The exhibition organized as part of the project 'Woman Knowledge Power' will present works by Václav Hollar (1607-1667), one of the most talented printmakers of the 17th-century Europe, an artist particularly skilled in documenting everyday life.

The title 'Women's Theatre' is a series presenting the outfits of inhabitants of different regions in Europe. It will be complemented by a cycle of the four seasons, portrayed by the artist in the form of women wearing dresses from their era, two busts of presenting sophisticated forms of women's headgear and a study of muffs – a still life composed of winter accessories.

Václav Hollar's career began in the late 1620s after he had left his native Prague. The artist, constantly migrating, travelled to Frankfurt and Cologne, and also worked in Antwerp and London. For many years he was associated with the court of Thomas Howard – Lord Arundel, an English diplomat and collector. Hollar documented the surrounding world in all its diversity. The works that he left behind form a kind of visual catalogue of 17th-century Europe. His legacy resembles a dossier of a contemporary photographer. It features panoramas of cities, exotic animals, collections of shells and insects, catalogues of ships, series of characteristic types, portraits.

Works from the collection of the Print Room of the Polish Academy of Learning in the Research Library of the Polish Academy of Learning and the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow


The print collection of the Polish Academy of Learning is displayed at www.pauart.pl

Exhibition curator: Anna Olszewska – Print Room of the Polish Academy of Learning

Honorary patronage:
Mayor of the City of Krakow Jacek Majchrowski
Marshal of the Małopolska Voivodeship Jacek Krupa