Bakos Katalin - Manicka Anna szerk.: Párbeszéd fekete-fehérben, Lengyel és magyar grafika 1918–1939 (MNG, Warszawa–Budapest, 2009)

III. KATALÓGUS - 2. HAGYOMÁNYKERESÉS - - Könyvillusztráció

Dziad i baba [The Old Man and the Old Woman] by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, published in 1922 by L. Fiszer, with Edmund Bartlomiejczyk's illustrations, is an example of a bibliophilic book, primarily destined for children. It is, however, hard to imagine any parent wanting to place such a book in the hands of a child: published on handmade paper in two colours, olive and cream, hand-tied with a decorative string, with the text and illustrations printed from one block, as in the Middle Ages. Stefan Mrożewski was an artist who mainly did portfolio woodcuts, and the portfolios were collections of book illustrations. His distinguishing mark was using a multiple burin and an engraving needle, very rarely used in Poland in the interwar period. With an incredible consistency he stuck to a once developed style, based on the principle of a white trace against a black background. His engravings were poetically compared to Bruges lace on black velvet, to a transparent veil, or a mist - Mrożewski was in fact the author of pictures of the mist, clouds, rain etc. which were surprising in their virtuosity. In his illustration for Cervantes's Don Quixote, entitled Don Quixote Sets out on his Second Quest, dating from 1930, one can see a blurred reflection of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza on a stirred surface of water, their silhouettes being lit from behind by the first light of the rising sun, which dispels the morning mists. This is an example of an unrivalled technical mastery; it constitutes one of the greatest achievements of Polish and world woodcut. Mrożewski was an artist who - unlike his friends from the "Ryt" group - travelled a lot, he considered himself a citizen of the world, he was generally known abroad, mainly thanks to his illustrations for the masterpieces of world literature. Mrozewski's originality consisted, among other factors, in the fact that he was not totally faithful to the text, he created - as all great artistsillustrators, such as Salvador Dali - his own vision based on the motifs of the original text. The crowning achievement of Mrozewski's illustration work was Dante's Divine Comedy: 88 engravings divided according to the pattern into three parts, namely Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. This series was being created many years, the artist started working on it on the eve of the Second World War in 1938, during his stay in Italy, and continued cutting next plates in Poland, and then in the United States, until 1962. Because of such a long period of creation and of the character of the literary work itself, the individual parts differ between each other in atmosphere and means of expression. Hell is highly dynamic, strongly contrasted, with terrifying monsters and devils, with very expressive representations of the suffering sinners, Purgatory is rather melancholic, and Paradise is characterized by the redemptive presence of the divine light in various forms, e.g. a shimmering gleam, or dynamic, even explosive, flares. Books by Stanisław Ostoja-Chrostowski, who from 1932 devoted himself almost entirely to illustration, were particularly popular among bibliophiles in the interwar period. This was the peak moment of Chrostowski's technical capabilities, but sometimes his virtuosity in using the burin raises grounded concern, as it touches on empty virtuosity, resembles some kind of a mannered calligraphy. In fact, however, books illustrated by Chrostowski fulfilled their aim perfectly: one can easily see that the artist must have made sketches from nature, which he later decoratively styled. Józef Piłsudski in Siberia by Lepecki is an example of such a book, though incoherent because of various types of illustrations: there are original photographs and woodcuts, and the text itself was additionally embellished with initials and vignettes done by Chrostowski. The developed characteristic style of a given artist was generally clearly visible in book illustrations. It was of course an additional way of making the reader notice the illustrations to the text, an easily recognizable "sign" of the given artist. This was the case with Edward Manteuffel, an artist who engaged in facsimile woodcut and worked mainly in functional graphic art. Owing to this last speciality, Manteuffel's prints are charming and simple; one can also notice the author's tendency to use signs not based on prior observation of nature. A book by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz with Manteuffel's illustrations praises one of the most popular pre-war shops in Warsaw, namely Wedel's sweet shop. It appears almost in