L’artista e i “luoghi della memoria”. Padova nelle illustrazioni di Aleksander Gierymski pubblicate sulla stampa
Artist and “Sites of Memory”: Padua in Press Illustrations by Aleksander Gierymski

Summary/Abstract: In the article, four illustrations by Aleksander Gierymski are described. These illustrations were completed for the illustrated press during Gierymski’s sojourn in Italy from 1885 to 1886. These illustrations were typical of the “Polish traces in Italy,” relating to Padua in this case, and were published in the magazines "Wędrowiec" and "Kłosy". These illustrations show the tombs of exceptional Poles who were buried in Padua; commemorative plaques dedicated to them (in honour of Copernicus); or the monuments of Prato della Valle (Sobieski and Batory). However, in the article, based on the illustrations and the accompanying texts, and based on the artist’s correspondences (with the likes of Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Michał Wiszniewski, Stanisław Dunin-Borkowski, and Władysław Bełza) and his diaries relating his time in Italy, the following issues, amongst others, will be addressed: Gierymski’s work method; the discourse (including the visual discourse) of “Polish traces in Italy” in Padua; Gierymski’s illustrations as an interpretation of the Polish "lieux de mémoire" in Italy. The article encourages an adoption, in the future, of a wider perspective that includes the illustrations of the “Polish traces in Italy” of other Polish artists from that period.

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