Unfulfilled dreams of Jan Bołoz Antoniewicz

Abstract

The paper is devoted to a recollection of biography and research achievements of the first professor of art history at Lviv University – Jan Bołoz Antoniewicz (1858–1922). An ethnic Armenian, he dedicated about thirty years of his scholarly career to the development of the Department of Art History that he headed. Antoniewicz wrote many texts and instructed students at lectures, field trips and study visits abroad, while simultaneously drawing up catalogues of monuments of art and architecture, and gathering a large collection of visual resources concerning artworks. A scholar of outstanding erudition, he founded the “Lviv art history school”, which continued to function after the passing away of Antoniewicz. The group of Professor’s disciples included such well-known figures in Polish art history as Zygmunt Batowski, Władysław Kozicki, Władysław Podlacha, Jan Wilusz, Władysław Bachowski, and Józef Piotrowski. The present article pays particular attention to the last years of his life, when due to illness and advancing age he strove to complete his endeavours before retiring. A special place among the works he undertook then must be awarded to the Renaissance Trilogy that intended to show the general development of art throughout several centuries; unfortunately it remained unfinished due to Antoniewicz’s premature death. The issues raised by the Professor and ideas forwarded in his writings are relevant and valuable to this day.