CATALOGUES OF ENGRAVINGS – ITALIAN ONES FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUM IN WROCŁAW AND FRENCH ONES FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUM IN SZCZECIN

At the turn of 2017 and 2018, with the date 2017 printed in the colophon, two catalogues of engravings’ collections were published: old Italian prints from the collection of the National Museum in Wrocław, and French prints from the National Museum in Szczecin. The collection of Wrocław contains groups of artworks by the best Italian engravers from the Renaissance to the 18th century, and a small representation of the 19th century. An introduction to the catalogue gives the history, the scope and the contents of the collection as well as the brief history of the engraving art on the Apennine Peninsula. The catalogue itself is glossed, giving references to the latest research, preceded by biographical notes of encyclopaedic character. This well illustrated and thoroughly edited catalogue, organised in a user-friendly alphabetical order, is a compendium useful not only for art historians. The catalogue published by the National Museum in Szczecin has the same title as the exhibition of French engravings from its collection. It is a combination of both the exhibition and the collection catalogue. Hence its specific layout corresponding rather with the narration of an exhibition than a catalogue’s criteria. Both the encyclopaedic profiles of artists and the following glosses are accompanied by selected bibliography; its full version together with extensive academic references can be found at the end of the volume. The collection of over 600 prints has been divided not in alphabetical or chronological order but in accordance with an academic hierarchy of subjects. Engravings for art reproduction purposes prevail in Szczecin collection although original works of famous artists are also included. The publication of both catalogues allows us to learn more about the engravings in Polish public collections, i.e. the ones of national museum in Szczecin and Wrocław. It also gives the history of Polish collections after 1945, affected by the previous losses of the World War II. Undoubtedly, the sign of the times and the presence of Poland in the united Europe is the publication of the Italian engravings’ collection from Wrocław, which was kept before in the Academy of Arts in Berlin. Great care has been taken to prepare both catalogues in terms of their typography, although the illustrations in the French engravings’ catalogue would be of more benefit if were somewhat larger.