Suffering With Joy

Polish Madonnas in Art and Poetry

May 20, 2010

It is Mary’s month all of May.  That is my excuse to bring my readers some beautiful paintings I stumbled upon when I was searching for information on the Madonna with Child Clothed with Sunlight that I blogged about last week in the post Decoding Sacred Art.

"Carol" - Click on the image for information on the meaning and the poem which inspired it

From the University of Dayton which hosted this exhibit:

“Polish Madonnas in Art and Poetry” is a collection of fifty-four paintings by Wislawa Kwiatkowska from the Diocesan Museum in Plock, Poland.

...The verses of the modern Polish poets who inspired the paintings of Wislawa Kwiatkowska likewise emphasize the presence and influence of Mary in Polish daily life. Mary is found in settings familiar to Poles —  a garden of dill, a forest strewn with mushrooms, lush flower gardens, holy shrines, and sites that recall Poland’s tragic history; wherever Poles live and breathe, Mary is there with them, and her presence is commemorated in Polish poetry and painting. In fact, Mary is understood to be so intimately present in daily life that the poems — and the paintings — often reveal a folksy, humorous quality.

The Art of Wislawa Kwiatkowska

In the work of Mrs. Kwiatkowska, the influence of nineteenth century art can be detected, but it does not overpower her own unique style, which she developed through the years. She studied at the Academy of Art in Warsaw and in its Department of Art Preservation and Restoration.The world of her works is filled with imagination, decorum, fantasy, and fable, but her paintings are not without realism. Flowers, plants, and birds provide depth. She employs colors that are bold, bright, and crisp. A characteristic of her work is to join the picture, painted on canvas cloth, with the frame, which eliminates the distance between the work and the viewer. The pictures are painted in oil and measure 90  cm x 75 cm each.

Wislawa Kwiatkowska has also produced many pedagogical works for children, filled with drawings of butterflies, flowers, and animals. In addition, she illustrated the stories of Hans Christian Andersen and The Little Prince by Saint-Exupery.

"Soldier's Fate" - Click on the image for information on the meaning and the poem which inspired it

This painting, Soldier’s Fate, reminds me of our valiant men and women who suffer and die in combat every day.  One could just as well paint Mary weeping over the dead on today’s battlefields all over the world.  The message, while explicitly Polish, is universal for all times and places.  She is, after all, the Mother of us all.

Kwiatkowska’s work is appealing for many reasons, but especially for the intense feeling of love for the Blessed Mother. The Bogarodzica, the Polish “Mother of God”, brought the Poles through many wars, the communist regime of post-World War II, and now into the 21st century where this Eastern European country may provide an enduring witness to Christ and leadership in justice that the world so sorely needs. If it can hold to it’s Christian roots, it may well be the last Christian state in Europe from which the seed of restoration may spring.

Be sure to visit the Polish Madonna exhibit site to see all of Kwiatkowska’s works that were  displayed and use them to pray for the conversion of sinners and world peace. For myself, I never get tired of looking at these lovingly painted images of Our Lady.

Tags: art, Blessed Virgin

6 Comments to Polish Madonnas in Art and Poetry

1. 

   Thanks for this…hey, I speak some Russian (adopted 2 Russian kids 10 years ago; my wife did all the work). Bogarodzica is close to the Russian, Bogoroditsa/ ??????????. It means God-birther; probably the Russian version of the Greek Theotokos/ ????????, God-bearer. The Russians poetically call their country Rodina, which in English is expressed as Motherland, but would be better translated as the Birthland. Now I wonder if there’s an equivalent in Polish.

   In WW2 the Russians would shout ‘Za Rodinu!’, For Motherland! Not that the Poles would care.

   Thanks again for the Polish stuff…I feel the germ of a post developing. You’re doing what I want a blog to do: make me aware of things I wouldn’t come upon on my own.
kkollwitz on June 2nd, 2010
2. 

   Those questionmarks show where I’d posted the Russian & Greek. Oh well.
kkollwitz on June 2nd, 2010
3. 

   Thanks so much, Kkollwitz. I inherited an interest in many things from my father who seemed to be able to discuss just about anything with intelligence. Miss him.
barb on June 2nd, 2010
4. 

   I wondered about them on other sites, too. I guess there are language limitations to posts.
barb on June 2nd, 2010
5. 

   I can post at my blog with Russian, Hebrew and Greek alphabets, but I don’t know if I can in the comment esction. The words above pasted into the comment window just fine, but didn’t post.

   Who can say.
kkollwitz on June 3rd, 2010
6. 

   This must be a problem for the geeks to solve. It’s way beyond my ken.
barb on June 3rd, 2010