Unimplemented design for the polychrome for the Academic Church of the Catholic University of Lublin. View of the northern wall of the nave from the presbytery

An important part of Jerzy Nowosielski's work are his polychrome paintings in Orthodox, Greek and Roman Catholic churches, an expression of the coexistence of Eastern and Western culture, icon painting and abstract art. In the early 1960s, the artist received a proposal to create a polychrome in the academic church of the Catholic University of Lublin. Unfortunately, the project he created was rejected, and the partially preserved design sketches are the only evidence of the artist's conception. The iconographic programme of the paintings assumed, according to the traditional Byzantine division of space, the distinction between the sanctuary (the chancel with the apse) and the nave. In the iconography of the presbytery the Eucharistic, epiphanic and eschatological themes intermingle. The nave decoration is dominated by evangelical (Marian and Christological scenes) and hagiographical themes. In view of the church's invocation of the Holy Cross, the artist also included scenes from the Stations of the Cross in the wall paintings. As in the case of other churches, Nowosielski prepared several versions of the polychrome, differing in both the iconographic programme and colours. One version of the decoration of the northern wall of the nave envisaged the arrangement of scenes with an extended hagiographic motif. The artist created two colour variants of the painting recalling images of saints and prophets, which also differ in composition.

The version, more detailed, uses a light colour palette. The geometry of the divisions of the walls into quarters is not as rigorous as in the case of the design using dark colours (R/7398/ML). In the quarters the artist placed the figures of saints in various views - in full figures, busts, framing medallions holding banderole. In the paintings of the niches there are also biblical scenes in interiors or landscape, which according to K. Czerni can be regarded as Połów ryb na jeziorze Genezaret [Fishing on the Lake of Gennesaret], Spotkanie Chrystusa z Samarytanką [Christ's Meeting with Samaritan], Emaus [Emmaus] (Nowosielski - sztuka sakralna. Podlasie, Warmia and Mazury [Nowosielski - Sacred Art. Podlasie, Warmia and Masuria], Lublin-Bialystok 2019, p. 283).