Fan

The cover of the folded, pleated fan (never attached to the ribs of the frame) is made of white, kid leather decorated with gouache. The decoration is a centrally placed oval view of the ruins of the Colosseum with staffage, framed in narrow linear yellow and black frames and with a cream-brown arabesque on a brown background in the corners. The central view is surrounded by two similar compositions consisting of three stripes: the middle one is wider with a view of the ruins of an unidentified building in the tondo, and two narrower stripes at the top and bottom with grotesque decorations. Views in tondos in black linear, narrow frames are surrounded by multi-coloured grotesques on a cream background in narrow orange linear frames and wider malachite with aquamarine leaves in the corners with orange rosettes on cream rectangles. The two narrower upper and lower stripes are filled with a salmon-pink arabesque on a dark sapphire background, with narrow orange lines at the top and bottom. All three compositions are enclosed in a narrow linear frame, in orange.

The described fan cover belongs to the collection of 16 fan covers purchased by the Museum-Zamek in Łańcut; 11 of them, including the ones described, form a cycle decorated with ruins of ancient buildings painted by the same painter.

 dr Aldona Cholewianka - Kruszyńska