Dispute of priests

Dysputa kapłanów [Dispute of the Priests] depicts a scene placed in a tight painterly frame, showing the varied gestures of the stylised figures pictured in exquisite historical oriental robes. The abbreviated perspective makes the figures visible from a lowered viewpoint, highlighting the richness of the interior furnishings with an ornately decorated carpet in the foreground.

The small painting by Hadziewicz gives the impression of a monumental scene, shown in a sumptuous interior, rendered in warm colours shaping the full-figure images of the interlocutors. Only the central figure, shown in a blue robe, is looking ahead, silencing the dispute with a meaningful gesture of his hand. The dispute of priests is a painterly display of harmonising colours, shaping silhouettes of figures, and theatricalising gestures. At the same time, it reveals the artist's academic inspirations, as can be seen in the signature at the lower left edge of the representation: ‘'according to Bordone copied by R. Hadziewicz'.

In 1833, the artist went on a scholarship in Italy, taking inspiration from Renaissance painting, both by imitating the paintings of Raphael and by copying canvases of Venetians. The Disputation is a small fragment of Paris Bordone's rich representation illustrating a Venetian legend – a fisherman presenting a large ring received from St Mark. This large-format painting from the Gallerie dell'Accademia, which depicts a foundational myth for Venetian identity, has been reduced to depicting figures that are part of the iconographic tradition of the 'high priests' disputation' scene. Hadziewicz's small sketch became one of the variants of academic education consisting in the imitation of old masters – but also an opportunity to present the artist's skills, building the drama of the scene through various painting procedures. Soon, the artist returned to Kraków to apply for a professorship at the School of Drawing and Painting, but to no avail.

Marcin Lachowski