Department XI - Ancient art
Department XI - Ancient art
This Department stores objects from three collections. The Princes Czartoryski Foundation is the owner of around 2,000 objects (including some 460 coins), mostly from the area of Egypt, Greece, Etruria and Rome, purchased in the second half of the 19th century by Prince Władysław Czartoryski at art auctions or directly from digs. The Egyptian objects include two sarcophagi with mummies; stone and wooden stelae; a set of scrolls with the text of The Book of The Dead; minor cult artefacts: figurines of divinities, scarabs, amulets, small ushabti (Shabti) figures; as well as objects of everyday use: mirrors, cosmetic palettes, jewellery and a small collection of shrouds and two mummy portraits.
Greek art is represented by ceramics (geometric, orientalising, black-figure); silver medallions used to decorate vessels; terracotta figurines, mainly from the Hellenistic period; lamps, glass vessels, coins, gold jewellery and three fragments of marble sculptures (heads of statues).
Objects of Etruscan art include three clay sarcophagi, an urn, bucchero and black figure vessels, gold and bronze jewellery, bronze mirrors with representational engravings or mirrors with rare relief decoration, as well as a votive bronze shield and votive terracotta heads.
There is a large assemblage of some 200 glass artefacts from various parts of the Roman Empire; parts of frescoes; mosaics; sculptures (a Medici-type statue of Venus; some fragments of sarcophagi of great value, and others); objects of everyday use from the Republic and Empire periods (bronze and clay pottery, lamps, coins); and gold, silver and bronze jewellery and gems. The Department also holds artefacts from Cyprus and Near East.
The National Museum in Krakow is the owner of some 800 objects, most of them bequests. An important group are Punic artefacts from excavations in Carthage (stone stelae, clay pots), a bequest from the Austrian diplomat Antoni Grubissich de Keresztur. The objects presented by Aleksander Sulkiewicz, Ignacy Terlecki and other benefactors (mainly Greek pottery) came from the northern coast of the Black Sea. A group of early Palestinian and Cypriot vessels was acquired after World War II by Władysław and Violet Włoch from the Institute of Archaeology in London. Konstanty Schmidt-Ciążyński contributed Egyptian amulets from his rich holdings of art.
The deposit of the Potocki family of Krzeszowice comprises 145 items, predominantly Roman sculptures and reliefs.
Creating Department XI by merging the collections of the Czartoryskis, the Potockis and the National Museum in Krakow helped enrich the Gallery of Ancient Art considerably and made it more complete.
The ancient art from the collection of Department XI is Poland’s second largest and most valuable collection, outshined only buy the ancient holdings of the National Museum in Warsaw. The representation of Greek vase painting at the Krakow’s Museum is of outstanding value. Out of the 200 Greek vases it owns, more than a dozen are world-class pieces with attribution.
Greek art is represented by ceramics (geometric, orientalising, black-figure); silver medallions used to decorate vessels; terracotta figurines, mainly from the Hellenistic period; lamps, glass vessels, coins, gold jewellery and three fragments of marble sculptures (heads of statues).
Objects of Etruscan art include three clay sarcophagi, an urn, bucchero and black figure vessels, gold and bronze jewellery, bronze mirrors with representational engravings or mirrors with rare relief decoration, as well as a votive bronze shield and votive terracotta heads.
There is a large assemblage of some 200 glass artefacts from various parts of the Roman Empire; parts of frescoes; mosaics; sculptures (a Medici-type statue of Venus; some fragments of sarcophagi of great value, and others); objects of everyday use from the Republic and Empire periods (bronze and clay pottery, lamps, coins); and gold, silver and bronze jewellery and gems. The Department also holds artefacts from Cyprus and Near East.
The National Museum in Krakow is the owner of some 800 objects, most of them bequests. An important group are Punic artefacts from excavations in Carthage (stone stelae, clay pots), a bequest from the Austrian diplomat Antoni Grubissich de Keresztur. The objects presented by Aleksander Sulkiewicz, Ignacy Terlecki and other benefactors (mainly Greek pottery) came from the northern coast of the Black Sea. A group of early Palestinian and Cypriot vessels was acquired after World War II by Władysław and Violet Włoch from the Institute of Archaeology in London. Konstanty Schmidt-Ciążyński contributed Egyptian amulets from his rich holdings of art.
The deposit of the Potocki family of Krzeszowice comprises 145 items, predominantly Roman sculptures and reliefs.
Creating Department XI by merging the collections of the Czartoryskis, the Potockis and the National Museum in Krakow helped enrich the Gallery of Ancient Art considerably and made it more complete.
The ancient art from the collection of Department XI is Poland’s second largest and most valuable collection, outshined only buy the ancient holdings of the National Museum in Warsaw. The representation of Greek vase painting at the Krakow’s Museum is of outstanding value. Out of the 200 Greek vases it owns, more than a dozen are world-class pieces with attribution.