Janowiec

Adam Malinowski was a valued stage decorator, and he managed studios of Warsaw Government Theatres. He also practised easel painting. He created outstanding landscape works distinguished by their artistic mastery and workshop proficiency. The principal value of Malinowski's landscapes was his ability to capture the characteristic expression of Polish nature. Their only flaw was seen in the author's excessive attention to detail. The group of favourite motifs included rural settings, studies of forest landscapes, views of mills and picturesque ruins.

The painting Janowiec nad Wisłą [Janowiec on the Vistula River] shows a small town situated in the Vistula River basin, in the vicinity of Kazimierz Dolny and Puławy. The place is one of the most important monuments of the Lublin region. The castle in Janowiec has a history of over five hundred years. The history of this once impressive seat, furnished according to the best European designs, was connected with the leading magnate families of the Republic of Poland, including the Firlej, Tarło and Lubomirski families. Eminent architects Santi Gucci and Tylman of Gameren worked on its construction. Important meetings with Sigismund the Old, Bona Sforza and Sigismund III Vasa took place here. Jan Kochanowski was a frequent guest here. After the middle of the 18th century, the castle lost its importance, and in the 19th century it turned into a ruin.

The painter depicted a landscape from a great distance, seen from the other bank of the river. He used an unusual albeit common technique in landscape painting since the 18th century –he gave the painting an oval shape by painting a ‘frame’ on the rectangular canvas. It gives the impression of observing the landscape through an interior window.

The foreground is occupied by a sheet of swiftly flowing water shaded by tall trees, under which a wooden bridge is hidden. A vast meadow occupies the farther area, up to the settlement's border. It gently turns into a mountain slope, up to the peak that meets the sky. The peak is crowned with a massive building – a castle with high walls, bastions and towers. At the foot of the hill are village buildings in the valley: a small Gothic-Renaissance church with a red roof and similar small houses. Here and there, one can see silhouettes of people near the bridge, the well-crane, and the leaning figure of the cross.

Bożena Kasperowicz