Exhibition conception: Beata Lejman, Piotr Łukaszewicz, Małgorzata Korżel-Kraśna

Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Angelo Bronzino, Cosimo Rosselli, Raphael’s father Giovanni Santi, Lucas Cranach and Wassily Kandinsky: these and other masters of European art will be featured at the newly-arranged permanent gallery of European Art of the 15th – Early 20th c. which will re-open at the National Museum in Wrocław after 20 years of absence.
The story of European art in the early modern and modern era will start with the juxtaposition of the Italian and Northern Renaissance, particularly their respective approaches to religious themes. This section will feature works by Italians (Cosimo Rosselli, Giovanni Santi, Paris Bordone, and Angelo Bronzino) and painters active in the Netherlands and Germany (including members of the Cranach and Holbein families). The following section will focus on the influence of major social changes in the 16th century combined with the ideas of humanism and the emerging Reformation. New secular themes: genre scenes, landscapes, portraits, were undertaken by such artists as Pieter Breughel the Younger, Frans Floris, Osias Beert, and Johann Glöckler. Then we move to the Golden Age of Dutch painting, here represented by Antoine Palamedesz, Jan van Bijert, and Simon de Vos. The Italian painting of the Baroque period will be presented next to Roma motifs by the Italianist painters from Northern Europe, like Jan Weenix of Amsterdam and Jan Frans Bloemen of Antwerp. The gallery will also show Baroque painters from the Habsburg Empire and – as a counterpoint – works by artists active in France, Spain and Poland (e.g. Harms, Brandl, Willmann, Scheffler, Chardin, and Zurbaran). The closing accent in our presentation of the art of the early modern era will be provided by an exquisite selection of 18th-century artists connected to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. The room arranged to recall an art lover’s studio or a cabinet of curiosity – which presaged modern museums – will showcase, among others, several distinguished Austrian painters: Johann Michael Rottmayr, Johann Georg Platzer, and Martin Johann Schmidt.
The story of the art of the modern era will be elucidated through leading tendencies that informed its evolution (Classicism, Romanticism, Biedermeier, Historicism, Realism, Impressionism, and Symbolism) as exemplified first of all by paintings by German masters. “We are proud to show excellent pieces by leading German painters – says Piotr Łukaszewicz, one of the gallery’s curators – like the Classicist Joseph Anton Koch, Romantic painters Johan Christian Dahl and Ludwig Richter, Realist Ferdinand von Rayski, Impressionists Lovis Corinth and Max Slevogt. French art will be represented by Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun (Portrait of Fanny Biron). Wassily Kandinsky’s early work entitled In the Evening, his only piece in Polish collections, will take pride of place.”
Altogether, the new permanent gallery will feature some 300 objects of fine and decorative arts.

Permanent galleries of European art at the National Museum in Wrocław:
Gallery of European Painting (1973-1987)
Gallery of European Art of the 15th-20th c. (1988-1992)