Apteka jako alegoryczny obraz świata. XVII-wieczne malowidła z klasztoru pijarów w Rzeszowie

Abstract

The article is focused on 17. century ceiling paintings in the Piarist monastery pharmacy in Rzeszow. In that time the city itself and its surroundings had a pretty coherent and rich pharmaceutical tradition. From 16. century there was observable a rapid origin of pharmacies in Przemysl, Jaroslaw, Lancut, Biecz, Krosno, Przeworsk, Sanok and Rzeszow. Unfortunately, the first partition of Poland was followed by the collapse of pharmacies and the closedown of a large part of them. The next wave of the decline of pharmacies came by the end of 18. century together with the cancel of the Jesuits and other religious orders which used to lead pharmacies. At the same time very the supply of pharmaceutical personnel from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow started to decrease. The Piarist monastery pharmacy became a historical monument of Rzeszow and its fine art. What undoubtedly creates the beauty and magical mood of the pharmacy are exceptional paintings which cover the barrel-vault and its surroundings in the main hall. They were discovered when the monastery buildings was transformed for the museum in 1958-1962. The performer of that thematically rich polychrome created in 1688-1697 is a painter of the great talent, Wojciech Ziemecki (Limecki), who took the religious name of Luke. His Rzeszow paintings have already been analyzed and described by J. Swieboda, L. Czyz, D. Drag, T. Drupka and I. Ziewiec. However, the authoress claims that the quantity of themes and the specificity of approaches make that they need some fresh perspective which was not gained by former interpretations.