Ribald Man with a cranky look. The Sarmatian portrait as the pop-cultural symbol of the Baroque in Poland

Abstract

This article analyses how it was that the Sarmatian portrait, a phenomenon typical of Polish Baroque art in the twentieth century, came to be a symbol of Polishness, and to what extent this pop-cultural vision of the ‘Polish Baroque’ was formed by contemporary art historiography. Looking at exhibition catalogues and works published on Baroque art and the Baroque portrait, it explores the origins of the popularity of the Sarmatian Portrait in Cold-War Poland. Despite its direct connection to the ideologically problematic history of the Polish ruling class – the szlachta or gentry – there were many retrospective exhibitions on Polish Baroque portrait art held during the time of the People’s Republic. Due to their supposed realism they were regarded as the emanation of a timeless Polish spirit, and were often juxtaposed to western European portraits of the same period, which were described in negative terms as artificially idealistic and excessively courtly.

Keywords

• the Sarmatian portrait
• the Cold War Era
• culture of memory
• Polish Baroque art exhibitions
• historiography of art history
• pop-cultural art histories
• national paradigms