Lately I had a pleasure to write a short text on “Victorian Post-Mortem Photography” (in Tygodnik Powszechny, in Polish), mainly focusing on confronting some popular (but erroneous) myths on this subject. No-one would really take a creepy picture of a corpse posed on a stand (those stands would not be…
Saint Christopher is one of the most popular patrons; of course, everybody knows a Chris. Interestingly, it is a purely legendary saint; it even seems that his name derived from his legend. Christóforos means “Christ-bearer”, and that is how St. Christopher was depicted: as a man holding Christ-Child on his arm…
There is a very interesting monument by St Nicholas church in Cracow (Kopernika Street): it looks like a stone pole and many people pass by it not knowing what it actually is. In fact, it is a medieval Lantern of the Dead! Previously there were holes at the top of…
On the occasion of the Valentine’s Day I would like to focus on the relationships – this time it will be all about the prints. There are some popular subject matters in the European art that kept coming back through the centuries. One of them is so called “Fight for…
At the turn of December and January Ancient Greeks celebrated so called Rural Dionysia, which was a feast of the first tasting of a new wine from latest harvest. Greek Dionysus was a very important but also mysterious god – the Dionysian Mysteries were a ritual considered by the scholars…