The gallery, which opened to the public on 3 December 2025, showcases highlights of European painting and sculpture from the museum’s diverse collections.
Unusually, the exhibition is arranged in reverse chronological order.
Entering from the museum’s modernist hall, visitors trace European art history backwards, moving from 19th- and 20th-century works towards medieval masterpieces.
The final room features Romanesque-era Spanish Madonnas, among the institution’s most prized objects.
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Opublikowany przez Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie Wtorek, 2 grudnia 2025
The display brings together works by major artists, including Paolo Veneziano, Lorenzo Lotto, Lavinia Fontana, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Lucas Cranach the Younger, Luca Giordano, Mattia Preti, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun and Maurice de Vlaminck. Sculpture is represented by figures such as Antonio Canova and Gustav Vigeland.
The MNK’s European collection developed largely through donations and legacies, often arriving as parts of larger estates rather than as targeted acquisitions.
As a result, it is both wide-ranging and somewhat accidental in shape. Benefactors included some of Kraków’s most influential collectors, among them Wiktor Osławski, Henryk Bukowski, Konstanty Schmidt-Ciążyński, Ferdynand Bryndza, Edmund Łoziński, Jan Matejko and Feliks “Manggha” Jasieński.
Photo: PAP/Łukasz Gągulski
Others contributed the core collections built over their lifetimes, such as Erazm Barącz and Włodzimierz Łukasiewicz.
Significant holdings also came from the families of Edward Goldstein, Edmund Łoziński, Mieczysław Gąsecki and Count Stanisław Ursyn-Rusiecki, as well as deposits like the notable Tarnowski collection from Dzików.
Additional works entered the museum after the Second World War as property designated “abandoned” or “left behind”.
The exhibition was curated by Miłosz Kargol, Katarzyna Płonka-Bałus, PhD, and Adam Spodaryk, PhD. Katarzyna Pawłowska coordinated the project, with exhibition design by Magdalena Bujak.
Photo: PAP/Łukasz Gągulski
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Source: The National Museum in Kraków