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The Arrases of Wawel, the Polish Royal Castle in Krakow

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The Arrases of Wawel, the Polish Royal Castle in Krakow Jerzy Holc, Andrzej Włochowicz* The Arrases of Wawel, the Polish Royal Castle in Krakow Wawel - Polisch Royal Castle Conservation Workshop of Historical Textiles Wawel, Kraków, Poland Abstract The unusual, but well-documented history of the unique tapestry collection of the ‘Arrases of *University of Bielsko-Biała Wawel’, the Polish kings’ castle in Krakow, is briefly presented and its cultural importance Faculty of Textile Engineering and Polymer Materials emphasised. The problems of maintaining, preserving and restoring historical textile fabrics Ul. Willowa 2, 403-39 Bielsko-Biała, Poland are mentioned, and the questions of biodeterioration, molecular and submolecular structure E-mail: [email protected] changes, de-colouration, and the appearance of stains are stressed. A further article, which will discuss these problems in detail, will be published in a subsequent issue of Fibres & Textiles in Eastern Europe. Key words: arras, tapestry, conservation, preservation, biodeterioration, micro-organisms, enzymes, structure changes, colour changes. n The history of the collection n 16 small arrases located over the entrances and above & below the The Wawel arrases1), which are also windows, as well as those intended to called the Jagiellonian arrases, form a cover chairs or pillows. compact and stylistically consistent col- lection of tapestries.2) Krakow’s arras The tapestries were manufactured in the collection is distinctive as regards its period from 1550 to 1560 in Brussels, uniformity of style, variety of series, and according to cartoons of famous Flemish abundance of motives, as well as its his- painters. The authorship of these car- torical substantiation, which is of greatest toons with figurative scenes is attributed importance. In the second half of the 16th to Michel Coxcien (1499-1592), known century, the Polish king Sigismund the II as the ‘Raphael of the North’, that of the Augustus (Zygmunt II August), the last verdure tapestries to an anonymous Ant- male descendent of the Jagiellonian dy- werp artist from the circle of P. Coecke nasty, bought 170 arrases for the interior van Aalst 1556), and that of the gro- decoration of royal castles and palaces; tesques and bordures to a Flemish artist 142 tapestries from this collection have from the circles of Cornelis Floris (1514- remained up to the present. The arras 1575) & Cornelis Bos (1506 or 1510- collection made up the majority of the 1556). The tapestries were woven in the furnishing of the Wawel castle,3) which Brussels weaving workshops of Pieter is well thought out as a complete decora- van Aelst the Younger, Willem and Jan tion of its rooms. At present, the arrases de Kempener, Jan van Tieghem, Nicolas FIBRE AND TEXTILE ART from this collection are the only original Leyniers, and other Flemish weavers, remains of the castle’s furnishings from who all worked to the orders of contem- the times of King Sigismund Augustus. porary emperors, kings, and popes. The collection of the Wawel arrases in The tapestries called arrases (so-called Krakow includes the following items after the town of Arras in France), had [1, 2]: already been imported to Poland by the n 19 monumental figurative arrases Polish king Sigismund I the Old (Zyg- with scenes inspired by the book of munt I Stary), the father of King Sigis- Genesis in three thematically series: mund Augustus, from the Flemish city of the ‘History of the first parents’, the Antwerp, among other locations. ‘History of Noah’, and the ‘History of construction of the Tower of Babel’. The first order of 16 artistic textiles was n 44 verdure tapestries with landscapes placed in Brussels by Sigismund II Au- and animal sceneries, unusually gustus in 1523, and was not accidental. unique tapestries which are not found The king précised not only the themes, among even the greatest world collec- but also the dimensions of the ordered tions. Different animals which live tapestries. The tapestries were to be ar- in their own worlds, full of abundant ranged in distinct thematic cycles, and vegetation, are presented against the shapes and dimensions were selected beautiful backgrounds. according to particular walls in the royal n 12 heraldry and monogram arrases with rooms. Some of them were unusually the coats of arms of Poland and Lithua- large, reaching 9m in width and 5m in nia (Figure 1), as well as the mono- height. All the tapestries were manufac- gram ‘S.A.’ (Sigismund Augustus). tured according to the king’s instruction. FIBRES & TEXTILES in Eastern Europe January / December 2005, Vol. 13, No. 6 (54) 85 The arrases did not decorate the rooms of ‘Tykocin treasure’. In 1573 the ‘Bible ferred to the ‘Palace of the Republic’ (the the royal castle all the time. After being arrases’ (19 items) and various smaller Krasiński palace) which is also located in delivered to the Wawel castle, the valu- arrases were lent to the Crown with Anna Warsaw. able tapestries were also occasionally Jagiellonka’s permission with the aim used to decorate various interiors during of decorating the Wawel castle for the In 1795, after the the Polish kingdom lost court and state ceremonies, including the coronation of Henry de Valois. Then, the its independence, the arrases were taken wedding ceremony of Sigismund Augus- Polish king (as of 1576) Stefan Bathory out of the country to Russia on the order tus and Catherine of Austria in 1553, the received the arrases himself, together of the Russian tsarina (empress) Cath- coronation of Henry de Valois as Polish with other treasures from the castle of erine II. From 1860 they decorated the king in 1574, the wedding ceremony of Tykocin, but after ten years he returned emperor’s palaces in the neighbourhood Sigismund III Vasa (Zygmunt III Waza) them to the Republic, according to the of St. Petersburg. Not until the end of the to Anne of Austria in 1592, the corona- will of Sigismund II Augustus [4,5]. First World War and the Polish-Soviet tion of Cecile Renate of Austria, the War, which Poland won, were the arrases wife of the Polish king Władysław IV In 1578 a series of 30 arrases, including returned over the years 1921 to 1926, on Vasa (Waza) in 1637, the wedding cer- the arrases of the ‘History of the first the basis of the treaty signed between Po- emony of King Michał Wiśniowiecki to parents’, together with the landscape, land and Soviet Russia in Riga in 1921. Eleonora of Habsburg in 1670, and the animal, and heraldic arrases, were sent coronation as king of Stanisław August to Stockholm for Catherine, Queen of The beautiful tapestries returned to their Poniatowski in 1764 [3]. Sweden. These tapestries also returned to primary destination, but did not decorate Poland after ten years, while Sigismund the rooms of the castle for very long. According to the decision taken by III, the son of Catherine, and the nephew In 1939, at the beginning of the Second King Sigismund II Augustus in 1571, of the last Jagellonian male descendant, World War, in justified fear that the Ger- as expressed in his will, the whole was elected as king of Poland. man invaders would steal the arrases, the collection of the arrases was to have tapestries were protected in special con- been inherited by his three sisters: Sigismund III regarded all the arrases tainersand removed, firstly to Romania. Sophia, Duchess of Brunswick, Queen and other tapestries as his private prop- As military action spread across Europe, Catherine of Sweden, and Anna (Anna erty, and in his will divided all these the arrases were taken to France, Eng- Jagiellonka), Queen of Poland (since items between his sons. Sigismund’s land, and finally to Canada. Since 1945 1575) and wife (since 1576) of Stefan collection was inherited by the Polish the Polish state made persistent efforts Bathory, the then King of Poland. How- king Władysław IV, and after his death to recover all the arrases, and at last they ever, the will included a very important in 1648, by his younger brother John returned to Poland on 16 January 1961. historical annotation, which was deci- Casimir (Jan Kazimierz), who was also One argument for the recovery of the ar- sive in the further history of the Wawel crowned king of Poland. rases – an argument which would be im- collection. In loose translation (origi- portant for Canada, who feared that the nally written in 16th-century Polish) The Wawel arrases became the object valuable tapestries would be taken by the the sentence is as follows: “And if, as of arguments during John Casimir’s Soviets – was the unprecedented legacy no one will be overlooked by death, all abdication session, which took place in in Sigismund II August’s will written in three of our sisters, their royal high- the lower chamber of the Polish parlia- the 16th century in which the king gave nesses, will nolonger be alive (although ment (the Sejm) in September 1668. The his “Flemish curtains with gold” to the I beg You, o Lord, to lengthen their outgoing king demanded a life pension, Polish nation. Since this moment, and lives) then all the legacy of the royal claiming that the arrases inherited from up to today, the Jagiellonian arrases have highnesses should be bequeathed to his ancestors were his property, whereas the Polish Crown and the Duchy of the members of parliament had their own again adorned the rooms of the Wawel Lithuania considered as one Republic4), different opinion, and proved that the ar- castle. but only for common use, and not for rases were the property of the ‘Republic individual use, and for common decora- of the Two Nations’ and must be returned n Maintenance, conservation, tion, as will be necessary and honest.” to the Crown.
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