Works of European art from the National Museum in Krakow, created between the 12th and the 20th centuries are displayed in four exhibition halls of the castle.

The authors include Italian, French, Flemish, German, Dutch and Spanish artists. Their works represent all styles of European art: Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Classicism and Romanticism as well as all painting genres. However, portraits are main subject of the exhibition because man and his references to nature, religion, customs and cultural codes remain the centre of attention.

More than one hundred paintings and sculptures include Romanesque Madonnas carved in wood and stone, Pieter Brueghel Junior’s ‘The Preaching of St. John the Baptist’, and medieval paintings that used to be worshipped in churches and chapels and are today considered outstanding works of art, such as ‘Crucifixion’ by Paolo Veneziano and ‘Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple’ by Johan Koerbecke as well as lay objects from medieval times, such as fragments of a painted wedding chest (cassone) from Florence.

Subsequent periods are represented by artists who painted landscapes, flowers, animals and still lifes. One of them is the Italian late Baroque painter, Alessandro Magnasco, with his two monumental works with extensive background landscapes. However, portraiture dominates, depicting characters from Greek and Roman myths and the Bible as well as monarchs, politicians and scientists, such as those painted by Lucas Cranach; there are also Dutch and Flemish portraits of anonymous people.

The title of the exhibition refers to the first catalogue of works of art compiled by David Teniers Junior in the mid-17th century. He is also the painter of several canvases depicting interiors filled with paintings and sculptures. Against the backdrop of these collections, the foreground shows people admiring paintings, bent over volumes of prints or absorbed in discussion. This is a performance taking place in a set built from a multitude of paintings and sculptures. In this unique theatre, we can observe the meeting of works of art, collectors, patrons, lovers and ‘consumers’ of art.

We hope that our castle theatre of paintings can become such a meeting place for those who would like to see and talk about art.

The exhibition will be open until May 2023.