The works in the PLANS section (around 11,000) were also mainly executed using drawing techniques. This collection includes architectural drawings involving church and secular buildings, mainly in southern Poland and particularly in Krakow. The drawings are associated with building, conversion or reconstruction designs and involve either entire buildings, architectural details or interiors. These are works by famous Polish architects such as Zygmunt Hendel, Tomasz Pryliński and Józef Gałęzowski. The section is organised according to a topographical system i.e. the works are arranged according to place names.

MINIATURES is a separate section. Arranged by artist it includes over 1,100 items, predominantly portrait representations from the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century. The most valuable part of the collection are the foreign miniatures from the English, French, German, Austrian and Italian schools. Of the Polish miniatures especially noteworthy are works by Wincenty Lesseur, Stanisław Marszałkiewicz and Józef Sonntag. The Miniatures section also includes illustrations and initials from illuminated manuscripts.

The BLOCKS AND PLATES section which contains over 1,600 graphic matrices of various kinds is a particularly interesting collection. Especially eye-catching are the plates by Joachim Lelewel, Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Leon Kowalski, Józef Kosmulski, and Leon Wyczółkowski, and the almost complete collection of woodcut boards and plates by Jerzy Panek.

The smallest and newest section of Department III is the PHOTOMONTAGE collection which contains 25 objects from the interwar period (extraordinary works by Kazimierz Podsadecki and Jan Maria Brzeski) and the 20th century (works by Zbylut Grzywacz and Teresa Rudowicz).


Krystyna Kulig-Janarek