Sculpture "Nicholas Copernicus"

Information

Inventory no

MNS 6694

Department

Department of contemporary folk and non-professional art

Technique

sculpture, height 13.5 cm.

Material

fired, painted, glazed clay

Copyright classification

Description

Author: Kunegunda Jeżowska, Muszyna – Złockie / 1908-1991/, performed in 1973

The great astronomer is depicted in a seated position, in clerical robes, holding a symbolic earth globe in his hands. The work was created for the national competition entitled "Nicolaus Copernicus in folk art", which was organized in 1973 by the Ethnographic Museum in Toruń on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the scientist's birth. The sculpture came to the District Museum in Nowy Sącz in 1973.

Kunegunda Jeżowska became interested in clay sculpture in the mid-1960s. As Antoni Kroh writes about her work in his book on Carpathian folk sculpture, "She creates small figures, which she fires in a pottery kiln with her own hands. Her favorite subjects include figurines of Galician Jews, highlanders, and rural women. Particularly successful are the types of Orthodox Jews remembered by the author from pre-war Muszyna.” K. Jeżowska participated in the Contemporary Carpathian Folk Sculpture competitions organized by the Nowy Sącz museum in 1972-1984. Several of her works from this period are in the museum's collection.

Zbigniew Wolanin