Szczątkowe obecności. Portrety Carla Gesualdo
Fragmentary Presences. The Portraits of Carlo Gesualdo

Summary/Abstract: Czaja writes about the biographical riddle of Carlo Gesualdo, the Italian composer and musician of the turn of the 16th and 17th century. On the basis of a few artistic documents the author tries to explore the identity of the “prince of Musicians”, the issue that worries researches and commentators; Czaja tries to reconstruct his composite sketch. Compared are Werner Herzog’s film "Death for Five Voices", Gustaw Herling-Grudziński’s short story "The Funeral Madrigal" and "Tynset", a novel by a German writer. He uses the examples to demonstrate the trouble a historian and biographer faces when re-constructing the life and work of an artist. Czaja argues in the conclusion that the most valuable and essential thing in the life of an artist is expressed in artist’s work. Each biography is – has to be - an epistemological defeat.

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