Zbiory sztuki Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego Jana Pawła II w świetle najnowszych ustaleń

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the history of the University Museum, which was created in 1932 with the donation of Canon Jan Władziński. It is based on preserved archives and iconographic sources and is especially focused on the description of the collection consisting of over 4 thousand objects, which was also supplemented in 1938 by Professor Kazimierz Michałowski’s gift as well as by the circumstances of the occupancy of the collection by the Gestapo which took place in December of 1939. Only four objects from this rich collection were found after World War II within the walls of the Catholic University of Lublin – a girl’s portrait by an anonymous artist, a sculpture of an old woman’s head and two candlesticks. A set of 343 coins deposited by the Germans in the Royal Castle in Cracow has also been found. In the face of the complete loss of the collection, the authorities of the Catholic University of Lublin have begun to reconstruct it. In 1956 there was the first donation consisting of 26 medieval and modern Silesian sculptures which included splendid works such as Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Jacob Beinhart’s workshop. In the same year, the state authorities sent a large set of altar sculptures for didactic purposes to the Catholic University of Lublin. However, the final shape of the collection was primarily formed by three private donations – by Olga and Tadeusz Litawińscy, Stanisława and Tadeusz Witkowscy, and Joanna Gliwa. Thanks to them, the Catholic University of Lublin has come into possession of outstanding examples of Polish painting of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century as well as a considerable collection of arts and crafts.