Artysta w świątyni… sztuki
An Artist in the Temple… of Art

Summary/Abstract: This study is founded on research conducted since 2018 as partof an artistic and academic project carried out at the IconosphereResearch Laboratory at the Institute of Painting and Art Educationat the University of the National Education Commission in Kraków.This text analyses works of art in which the painter is inspiredby, refers to, or is physically present in a sacred place or actual orimagined sacred building, such as a cathedral, chapel, or mona-stery. The selected works are easel paintings by artists from theKrakow milieu: Romuald Oramus, Zbigniew Cebula and JanuszMatuszewski, who represent different poetics. As all the seriesof paintings discussed are still ongoing, it is difficult to drawfinal conclusions. The artists do not succumb to habituationand still feel the need to react to repeated stimuli, whether inthe form of memories of important places or revisiting them.Janusz Matuszewski’s work confirms that these places can faci-litate spiritual experiences. Furthermore, the artist prolongs thestate of ‘inhaling’ the sacred place experienced during his youthwhile carrying out conservation work, recreating it in his care-fully arranged studio. However, most often we are dealing withsacred places being treated as a source of motifs or a specialexhibition space. Oramus maintains an intellectual reflectionon the cathedral motif, which he absorbed over 20 years ago,by making pilgrimages to successive sacred buildings. Cebuladelves into biblical and mythological stories and returns to realand imagined places conducive to expressing his fascinationwith terrain and architecture. This attitude can be referred toas neo-romanticism

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