Collection

Appearance of Christ to the Apostles

Szymon Czechowicz

  • Appearance of Christ to the Apostles 2
  • Appearance of Christ to the Apostles 3
Basic information
ID
Ж-6000
Author
Szymon Czechowicz
Name
Appearance of Christ to the Apostles
Date of creation
1758
Country
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Technique
oil painting
Material
canvas oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm)
134 x 188.5
Information about author
Author
Szymon Czechowicz
Artist's lifetime
1689–1775
Biography
Szymon Czechowicz was born in an impoverished noble family in Krakow on July 28, 1689. He became an orphan at a young age. Thanks to the support of his patron and philanthropist Franciszek Ossolinski, the artist went to Rome, where he studied painting at the Academy of St. Luke under the guidance of Carlo Maratti. The first professional works of the artist were copies after famous painters, such as Rubens, Van Dyck and others; the artist drew upon their iconographic compositions. In 1765, at the invitation of Waclaw Rzewuski, he arrived at Pidhirtsi Castle in the Lviv region; by 1767, Czechowicz created 107 works that became part of the castle interior and a kind of the first museum of the artist. During the last period of his life, Szymon Czechowicz worked in Lithuania and Warsaw, where he opened his own art studio. The artist died on July 21, 1775. He was considered to be one of the best artists of the Baroque era in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Among the artist's creative legacy there are portraits and monumental paintings on sacred themes.
Object description
This is a multi-figure composition of 12 characters, in the center of which there is a figure of Christ dressed in white clothes, with his arms outstretched. The two apostles on the left are depicted kneeling. The apostle on the right is turned with his back to the viewer; he is dressed in red clothes. A shrub is at the feet of Christ. The mountain landscape serves as a background of the painting.