Livesong

Piotr Stachiewicz studied at the Academy of Fine Arts under Władysław Łuszczkiewicz and Florian Cynk. The former was, above all, a precursor of Polish historicism, inspired by Jan Matejko, while the latter, apart from historical paintings, also created numerous religious scenes and portraits. He developed his skills in Munich. Stachiewicz continued the themes taken up by his masters. Żyj, Pieśni [Live, the Song] is a painting from 1899 in the Szczecin collection since 1972. It is one of the works dealing with religious themes, which illustrates a fragment of the fairy tale Na Olimpie [On Olympus] by Henryk Sienkiewicz, telling the story of the destruction of ancient Olympus. It depicts the court of the apostles, Peter and Paul, over the Greek gods. The painting shows the court over Apollo - the patron of art and beauty. It was the background to the scene from Sienkiewicz's work when St Paul succumbed to Apollo's pleas to preserve beauty and music for people. The Apostle spoke the following words: Live, Songs. Then Apollo sat down with a formation at the Apostle's feet: the night became brighter the jasmines smelled more strongly, the springs rang merrily. The muses gathered like white swans and, trembling with fear, and he began to sing [...] (H. Sienkiewicz, Baśnie i legendy [Fairy Tales and Legends], Warsaw 1986, p. 98). The scene took place at night. The representation is realistic, the tonality very limited - dominated by black, grey and contrasting whites. A solemn mood is conveyed. It is emphasised, among others, by gestures of the figures shown - the muses sitting in a circle, who are gathered around people playing the lyre, and the blessing apostles standing above them, dressed in dark habits, with halos above their heads.

Beata Małgorzata Wolska