For the first time at Wawel, all the preserved royal tapestries will be made available to visitors. The exhibition “All tapestries of the king. Returns 2021-1961-1921” will be available until October 31st. – This exhibition is supposed to be a magnet attracting tourists to Wawel, allows you to experience something unusual – says Andrzej Betlej, director of the Wawel Royal Castle. The exhibition is accompanied by works by contemporary artists, a rich program of educational events and publications.
Hidden from the Swedes, robbed at the behest of Tsarina Katarzyna, taken by the Vistula galley three days before the Germans entered Krakow in 1939. During the war, valuable Wawel monuments found their way first to Romania, then to France and, via England, to Canada.
For the first time, all preserved Wawel tapestries will be presented to visitors in the interiors for which they were created. From March 18, at the Wawel Royal Castle, the exhibition “All the King’s tapestries. Returns 2021-1961-1921”.
This exhibition is not only works but also a story. This is the history of these tapestries, it is also the history of the great undertaking which is the conservation of tapestries, as well as a great educational story. All three themes are very much present at this exhibition.
Dr hab. Andrzej Betlej, director of the Wawel Royal Castle
The collection of Wawel tapestries was made in the years 1550-1560 in workshops in Brussels. The fabrics are made of wool and silk as well as silver and silver gilded threads. Among the exhibits presented at Wawel, you can see one of the tapestries after recent conservation, which to some extent has regained its original color.
This is a unique exhibition showing the entire stock of the most important 16th-century tapestry in Poland, one of the most important and interesting in Europe. For the first time, we show fabrics that viewers have never been able to see. We tried to show it in reverse chronology, we start with two contemporary works of art that were created especially for this exhibition, to go from 1961 to 1921, to end up in the Senator’s Hall in 1553.
Magdalena Ozga, curator of the exhibition
The contemporary context, which is an introduction to the exhibition, are the works of Mirosław Białka and Marcin Maciejowski, who commented on the contemporary aspect of receiving tapestries and the mapping that is the key to reading the reverse narrative of the exhibition.
After a 5-month exhibition, some tapestries will be returned to museum warehouses. It is possible that part of the collection will be presented at special shows in Europe.
The exhibition is to commemorate the return of the royal tapestries – on March 18, 1961, when the ceremonial display of tapestries took place after their return from Canada, and on March 18, 1921, when under the Riga Peace Treaty, a collection of tapestries and people stolen during the Third Partition of Poland was brought from Russia, thanks to which the tapestries survived.
I would like the exhibition to be remembered as a monument to the importance of the royal foundation, as a commemoration of those who created the collection and cared for it for centuries – emphasized Andrzej Betlej.
Andrzej Betlej
The exhibition is accompanied by numerous publications, incl. richly illustrated album “Arrasa Zygmunt August”, “Essays on the tapestries of King Zygmunt August” by Magdalena Piwocka and a program of educational events, including the first match of a jerk at Wawel (June 19), culinary reconstruction of the wedding of Zygmunt August and Katarzyna Habsburgian Women (19 July), or monthly meetings with conservators who will introduce the backstage of their work on the renovation of tapestries (March 31, April 21, May 26, June 23, July 21, August 25, September 22, October 13). , noon)
The exhibition “All the King’s Tapestries. Returns 2021-1961-1921” will be available from March 18 to October 31.
I, for one, look forward to visiting this expo, once the exhibition and Wawel Museum will open!
Yours truly,
The Twisted Red LadyBug
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