Renaissance in Poland
Ruled by the Jagiellonian dynasty, the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (from 1569 part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) actively participated in the broad European Renaissance.
The multinational Polish state experienced a period of cultural growth thanks in part to a century without major wars, aside from conflicts in the sparsely-populated eastern and southern borderlands.
The Reformation spread peacefully throughout the country (giving rise to the Polish Brethren), and living conditions improved, cities grew, and exports of agricultural products enriched the population, especially the nobility (szlachta), who gained dominance in the new political system of Golden Liberty.
Many Italian artists arrived in the country welcomed by Polish royalty, including Francesco Fiorentino, Bartolomeo Berecci, Santi Gucci, Mateo Gucci, Bernardo Morando, Giovanni Battista di Quadro and others, including thinkers and educators such as Filip Callimachus, merchants such as the Boner family and the Montelupi family,[1] and other prominent personalities who immigrated to Poland since the late 15th century in search of new opportunities.
Among them were Nicolaus Copernicus who in his De revolutionibus orbium coelestium presented the heliocentric theory of the universe, Maciej of Miechów, author of Tractatus de duabus Sarmatis... – the most accurate up to date geographical and ethnographical account of Eastern Europe; Bernard Wapowski, a cartographer whose maps of that region appeared in Ptolemy's Geography; Marcin Kromer who in his De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum libri... described both the history and geography of Poland; Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski, a philosopher concerned with governance; Mikołaj Rej who has popularized the use of Polish in poetry; and Jan Kochanowski, whose poems in Polish elevated him to the ranks of the most prominent Polish poets.
[2] Polish thinkers, like Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski, Johannes Dantiscus or Jan Łaski maintained contacts with leading European philosophers of the Renaissance, such as Thomas More, Erasmus and Philip Melanchthon.
[2][5] For example, printing process, Latin and art with the syllabic versification in poetry,[2][6][7] especially in Belarus and Ukraine (through Kyiv-Mohyla Academy),[8] from where it was transmitted to Russia (Duchy of Moscow),[2] which began to increase its ties with western Europe in the aftermath of the Mongol invasion of Rus.
[2] The most significant works of the Renaissance in Poland include compositions, usually for lute and organs, both vocal and instrumental, from dances, through polyphonic music, to religious oratorios and masses.
[2] Among the most prominent Polish Renaissance writers and artists, whose accomplishments have become a salient part of Polish curriculum are poets Mikołaj Rej, Jan Kochanowski, Szymon Szymonowic, Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński, Andrzej Krzycki and Johannes Dantiscus, writer Łukasz Górnicki, composer Wacław z Szamotuł, composer and singer Mikołaj Gomółka, sculptor Jan Michałowicz z Urzędowa [pl] and painters Stanisław Samostrzelnik and Marcin Kober.
The artists and architects who settled into Poland and had achieved considerable recognition for their work in the country are: Hans Dürer, Hans (Süss) von Kulmbach, Mateo Gucci, Santi Gucci, Bartolomeo Berecci, Bernardo Morando, Giovanni Battista di Quadro and others.
The nobility, however, cared about more than just religious themes, and the works of Polish renaissance reflected their material and spiritual values (see sarmatism).
[3] Scientific scholars of the period include Jan Łaski (John Lasco),[12] evangelical reformer, Maciej of Miechów (Maciej Miechowita),[13] writer and university teacher, Nicolaus Copernicus, astronomer known in Polish as Mikołaj Kopernik, Wawrzyniec Grzymała Goślicki (Laurentius Grimaldius Gosliscius), political thinker and philosopher; Marcin Kromer, writer and geographer; Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski, writer and philosopher; Piotr Skarga, Jesuit political reformer; Józef Struś, doctor, scientist, mayor of Poznań; and many others.
In the northern part of the country, especially in Pomerania and in Danzig (Gdańsk), there worked a large group of Dutch-born artists.
Architecture of this period is divided into three regional substyles: "Italian" – mostly in the southern part of Poland, with the most famous artist there being Santi Gucci, the "Dutch" – mostly in Pomerania, and the "Kalisz–Lublin style" (Polish: styl kalisko-lubelski) (or the "Lublin Renaissance") in central Poland – with most notable examples built in Kalisz, Lublin, and Kazimierz Dolny.
The most important example of the ascending Mannerist architecture in Poland is a complex of houses in Kazimierz Dolny and in Zamość.
