The beginning of our expedition to our northwest neighbours was not without little inconveniences, just like on a lot of our previous trips. While the bigger part of our group departed a day ahead, we, the first-grade students, had a lot of fun while travelling. Because of our Friday excursion to see some modern art, we departed from Prague in the late evening. Followed by an unexplained delay, and although confused whilst entering the station, we tried to use Warsaw’s public transport as effectively as possible. On our way from the metro stop, we got so distracted by street mural paintings that we literally lost all sense of direction and arrived at the meeting place at least two hours later than planned.
Finally, we were able to start with our programme dedicated to the art of the East, in keeping with the theme of our lessons -“Byzantine art.” We couldn’t wait for the National Museum’s exhibition of Nubian medieval art from Faras Cathedral, including objects of Coptic, Byzantine and Arab production. Most of the artifacts around which the space was constructed were mural paintings with inscriptions from the cathedral, but there were also column capitals, reliefs and both included religious subject matter, which preserved the original unity of the space for present-day visitors. Objects made their way to Warsaw as a part of a campaign by UNESCO in a Polish-Sudanese mission to save and document artifacts from archaeological territories in Egypt and Sudan endangered by the building of the Aswan Dam. Thanks to this initiative in 1961-64, after division, Poland and Sudan now possess 67 paintings from the 7th to the 14th century, allowing us to closely admire the sophistication of Nubian mural painting in Europe.
The exhibition was opened in 1972, under the commissioned professor Kazimir Michalowski, who was the head of the original mission. At first it was presented in a variation that allowed visitors to go through the artworks in a chronological way. A change in the conception of the space took place in 2014, so we had the opportunity to enjoy the display expressed topographically, following the original positionings of the objects. We first stepped into a model of the five-nave cathedral with a square floorplan and local mural painting. In the next room we got the chance to see an outline of the exterior, mostly the remnants of adorned sculpture decorations, and the first so-called Faras “frescoes” (they are not technically frescoes, but tempera applied on muddy plaster), including the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus, the majestic cross with Christ in clipeum and the apocalyptic beasts and even an archangel with a distinctive expression due to his pursed lips. We whizzed by the collection of the crosses from the eastern regions due to our delay, and finally reached the largest room. It was meant to evoke the main nave, accompanied by paintings from the narthex, ending in an apse with a synthronon. Prompted by the wide variety of mural paintings from a range of periods, we began debating their differences, processes of creation, and significant historical consequences. One of the most impressive paintings mentioned was the depiction of St. Anne from the 8th century, with her finger raised to her lips and striking facial features – a picture worth more than a thousand words. One could not help but also notice the Virgin Mary with Child, although their faces were unfortunately destroyed, the damage allowed for the trimming of Mary’s robe and crown to be more visible, flanked by archangels as her guardians. The depiction of Bishop Marianos beside the Madonna made the strongest impression on me, with the intense contrast between her paleness and his dark skin tone alongside the use of a light green shadow present in paintings from the 11th century, the period from which the fresco originates. After enjoying the decorations of African church interiors, we ended the day with excellent Ethiopian food.
Early in the morning the next day, we started our route to Krakow’s National Museum, where we were expecting a comprehensive presentation of Georgian art – the first of its kind in Europe, as they proudly stated on their website. We did not find their effort to create a unified display of the colourful and diverse culture successful at all, for it somehow denied us the chance to explore each period in depth. The exhibition was organised in cooperation with the National Museum of Tbilisi and other regional institutions. Nevertheless, even as students relatively new to the subject matter, we recognised that the most impressive examples of Georgian medieval artworks were not being exhibited. Still, seeing the hammered objects and the detailed work in gold and on stone was breath-taking. Therefore, I am persuaded, that a less demanding visitor would find the title of the display Golden Fleece: The Art of Georgia adequate, because Georgian jewellery production was certainly the focal point. However, the part that most appealed to us were the early Christian pieces, which mapped the formation of a visual language to meet the needs of a new religion. We couldn’t miss the mastery and precision of the smaller religious objects, even though they weren’t exhibited the way they deserved to be for optimum viewing, due to their obscure placement and artificial light. Stone stelas of various kinds added to the rich quality of the display. The pieces with figurative compositions were exhibited facing frontwards, for instance the example of the lion head devouring the poor man. The harmonically modelled aniconic motifs were not only part of them, but also stood separately, and the boundary stones charmed us by their elegance within several variations of Georgian writings. In comparison with the previous exhibition of Nubian mural paintings, the Georgian section only contained copies of frescoes (ranging from the 11th to 14th century) made in the first half of the 20th century. While walking through the earlier periods we admired paintings depicting the famous mountain landscapes and of course, the simple, yet strong motifs of the painter Niko Pirosmani.
Although we were disappointed by some aspects of the exhibition, it was still convenient to see the work of Georgian masters in Europe and to marvel at their talent beyond our borders. We have learnt many lessons and received numerous suggestions for further debate while travelling back, so the time spent on the train passed quickly and we look forward to future European exhibitions of art from the East.
