THE FOURTH POLISH BARD
Stanisław Wyspiański 15 January 1869 – 28 November 1907.
He was a Polish playwright, poet and painter, as well as interior and furniture designer.
As a writer, he created a series of national dramas within the artistic philosophy of the Young Poland Movement.
“The Wesele” (The Wedding) lifted Wyspianski from a status of a quite successful artist into a national dramatist. The Wesele (The Wedding) drama described the contemporary situation of Poland under partition and showed a picture of its society. Worth noting is the fact that as the play it was staged in the Municipal Theatre of Kraków.
As a painter he created pastel drawings, oil-paintings, portraits and self-portraits, graphic art , illustration, designes of stained glass windows and paintings.
Together with his friend Józef Mehoffer, Wyspianski designed 36 stained glass windows for the Mariacki Church in Kraków and Wyspiański himself designed amazing stained glass windows and polychromes for the Franciscan Church in Kraków , known as the most colorful church in our city!
Projects of stained glass windows depicting, King Kazimierz the Great , Prince Henryk Pobożny and Saint Stanisław, Wyspiański created for the Wawel Cathedral but these were never placed there as being recognized too avant-garde as for those days , finally all the 3 appeared in their whole beauty in the Wyspiański 2000 Pavilion. (2005–2007)
Stanisław Wyspiański was one of the most prominent artists of his time in Poland and unofficially, he became the Fourth Polish Bard (in addition to the earlier Three Bards: Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki, and Zygmunt Krasiński).
I wish someday , when you come to Kraków, I will show you all of his works of art 🙂