Unimplemented design for the polychrome for the Academic Church of the Catholic University of Lublin. Sketch of interior design

An important part of Jerzy Nowosielski's work are his polychrome paintings in Orthodox, Greek and Roman Catholic churches, which testify to the 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 painting 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 Andrzej Grzegorczyk, for Lublin he created "a completely uncompromising project" with a clear iconographic message, the realisation of which he was particularly keen on. Unfortunately, Nowosielski's vision was rejected, and the artist's idea is represented only by a set of design sketches, nine of which were bought by the National Museum in Lublin thanks to a grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. In these sketches, Nowosielski worked out not only the overall concept of the painting decoration, but also the furnishing of the church, including the main altar. The project of polychromy, according to 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 the iconographic programme and colours.

Among the design drawings there is a sketch with a projection of precisely drawn, alternately arranged fields, which were to be filled with painting decoration. The artist's vision also included an idea of the chancel's decoration with quite detailed designs for the altar. One of them assumes the presence of an elaborate altarpiece with a rectangular body and a pair of closed wings. Probably the central part of the altarpiece was designed for the representation of Christ Pantocrator (Omnipotent) in the type of Salvator Mundi (Saviour of the World) with a royal apple or a globe in his hand. The too general nature of the sketch makes it impossible to reconstruct the iconographic programme of the scenes in the individual quarters of the wings (they were divided into two or three fields, depending on the design version).

Anna Hałata