Swashbuckling Splendours at the Czartoryski Museum

Few museums have been so tossed by the storms as the Czartoryski, and of those that were subjected to similar disasters, few have managed to emerge as unscathed. Since its budding days in the last years of the eighteenth century, when Poland was itself being erased from the map of Europe, the museum has been spirited into hiding on several occasions. (The last invasion of Poland, which was led by the Nazi's in 1939, did, nevertheless, give rise to the museum's single greatest loss, that of Raphael's Portrait of a Young Man, which was cherry-picked by Governor Hans Frank for his private apartments, along with the Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine - the Da Vinci, however, was recovered in 1945).

With such a history, the very survival of the museum is a cause for celebration, whilst the breadth of its collection remains a constant source of surprise and delight. The Czartoryski is unfailing in its ability to draw unexpected gems from the depths of its archives, and such is the case with its current show in the museum's northern wing on Pijarska Street.

This Spring's show presents a clutch of sixteenth and seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish prints and drawings, the majority of which have never been exhibited before. Whilst a number of enchanting landscapes and figural drawings have been included, a large portion of the exhibition comprises of works that are related to Poland itself. Thus one finds a smattering of portraits of moustachioed seventeenth century magnates in Roman styled breastplates, (and some truly fantastic haircuts) and a host of patriotic prints relating to the chivalrous reign of Poland's most heroic monarch, King Jan Sobieski (r.1674-96).

The exploits of the warrior king Sobieski, whose greatest moment came in 1683 with the Relief of Vienna (an event that turned the tide of the Ottoman threat to Europe), were as cherished by the Poles as the Duke of Wellington's victories over Napoleon were by the British.

Thus one finds here a gaggle of spirited scenes of the battles of Vienna, Chocim and Trembowle, in which the noble, god-abiding Poles put paid to the dastardly Turk. The prints are not without a certain dash of humour, and many of the characters border on caricature - it's gung ho all the way.

Also included in the exhibition are a number of beguiling oddities such as the 'The Miraculous Salvation of Stanislas Potocki', which recounts the survival of a well-known Polish gentleman from a shipwreck, (someone had accidentally lit a keg of gunpowder whilst the boat was sailing and the whole thing promptly blew to smithereens).

All in all, this charming collection provides an interesting view of the tastes of Polish noblemen, and the quality of the engravings themselves is superlative. Commissioning the creme de la creme of Europe's artists was not a problem for Poland's leading magnatial dynasties during that period - the families at the top of the tree included some of the richest men on the continent. Certainly, for those who are keen on the arts, or those who are curious about Polish history, it's well worth heading down to the Czartoryski Museum, both for this and the permanent collection.