Some remarks on the exhibition "The Vistula River : The queen of the Polish rivers" in the National Museum in Cracow

Artykuł powstał w ramach projektu OPUS 20 Polifoniczność mapy. Mapowanie Moskwy w XVI w. a mapa Antona Wieda (1542, 1555), finansowany przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki

Some Remarks on the Exhibition The Vistula River: The Queen of the Polish Rivers in the National Museum in Cracow. In this paper, the author shares some comments on the exhibition Wisła królowa polskich rzek (The Vistula River: The Queen of the Polish Rivers) organized in the National Museum in Cracow 29.03.2022-4.09.2022). The curator Iwona Długopolska gathered maps, atlases, engravings and literary works from the 16th-mid 19th centuries from the collection of the National Museum. All of them deal with the Vistula River. The author focuses on the cultural dimensions of the representations of the river. At the beginning of the paper, there are remarks about the physiology of viewing. The author stresses the fact that exhibitions can be a way of carrying out historical research. In the next parts, he puts forth a classification of the interpretations of the river as a cultural phenomenon into four major groups, i.e. the economy, the war, the city and the expressions of the Polish national identity. He also links literary works by Polish authors with the visual representations of the Vistula.