Vienna and its works of art in the eyes of Polish travellers in the second half of the 17th and first half of the 18th century

The aim of this article is to present the evaluation of Vienna and its works of art made by Polish travellers in the second half of the 17th and first half of the 18th century. On the basis of the analysis of selected works of travel literature of that period, it was identified which monuments aroused the interest of the Polish travellers and for what reasons, how they were described, what they were compared to and whether they inspired reflection on art. The article uses mainly fragments of Polish travel literature from the second half of the 17th and first half of the 18th century that contain more extensive descriptions of works of art in Vienna. The research covered the accounts of the travellers who were amateurs in the field of art, with one exception – Jesuit architect Bartlomiej Nataniel Wasowski, the preceptor of Mikolaj and Zygmunt Grudzinski. The article uses mainly accounts from the stay in the capital of the Habsburg monarchy of young noblemen from Wielkopolska – Andrzej and Wojciech Radolinski, a group of Franciscan Reformanti: Symforian Arakielowicz, Stanislaw Kleczewski, Remigiusz Zawadzki and Father Michał Witoslawski. Other works have also been used, including the diary of Teodor Billewicz, a nobleman, who travelled to Italy and England in the years 1677–1678, accounts of Father Andrzej Olszowski’s mission to Vienna, memories of Krzysztof Stanisław Zawisza’s trip to Rome in connection with the celebration of the jubilee year of 1700, accounts of Tomasz Stanislaw Wolski, a nobleman from Uniejow, a Jerusalem pilgrim going on a journey in 1725 and the diary of Felicjan Junosza Piaskowski, the Podstoli of Podlasie, from 1690.