Czartoryski Museum

About

The Princes Czartoryski Museum (Polish: Muzeum Książąt Czartoryskich [muˈzɛ.um ˈkɕɔ̃ʐɔnt t͡ʂartɔˈrɨskʲix]) – often abbreviated to Czartoryski Museum – is a historic museum in Kraków, Poland, and one of the country's oldest museums. The initial collection was formed in 1796 in Puławy by Princess Izabela Czartoryska. The Museum officially opened in 1878. It is now a division of the National Museum in Kraków. The Puławy collection was partly destroyed after the November 1830 Uprising and the confiscation of the Czartoryski properties. Most of the Museum holdings, however, were saved and moved to Paris, where they reposed at the Hôtel Lambert. In 1870 Prince Władysław Czartoryski decided to move the collections to Kraków, where they arrived in 1876. The most renowned painting at the Museum is one of Leonardo da Vinci's best-known works, the Lady with an Ermine. Other highlights include two works by Rembrandt; several antiquities, including sculptures; Renaissance tapestries and decorative arts; and paintings by Hans Holbein the Younger, Jacob Jordaens, Luca Giordano, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Dieric Bouts, Joos van Cleve, Lorenzo Lotto, Lucas Cranach the Younger, Lorenzo Monaco, Andrea...

Princess Izabela Czartoryska founded the museum in Puławy to preserve Polish heritage in keeping with her motto, "The Past to the Future." The first objects in her "Temple of Memory" of 1796 were trophies commemorating the victory against the Turks at the Battle of Vienna in 1683.

The Museum collections feature historical artifacts from the recovered treasures of the Wawel Cathedral, the Royal Castle and other objects donated by Polish noble families ( szlachta ). Izabela also bought the treasures of the Duke of Brabant, including his books which were considered a particular highlight of the collection. Influenced by the Romantic artistic movement, she also acquired objects of sentimental significance that represented the glory and misery of human life. Among these were Shakespeare 's chair, fragments from the alleged graves of Romeo and Juliet in Verona, ashes of El Cid and Ximena from the Cathedral of Burgos, and relics of Abelard and Heloise, and Petrarch and his Laura. The library's book collection was later enhanced with Tadeusz Czacki 's collection, which included archives of Stanisław August Poniatowski, last king of Poland.

In 1798 Izabela's son, Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, traveled to Italy and acquired Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael 's Portrait of a Young Man, and many Roman antiquities. However, Prince Adam Jerzy was always more a politician than an art-collector. After the failed November Uprising in 1830 he was exiled from Congress Poland, then ruled by Russian Empire. He established himself in Paris, and in 1843 bought The Hotel Lambert, which became both the center of operations for the exiled Czartoryski magnate, and the Living Museum of Poland. All the objects from the first museum were displayed in Paris. Books collection scattered and for decades its parts were stored out of Russian partition : in Kórnik, Sieniawa and in Paris.

Upon Prince Adam Jerzy's death, his younger son, Prince Władysław, took over the museum. A born collector, he and his sister, Princess Izabela Działyńska, expanded the collection to include: the Polonaise carpet, Etruscan and Greek vases, Roman and Egyptian antiquities, and other types of arms and armours, as well as Limoges enamels. At the 1865 Exposition des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, Władysław created a Polish room to exhibit the famous carpet and other parts of his collection.

Carlo Crivelli, Saints Anthony and Lucia (c. 1470)

Leonardo da Vinci, Lady with an Ermine (1490)

Vincenzo Catena, Madonna and Child (1510)

Palma Vecchio, The Holy Family (c. 1514–1515)

Jan Mostaert, Portrait of a Courtier (c. 1520)

Joos van Cleve, Madonna and Child (c. 1525–1530)

Hans Holbein, Portrait of a Man (c. 1530)

François Clouet, So-called "Don Juan" (c. 1550)

Lucas Cranach the Younger, The Family of Sigismund I of Poland (1553-1555)

Jacob Jordaens, A Satyr Visiting a Peasant (c. 1620)

Rembrandt, Landscape with the Good Samaritan (1637)

Jan van Kessel, Landscape with a Waterfall and a Castle (c. 1663–1664)

Jan Matejko, Poland - The Year 1863 (1864)

In 1871, after the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Prince Władysław packed or hid all of the artifacts and fled. In 1874, the city of Kraków offered him the arsenal in the Old Wall as a museum, which he called upon Viollet-le-Duc to renovate, who in turn delegated the project to his son-in-law Maurice Ouradou. In 1878, one hundred years after Princess Izabela set up her museum in Puławy, the new museum, as it is seen today, was opened. Prince Wladyslaw continued to add items to the collection for the next twenty years, until his death in 1894.

Władysław's son, Prince Adam Ludwik, then carried on the work of his father. In 1897 he took over the Sieniawa Ordynacja property from the Emperor Franz-Joseph. At that point his capital assets were estimated at 4.5 million Austrian Crowns, not including the Collections. In 1899, Adam Ludwik's aunt Izabela bequeathed the Gołuchów Estate, with all the collections that she had bought with her beloved brother Władysław, to her two nephews, and Prince Adam Ludwik cared for both Museums.