Exhibitions

Exhibition description

The Museum’s largest hall is distinguished by its most striking feature: a lavishly decorated wooden polychrome ceiling dating back to the first half of the 17th century. Discovered and restored during the building’s renovation in 1956, this masterpiece sets the tone for the hall’s historic atmosphere. The furnishings include a 16th-century Italian chest, as well as inlaid chairs and a bench from the mid-19th century.

The hall also houses one of the Museum’s most prized collections, i.e. that of Western European paintings. The collection’s founder, Fr. Dr. Michał Lewek (1878–1967), was a long-serving parish priest at St. Apostles Peter and Paul Church in Tarnowskie Góry, whose contributions to the local community were as celebrated as they were controversial. The origins of the collection go back the acquisitions he made during his service to Count Ballestrem in Pławniowice and his 1911–1920 stint in Berlin. He was assisted in his purchases by the esteemed art historian Fr. Szczęsny Dettlof, a professor at the University of Poznań. The collection was purchased by the Tarnowskie Góry Museum and the Association of Tarnowskie Góry Area Enthusiasts in 1965–1966. The twenty-four paintings, only some of which are on permanent display, date from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. Primarily Flemish, Dutch and Italian in origin, the works represent religious themes, portraits, and genre scenes of consistently high artistic calibre.

The largest group of religious representations includes The Virgin Mary with Child and Old Testament Saints, a work created in the 16th century and associated with the Florentine school. The Baptism of Christ from the first half of the 17th century, from the Bolognese Carracci school of Francesco Albani’s circle, has an interesting history. As has been established, the painting was brought to Poland in 1808 by Antonina Krasińska, née Czacki, grandmother of the national bard Zygmunt Krasiński. Also noteworthy is a small painting entitled The Destruction of Jerusalem, painted on copper plate, alluding to Rembrandt’s work and attributed to Johann Georg Trautmann, a German painter active in the 18th century. The Nativity of Jesus, attributed to Martin Didier, a painter active in Limognes, France, in the 16th century, was also executed on tin, using so-called Limousin enamel. The painting is one of the few unique works made with this technique, not only in Polish collections. Also notable, because of its creator, is a small mid-17th century painting The Temptation of Saint Anthony. It was painted by David Teniers the Younger, a renowned Flemish Baroque artist. A similar work of his is on display in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne.

The portraits include A Man in a Lace Collar, an example of Northern painting from around 1630–1635, Ferdinand II of Habsburg from the second third of the 17th century, based on Justus Sustermans’ work, and Hendrik van Deventer by the Dutch painter Thomas van der Wilt from 1703. Notable works among the genre scenes include A Scene in the Guardhouse with abandoned pieces of armour, attributed to a follower of David Teniers the Younger, and a Scene in the Port of Naples with a group of eastern merchants, a lighthouse and Vesuvius in the background, a painting signed by Johannes Lingelbach, an Amsterdam-based representative 17th-century Dutch painting.

The discovery of many signatures, as well as the determination of authorship and the historical journey of several works, was made possible through research and conservation efforts by Aleksandra Hola, PhD, of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. The conservation of several paintings, funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, was later recognized with an award from the Marshal of Silesian Voivodeship.