Michał Paszyn’s Roman projects

“I was born in Warsaw on 19 November 1903. I lived with my parents from 1905 to 1914, that is, until the outbreak of the war in Częstochowa. Six months earlier, I had started the first year of secondary school, and when the war broke out, I left with my parents for Poltava. In Poltava, I was admitted to the first year of the local state secondary school, where I completed the fifth year. In 1919, when it had become impossible to endure Bolshevism any longer, my mother and the three of us children were forced to leave for Turkey, where we lived on the Princes’ Islands for half a year. At the end of 1920, we returned to Poland. Here, after passing my entrance exams, I joined the 7th year of a Russian secondary school in Warsaw, where I remained a pupil until the summer holidays of this year.”

This was the biographical account presented by Michał Paszyn in 1922 when applying for admission to the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw. There, Paszyn honed his artistic talent under the guidance of Tadeusz Breyer and Wojciech Jastrzębowski. On 30 June 1929, he received his diploma, specialising in sculpture. In the same year, he joined the “Forma” Sculptors’ Cooperative, which brought together graduates and professors of sculpture from the Warsaw School of Fine Arts.

After completing his studies, Paszyn began travelling through France, Italy and Germany to further his artistic education. In one of the certificates issued by the then director of the Academy of Fine Arts, Władysław Skoczylas, we read:

“The School’s management recommends Mr Michał Paszyn as a talented sculptor and requests that every assistance be given to his artistic work.”

On his return, in 1931–1932, he exhibited his works at the Zachęta and the Institute for the Promotion of Art in Warsaw.

In 1933, the artist returned to Italy, this time to settle there permanently. He trained and honed his craft in numerous Italian studios, including that of the sculptor Giovanni Ardini, under whom he familiarised himself “with the oldest traditions of marble and stone sculpture”. In 1934, Paszyn and Michał Kułak organised an exhibition of their sketches and drawings entitled ‘Bozzetti e studi architettonici’, which they had produced during a joint journey through Umbria, Tuscany and Lazio. The exhibition took place at the ‘Roma’ club and was held under the patronage of the Polish Ambassador to Rome, Alfred Wysocki.

In 1935, he won first prize in a competition organised by the Adam Mickiewicz Society for his design of a bust of Józef Piłsudski intended for the Hall of the St Stanislaus Institute (second place went to Krystyna Dąbrowska, with Józef Gosławski coming third). It is worth noting that the Artistic Committee included the esteemed sculptor Antonii Madeyski, who had been living in Rome since 1898. Paszyn produced the sculpture in marble and several bronze copies. One of these was donated to the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Rome.

In 1936, Paszyn joined the ‘Kapitol’ Association of Visual Artists, founded on the initiative of the painter Jan Dzieślewski, which aimed to unite all visual artists residing in Italy. The first exhibition organised by this ‘dynamic association’ took place on 9 May 1936 at the Palazzo Doria in Rome (paintings were exhibited by: Jan Dzieślewski, Wiktor Mazurski, Bolesław Mikulski, Stefan Bakałowicz and Leon Siemiradzki. Among the sculptors, alongside Paszyn, were Józef Gosławski, Antoni Madeyski, Jadwiga Bohdanowicz and Krystyna Dąbrowska). Paszyn exhibited five of his works at that time: portraits of a Black woman, a Cuban man, a Malay princess and Mrs M. M., as well as a bozzetto (sketch) of Saint Christopher, showcasing his ‘crystallised sculptural talent’.

“Among Paszyn’s exhibited works, those in dark stone (bigio antico) stand out most prominently. In the portrait of the Malay princess, the talented artist evoked a certain mysticism of the East, skilfully drawing on the traditions of ancient Indian art. In the bust of a young Black woman—a subject very much in vogue in Italy today—Paszyn has demonstrated his full mastery of working with his favourite dark stone, synthesising form without disrupting the composition with the richness of a highly effective hairstyle. The portrait of a Cuban man is intriguing in its expression and powerful in its composition. The composition of St Christopher is very interesting. A jarring exception in Paszyn’s collection of fine works is the polychrome portrait of Miss M.M., which is an attempt to draw on the Italian Renaissance. This sort of saccharine art clearly does not suit his monumental sculpture, with which he ought to stick firmly”.

In the years that followed, right up until the outbreak of the war, he continued to create and exhibit his works at numerous exhibitions in Italy and abroad. In 1939, he spent several months in Paris at Charles Despiau’s studio

He married Consuelo, a Filipino princess and opera singer whom he had met in Rome; together they purchased the Castello di Rotaio in Camaiore, near Viareggio. The artist devoted many years to restoration work so that he could eventually live there, as well as open his own studio, an exhibition hall and a meeting place for other artists.

In 1946, he joined the Art-Club. In 1952, he became president of the Association of Polish Artists in Italy ‘Quo Vadis’, established with the support of the Janina Umiastowska Foundation in Rome and comprising around fifty members. During its existence, three group exhibitions were held in Rome: the Mostra Internazionale del Centro delle Arti “Quo Vadis” (8–29 May 1954), the Prima Mostra d’Arte Interplanetaria (23 April–8 May 1955) and the Mostra Internazionale del Ritratto (5–19 May 1956), as well as one exhibition in Frascati, the Mostra Internazionale ‘Dal vivo’ (28 September–10 October 1963).

In 1950, he took part in the International Exhibition of Sacred Art at the Vatican. He exhibited a marble sculpture of St Christopher with the Infant Jesus (the model for this sculpture is located in the garden of the Pontifical Polish College in Rome), and a bronze sculpture of the Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus. In 1953, he organised an exhibition of his works (not only sculptures) in the renovated castle at Rotaio. In 1954, he held a solo exhibition at Villa Strohl-Fern in Rome.

Among Paszyn’s most significant works, the creation of sculptural elements at the Polish cemetery on Monte Cassino deserves special mention (including a 16-metre-high Virtuti Militari cross with a cemetery candle surrounded by a travertine laurel wreath 6.5 metres in diameter), as well as sculptural details at the cemetery for Polish soldiers in Bologna, which he created in 1946. He also produced several gravestones at the Cimitero Maggiore in Milan, Campo Verano in Rome and at the cemetery in Constantinople.

He is also the creator of the crucifix located in the chapel of the Polish College in Rome. There is also a travertine sculpture there depicting Saint Christopher. Meanwhile, in the monastery of the Resurrectionist Fathers (also in Rome), one can find a sculpture of the Risen Christ.

In the 1960s, he created eight bas-reliefs depicting Polish martyrs, patron saints and saints, intended for the Polish Chapel of Our Lady of Częstochowa in the Vatican Grottoes.

Ewa Prządka, who, following research in the archives of the J. Z. Umiastowska Foundation in Rome, produced an extensive study on the artist, wrote as follows:

“The artist died in 1970. However, little is known about the final years of his life. His grave is located in Capezzano Pianore, not far from his former estate.”