El Greco, The Ecstasy of St. Francis of Assisi from the collection of the Diocesan Museum in Siedlce
Exhibition of the picture in the Royal Castle in Warsaw:
El Greco, The Ecstasy of St. Francis of Assisi
from the collection of the Diocesan Museum in Siedlce
Sept. 16th – Nov. 2nd 2014
The Room in the Justice Court Tower
The painting The Ecstasy of St. Francis of Assisi in the Diocesan Museum in Siedlce is one of the most valuable works of European Early Modern Art to be found in museum collections in Poland.
The work is dated to circa 1575–80. We do not know its history immediately after it was painted or the names of the people who were its subsequent owners. Nor do we know when and under what circumstances the painting was brought to Poland – to date various speculations have been put forward. The painting was discovered in 1964 during the inventory of works of art for the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences which was undertaken by Izabella Galicka and Hanna Sygietyńska. While recording works in the parish of Kosów Lacki, the scholars noticed a painting depicting St. Francis in the parish priest’s apartments. It looked different than it does now—the canvas had become very darkened by dirt, and there was no visible signature; however, it aroused enough interest that in the following years it was decided to do some in-depth research into the painting and carry out a comparative analysis. During conservation work a beautiful composition emerged from beneath the darkened layers of paint, and moreover, the partially preserved signature of the artist: Domenikos Theotokopoulos, written in the Greek alphabet.
Admission to the exhibition, based on the admission ticket to the The Lanckoroński Collection.
Exhibition is open:
September 16 th – 30th : Monday to Saturday: 10.00 am - 18.00 pm, on Sunday: 11.00 - 18.00
October 1st - 31st: Tuesday to Saturday: 10.00 am - 16.00 pm, on Sunday: 11.00 - 16.00
Mondays – exhibiton is closed