Unimplemented design for the polychrome for the Academic Church of the Catholic University of Lublin. View of the south-western side of the nave

Polychromies in Orthodox, Greek and Roman Catholic temples are an important part of Jerzy Nowosielski's work, being an expression of coexistence and interpenetration 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. As in the case of other monumental painting projects, Nowosielski treated it as a kind of an ecumenical sermon, the aim of which was to show the unity of worship. According to the artist's letter to A. Grzegorczyk, he created for Lublin "an uncompromising project" with a clear iconographic message, the realization of which was particularly important to him. Unfortunately, Nowosielski's vision was rejected, and the artist's idea is illustrated only by a set of preserved design sketches, nine of which were purchased by the National Museum in Lublin thanks to a grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Nowosielski worked out not only the overall concept of the painting decoration, but also the furnishing of the temple, including the form of the main altar. The design of the polychrome, consistent with the traditional programme of Byzantine churches, assumed a zonal composition of framed scenes filling the interior. As in the case of the paintings of other temples, Nowosielski prepared several versions of the polychrome for the Holy Cross Church, differing in both the iconographic programme and colours.

The project of the main nave wall decoration foresaw the Stations of the Cross scenes. Nowosielski called the iconography of the Way of the Cross present in the tradition of the Western painting "a cruel, sadistic cartoon". In his Passion scenes, he avoided naturalism, departing from narration and emotional tension in favour of balanced, synthetic compositions "[...] to make it sad, or even quite gloomy, but without that emotional scream, which I feel as something indecent in such matters". Divided figural scenes depicting Christ carrying the cross coexist with portraits of saints and geometric forms. Nowosielski also created a second variant of nave decoration, replacing the Stations of the Cross with iconography devoted to the life of Mary.

Anna Hałata