The painting was attributed to Stattler, based on an analysis of the oeuvre and tracing the painter’s connections with Mickiewicz. This depiction of Christ’s baptism is linked to Mickiewicz’s messianism, and later also to Towianism and its impact on the emigration. Against this background are shown the attitudes of the Resurrectionists, who were involved in fi ght-ing against Towianism. However, they never gave up trying to “reclaim” the poet for the Polish cause and kept the memory of the poet alive.

• Details
• Contents