Zebrzydowski family portrait gallery in the monastery of Bernardines in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska

Recenzowane materiały z konferencji "Mikołaj Zebrzydowski (1553-1620), palatinus et capitaneus Cracoviensis, fundator et defensor Ecclesiae. W czterechsetną rocznicę śmierci", która odbyła się 24 października w Kalwarii Zebrzydowskiej

The portrait gallery of the representatives of the Zebrzydowski family and related to them Czartoryski family, decorating the monastery corridors in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska consists of 10 large-format oil paintings on canvas, framed in uniform neostyle profiled frames. The ideological closure of the Zebrzydowski family gallery is a neo-baroque painting by Mikołaj Zebrzydowski, painted in 1838 by Jan Jerzyczek, probably on the basis of an earlier portrait or engraving. It seems that the opinion should be maintained that the first two founding portraits are actually copies of earlier, even 16th-century canvases. The rest is a unitary complex, probably established in the 18th century. The Zebrzydowski family gallery is an example of an ancestral gallery associated with a specific religious or parish temple, intended to emphasize, commemorate the merits, care or influence of specific people on a given temple. It should be emphasized that the Zebrzydowski family can be mentioned here next to the most famous magnate families of the former Republic of Poland, who formed galleries such as the Lubomirski and Rzewuscy. It should be emphasized that the ancestral gallery of ten portraits of representatives of the Zebrzydowski and Czartoryski families, preserved in the monastery in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, is an example of a propaganda and devotional procedure typical of the Old Polish period, while being one of the few such large portrait groups, most likely created as a result of a one-off, well-thought-out fundraising campaign. Created to commemorate the most outstanding representatives of the Zebrzydowski family, famous for the foundation and care of the Bernardine monastery in Kalwaria, which was named after them Zebrzydowska, it has been continuously performing its function for over 250 years, reminding us of their merits for the Bernardines and the region itself.