Saint Anthony with Child Jesus, woodcut on handmade paper, Poland, 18th/19th century.

Historical context

Polish folk woodcuts developed in parallel in several centers, of which the Plazovs on the Polish-Ruthenian borderland and the Carmelite workshop discovered after World War I are particularly often cited On the border of Samogitia and East Prussia. In 1921, a high-profile exhibition of old folk woodcuts was organized in Warsaw, a Zygmunt Lazarski published "Teka drzeworytów ludowych dawnych" (Teka of ancient folk woodcuts) (66 prints), which brought this branch of printmaking to the attention of the scholarly and collecting communities. These prints were distributed at indulgences and fairs -. itinerant offenders not only traded, but not infrequently reflected and colored the images themselves, using patrons or a brush "on the fly." Their technique was simple (hand-printing on damp paper, without a press), and the range of colors - bright and sparing, subordinated to the decorative and devotional function. Over time, woodcuts supplanted lithographs, chromolithographs and oleo-prints, but in the 19th century they still remained the "cheapest and closest" form of domestic devotional art. This context is brilliantly drawn by Jan St. Bystron's study, summarizing the state of research at the time (Witkiewicz, Sokolowski, Kieszkowski) and describing the practices of workshops, circulation and coloring of prints.

It is worth pointing out Mariampol (near Lezajsk) as a local point of indulgence circulation in southeastern Poland. It was in this pilgrimage-fair circle that small, practical sheet formats of Frontal monumentalized figure of the saint, with strong black outline, intense red in the parts of the robes and bordering with leafy motifs. Used handmade paper, and colors were applied with a stencil (patron) or brush by hand, which explains the differences in saturation and course of stains between different prints.