EN
The author presents the issue in question upon the base of a number of examples taken both from literature on the subject and from the plastic arts. The overwhelming majority of depictions of this sort in Polish art from the period under discussion reveals an open or disguised Pomeranian theme. This is true both for literary works (such as Lilia Weneda by Juliusz Słowacki and Stara Baśń by Jozef Ignacy Kraszewski) and plastic works. The reason for this state of things is the fact that certain cultural phenomena useful for the construction of a „prehistorical” Polish tradition, such as the traditions of the pagan deity Swiatowit in Rugen or the supposed Slav runes which were to have appeared under the impact of Scandinavia, could be found only in the widely comprehended region of Pomerania. The „Pomeranian” atmosphere permeated also series of illustrations made at the turn of the 1870s by Michał Elwiro Andriolli to both of the above mentioned literary works. The theoretical reflections of Joachim Lelewel and J.I.Kraszewski on the statue of Swiatowit in Zbrucz and some of the graphic compositions by Marian Wawrzyniecki (1863-1943) which served as their plastic illustration, comprise an important element for the issue mentioned in the article. This „northern” atmosphere can be discovered in three successive graphic series on Slav ancient history by Stanisław Jakubowski (1885-1964) executed in the 1920s and 1930s; here, we find both „reconstructive” motifs of ancient Slav architecture as well as fantastic figures of Slav deities. This particular trend in Polish art ended with the second world war and there are no adequate post-war counterparts.