Sztuka w hołdzie bohaterom. Austriacko-węgierskie cmentarze wojenne z lat 1914–1918 w Galicji Zachodniej

• Authors: Paweł Pencakowski

Abstracts

EN

During the years 1914–1918, numerous war cemeteries were created in West Galicia for the seventy thousand soldiers who lost their lives there during the First World War. Many outstanding artists from various fields of art endeavoured to honour the fallen Austro-Hungarian defenders, their German allies as well as soldiers of the tsar’s army. The course of the war meant that before any specific actions were taken, there was time for reflection and discussion about what should be done and what the message ought to be. It was at this point that important artists, primarily subjects of the Habsburg Empire, as well as institutions such as the Austrian Werkbund and the C.K. Office for the Promotion of Crafts, presented their ideas. The bodies responsible for commemorating the victims of the Galician campaign took note of these. A planning and construction company with a sound structure and carefully selected personnel operated as part of the Kraków War Graves Department established at the end of 1915. Its military leadership was efficient, well-versed in art and architecture, and enjoyed the support of the authorities. Four hundred war cemeteries between Kraków and the valley of Wisłok were established over just four years. All received an artistic setting; some were original pieces of architecture. The achievements of the Kraków Faculty can be compared to projects from the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century, such as the creation of national exhibitions, large urban parks, railway buildings, transport and water infrastructure, or the erection of a network of national monuments to the unification in Germany. War cemeteries, embedded in their natural and cultural environment, combine architecture, sculpture and the applied arts. They represent a wealth of types and forms, as well as reflecting several of the stylistic movements of Western art found at the beginning of the 20th century. “Statistically”, twentieth-century classicism (“following the rules”) prevails. We can also identify post-secessionist historicism and the neo-Biedermeier. Particularly interesting are the “archaic” genre and projects of exploration of national art (based on the traditional wooden architecture and vernacular architecture of the German-speaking lands). We also note a few one-off cases of Byzantine inspired art. Our attention is drawn to the skilful use of ancient traditions of sacred, sepulchral, commemorative and monumental art. These works are highly professional and “academic” in flavour thanks to the education of their designers, and highlight the leading role of Viennese artistic circles and, more generally, the architecture of German-speaking lands. West Galician burial grounds are in keeping with the idea of a cemetery as crystallized during the Enlightenment and developed up to the early 20th century. This was based on respect for the dignity of every human being, and the reconciliation of enemy soldiers after death. A comprehensive vision was created, according to which cemeteries were to function as artistically presented meeting places between the living and the dead, as historical testimony to the Great War, as monuments of glory, as symbols of gratitude towards fallen defenders, and as evidence of the high culture of the state that created them. The symbolism here reveals itself at every level, starting with the selection, processing, and mixing of materials, the location of cemeteries, their layout, modes of style, the applied types of architecture, the decorative motifs, the shape and iconography of sculptures, tombstone signs and the monuments themselves. It is partly of a religious nature – mainly Christian – but ideologised and profiled in the spirit of the state. The art form and its impact are completed by professionally designed greenery and interpreted by the tombstone poetry. Part of the whole process of building cemeteries in West Galicia was the activities that promoted them. These included organizing national and international exhibitions and widely distributing reproductions of the art works.

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Rocznik Historii Sztuki
• Year: 2015
• Issue: 40
• Pages: 129-162

Dates

published

2015

Contributors

author

Paweł Pencakowski

Identifiers

Biblioteka Nauki

707014