Jordan holiday

Teodor Axentowicz (1859-1938) is one of the outstanding artists of Young Poland. He was a professor and rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and co-founder of the Association of Polish Artists "Art". His artistic activity was focused around genre motifs related mainly to the folklore of the Hutsul Region and portrait painting.

Folk themes appeared in Axentowicz's works during his studies in Munich in the 80s, he continued them in Paris, in the atelier of E. A. Carolus-Duran, using plein-air sketches made during his trips to the Hutsul Region, near Kołomyja and Jamna. The earliest paintings referring to the Hutsul culture, folk customs and rituals include: Pogrzeb huculski [Hutsul Funeral], Kołomyjka and Święto Jordanu [Feast of the Jordan], which the artist also drew on many times after his return to Poland, painting them in various techniques and compositional variants. The Feast of the Jordan, also called the Epiphany (Theophany, Epiphany), is one of the twelve most important Orthodox and Greek Catholic feasts. It was celebrated in the Eastern Church on 9 January as a commemoration of Christ's baptism in the Jordan River. The solemn water consecration ceremony was preceded by a service in an Orthodox church and a procession with flags and lighted candles. The water, consecrated by dipping it three times into the gap of the cross, was taken home in jugs, believing it to have healing power and protection from evil forces.

The watercolour version of Święto Jordanu in Lublin (ca. 1910) reflects the solemnity of the religious ritual and is also a pretext for interesting compositional solutions - photographic framing, elevation of the horizon line and diagonal arrangement of figures. The winter landscape made it possible to search for colours, discover the qualities of white contrasted with dark peasant costumes on the snow and stronger accents of colourful scarves and flags, which constituted the colour dominants of the composition.

Anna Hałata