Weaver 1 The Evolution of Polish Architecture from Renaissance to Neo- Classicism Damari Weaver DFN2113 (Cultures II) Professor Setiawan December 9, 2013
Weaver 2 When discussing architecture of the Renaissance, its fourteenth-century Italian origins are usually the initial topic of discussion. The expansive gardens of French châteaux and the Anglican Palace designs of England soon follow before concluding with the few German and Iberian examples, similar to those of Italy and France. This “rebirth” that graced the Western World allowed for much advancement in technology, art and scholarly thought. Upon reflection, it seems that this school of thought spread from Italy throughout, but only westward, making it no farther east than, well, Italy, but this actually isn’t true. There was one other non-western country that is oft overlooked, (or ignored entirely): Poland. The idea of Poland as a country as we know it today was not as clear-cut a few hundred years ago. Poland has changed shape as size more than most countries in Europe causing confusion amongst historians and historical cartographers alike, leaving only the triangle of Kraków, Warsaw and Poznań truly Polish. Poland has spent most of its existence depending on Germany, Italy, and the Low Countries for both ideas and architecture until about two hundred years ago. Whether Polish architecture has a distinct “Polish”flavor is almost impossible to answer and only causes more confusion. So much so, in fact, that many buildings in Poland are stylistic replicas of Italian, Flemmish, German and other European architectures; it brings up the question of if truly “Polish” architecture really exists, with Germany drawing up list of works of art that would be repatriated to the Reich and put in evidence of Germany’s cultural controldespite residing in current-day Poland.i For the sake of brevity and clarity, this essay will focus on would be considered truly “Polish” starting from the Polish Renaissance and ending at the beginning of the neoclassical era. The Polish Renaissance and Mannerist Periods Being a very distant country from Italy, a cultural origin, Poland was one of the last to receive the zeitgeist known as the “Renaissance.” Around the late 14thto early 15th centuries, the renaissance crept onto Kraków from northern Italy, spreading throughout the land. At this point, Poland was called the Polish-Lithuanian Union and was ruled by the Jagiellon dynasty. The country was at its richest then and spared no expense to import architects from Low Countries (northern France and western Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands) to develop Poland into the renaissance fantasy that Western Europe had been creating for the past one- hundred years. Similar to Italy, the Polish Renaissance is divided into three periods: The Italian
Weaver 3 Period, where many buildings were designed by Italian artists from Florence (1500-1550), The Diffusion Period, where renaissance architecture became common, though more influenced by
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