At the turn of 2017 and 2018, with the date
2017 printed in the colophon, two catalogues of engravings’
collections were published: old Italian prints from the
collection of the National Museum in ...Wrocław, and French
prints from the National Museum in Szczecin.
The collection of Wrocław contains groups of artworks
by the best Italian engravers from the Renaissance to the
18th century, and a small representation of the 19th century.
An introduction to the catalogue gives the history,
the scope and the contents of the collection as well as
the brief history of the engraving art on the Apennine
Peninsula. The catalogue itself is glossed, giving references
to the latest research, preceded by biographical
notes of encyclopaedic character. This well illustrated and
thoroughly edited catalogue, organised in a user-friendly
alphabetical order, is a compendium useful not only for
art historians.
The catalogue published by the National Museum in
Szczecin has the same title as the exhibition of French engravings
from its collection. It is a combination of both the
exhibition and the collection catalogue. Hence its specific
layout corresponding rather with the narration of an exhibition
than a catalogue’s criteria. Both the encyclopaedic
profiles of artists and the following glosses are accompanied
by selected bibliography; its full version together with
extensive academic references can be found at the end of
the volume. The collection of over 600 prints has been divided
not in alphabetical or chronological order but in accordance
with an academic hierarchy of subjects. Engravings
for art reproduction purposes prevail in Szczecin collection although original works of famous artists are also included.
The publication of both catalogues allows us to learn more
about the engravings in Polish public collections, i.e. the
ones of national museum in Szczecin and Wrocław. It also
gives the history of Polish collections after 1945, affected
by the previous losses of the World War II. Undoubtedly, the
sign of the times and the presence of Poland in the united
Europe is the publication of the Italian engravings’ collection
from Wrocław, which was kept before in the Academy
of Arts in Berlin. Great care has been taken to prepare both
catalogues in terms of their typography, although the illustrations
in the French engravings’ catalogue would be of
more benefit if were somewhat larger.
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