Krakowska kurtyna Henryka Siemiradzkiego: alegorie i rebusy
Henryk Siemiradzki’s Curtain in Kraków: Allegories and Rebuses

Summary/Abstract: This article focuses on the curtain installed in the Municipal Theatre in Kraków (now the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre) painted by Henryk Siemiradzki. The giant composition is an example of the unique formula of allegoric painting related to rebuses, which, as attested by the many drawings preserved in his sketchbooks, was the artist’s favourite kind of pastime. The identification of new iconographic sources (primarily Les Dieux Antiques by Stéphane Mallarmé) and the broadening of the context for those already known has made it possible to ask questions anew about the sources of creativity and imagination in late academic painting. The juxtaposition of Siemiradzki’s allegorical curtain manifesto with the rebuses he devised (contained in the sketchbooks preserved in the National Museum in Kraków) problematises the issue of the relationship between word and image which was characteristic of that period.

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