Polish Arts & Music
A tour through the traditional arts and music of Poland.
Poland’s artistic history begins with its history as a national identity. As the young kingdom embraced Roman Catholicism, it came into contact with the artistic traditions of the Christian world. European art in the Middle Ages focused on political and religious themes. Illuminated manuscripts depicted biblical scenes and major battles. Musicians composed hymns and chants to glorify God and the saints. Folk music, perhaps passed down from older West Slavic customs, is poorly documented. It is likely, however, that peasants kept alive their own genres of folk songs and dances, which varied by region. The ligawka, a very long wooden horn, was originally used by medieval cattle tenders. A number of stringed instruments, later mostly replaced by the fiddle, were played as well.
After a long period of warfare and in-fighting, Poland flourished during the Renaissance. During this period, it both gave and took from the broader developments in European arts and sciences. The kingdom and later commonwealth’s noble democracy made it more open to foreign ideas than many of its neighbors. Artists and musicians began exploring secular subjects alongside religion and politics. Poland drew particular influence from Italian culture, the heart of the Renaissance. It sent students and artists to Italian schools as well as founding its own. Rulers invited master scholars, artists, architects, merchants, musicians, and dancers to Krakow. Meanwhile, peasant folk music became more defined. This included their most well known dance, the mazurka.
By the early 19th century, Poland’s artists had absorbed European customs and made them their own. Romanticism marked another high point in the culture’s artistic history. It came at a time when Poland had been carved up by other nations. Polish artists explored nationalist themes to keep their culture in living memory. Frederic Chopin, Poland’s most famous composer, played his own take on the mazurka in Parisian salons. Painters like Jan Matejko, Henryk Rodakowski, Artur Grottger, and Piotr Michałowski depicted its history and folk life. Poland also saw a literary revival, especially in the fields of poetry and drama. Notable poets include Adam Mickiewicz, Bolesław Leśmian, Antoni Lange, and Czesław Miłosz.
Polish artistic traditions were then shaped by the dramatic events of the 20th century. The devastation of World War II led directly into an era of communist rule. The communist government encouraged socialist realist art. Greater creative expression came in the second half of the century. After the nation regained its status as a free republic in 1989, a new boom in artistic expression has emerged. Many Polish artists now use their media to reflect on past traumas and the future of Polish identity. Like most other developed nations, its music scene has diversified to range from traditional folk genres to pop, punk, rap, rock, techno and more.
References
Biskupski, Mieczysław B. The History of Poland. Greenwood Press. 2000.
Cavanaugh, Jan. Out Looking In: Early Modern Polish Art. University of California Press. 2000.
Dyczewski, Leon, ed. Values in the Polish Cultural Tradition. The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy. 2002.
Facca, Danilo and Valentina Lepri, eds. Polish Culture in the Renaissance. Firenze University Press. 2013.
Hertz, Aleksander. The Jews in Polish Culture. Northwestern University Press. 1988.
Lukowski, Jerzy and Hubert Zawadzki. A Concise History of Poland. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press. 2006.
“The World Factbook: Poland.” Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 20 June 2018, www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pl.html.
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