In 2018, the Polonica Institute was a partner of an exhibition organised by the National Museum in Krakow on the work of HansSuess von Kulmbach.

Hans Suess von Kulmbach is a respected painter, printmaker and illuminator working in the circle of Albrecht Dürer, who performed several commissions for Krakow. The exhibition has been arranged around the magnificent cycle of the Life of St. Catherine of Alexandria - elements of an altarpiece probably funded by the Boner family and intended for St. Mary's Basilica in Krakow.
In 2016, the conservation of this magnificent work of art was completed. During it, advanced research was carried out into Hans Suess's painting workshop, and the results are presented to the public in an interesting way. The whole is enriched with fragments of other works painted for Krakow by the artist: the remains of a Marian triptych in the Pauline Fathers' monastery on Skalka (Escape to Egypt) and in the Museum of the Czartoryski Princes (image of St. Catherine of Alexandria), as well as a setting illustrating the story of St. John the Evangelist (predella with the Descent into the Tomb of St. John the Evangelist, St. Mary's Basilica) and paintings by German artists commissioned for Krakow: Michael Lancz and Georg Pencz. Complementing the painting section with outstanding works by craftsmen from Nuremberg, the curators were able to highlight the close artistic and commercial ties between the two cities at the beginning of the 16th century, as well as to show the splendour of the capital of the Polish Kingdom during the reign of King Sigismund I the Old.
The exhibition is highlighted by two valuable Polonica: a sketch for the stained-glass window's quatrefoil The Martyrdom of the Philosophers from the series The Life of Saint Catherine of Alexandria from the Louvre collection, and The Martyrdom of Saint Stanislaus - a design for a stained-glass window's quatrefoil stored in the Kunsthalle in Bremen. This first and perhaps only opportunity to see these works in Poland was made possible by the financial support of the Instytut Polonika.

FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE EXHIBITION VENUES:
27.09.2018 - 27.01.2019 - Bishop Erazm Ciołek Palace - a branch of the National Museum in Krakow

EXHIBITION CREATORS:
The exhibition and catalogue were prepared by Mirosław Kruk, Marek Walczak, Aleksandra Hola, Łukasz Sarnat, Aleksandra Kłaput.