CATALOGUES OF ENGRAVINGS – ITALIAN ONES FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUM IN WROCŁAW AND FRENCH ONES FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUM IN SZCZECIN

At the turn of 2017 and 2018, with the date2017 printed in the colophon, two catalogues of engravings’collections were published: old Italian prints from thecollection of the National Museum in Wrocław, and Frenchprints from the National Museum in Szczecin.The collection of Wrocław contains groups of artworksby the best Italian engravers from the Renaissance to the18th century, and a small representation of the 19th century.An introduction to the catalogue gives the history,the scope and the contents of the collection as well asthe brief history of the engraving art on the ApenninePeninsula. The catalogue itself is glossed, giving referencesto the latest research, preceded by biographicalnotes of encyclopaedic character. This well illustrated andthoroughly edited catalogue, organised in a user-friendlyalphabetical order, is a compendium useful not only forart historians.The catalogue published by the National Museum inSzczecin has the same title as the exhibition of French engravingsfrom its collection. It is a combination of both theexhibition and the collection catalogue. Hence its specificlayout corresponding rather with the narration of an exhibitionthan a catalogue’s criteria. Both the encyclopaedicprofiles of artists and the following glosses are accompaniedby selected bibliography; its full version together withextensive academic references can be found at the end ofthe volume. The collection of over 600 prints has been dividednot in alphabetical or chronological order but in accordancewith an academic hierarchy of subjects. Engravingsfor art reproduction purposes prevail in Szczecin collection although original works of famous artists are also included.The publication of both catalogues allows us to learn moreabout the engravings in Polish public collections, i.e. theones of national museum in Szczecin and Wrocław. It alsogives the history of Polish collections after 1945, affectedby the previous losses of the World War II. Undoubtedly, thesign of the times and the presence of Poland in the unitedEurope is the publication of the Italian engravings’ collectionfrom Wrocław, which was kept before in the Academyof Arts in Berlin. Great care has been taken to prepare bothcatalogues in terms of their typography, although the illustrationsin the French engravings’ catalogue would be ofmore benefit if were somewhat larger.