Koncert renesansowy 1857

Curator: This drawing, "Koncert renesansowy," or "Renaissance Concert," was created in 1857 by Józef Simmler, using pencil. It’s really interesting as we’re presented with something that feels both very deliberate, and also spontaneous, like a preparatory sketch. What do you think? Editor: I get a sense of quiet observation, almost as if Simmler were trying to capture a fleeting moment in the life of this imagined Renaissance gathering. It is an unusual work, light pencil strokes give it that delicate quality of an instant caught in time. Curator: Precisely! Simmler had an interest in historical painting. This is likely a study for a larger composition. Look at how the figures are rendered with clear references to Renaissance fashion and architectural settings. There is a top panel, it gives context to a separate composition sketched out at the bottom, as if pages from a personal sketchbook had merged onto one sheet. The very top showing an ensemble of court musicians serenading what appears to be a central noble family group. Editor: It does evoke the world of Renaissance courtly life. The outfits and bearing speak of wealth and education, and, the music lends this sketch a wonderful sense of temporal place – yet despite the precision in the sketches on the page, Simmler captures movement, there’s this life here! Also, have you considered that perhaps the lower sketches are what would later inspire the more considered depiction on top? Curator: That's quite likely – visualising an ensemble from memory, the figures might have felt archetypal and remote from Simmler’s immediate environment; his lower studies try to work around this? Notice in particular the bottom left individual with more realistic, less flattering facial features than his counterparts. Editor: It's fascinating how Simmler interweaves historical symbolism with an attempt at realism and a palpable immediacy. It shows his skill. It really pulls us into that space. It allows the viewers to experience Renaissance era in that room with him. Curator: I agree. He’s building something intricate out of his imaginings. And by rendering the final impression with swift economical strokes, we as viewers are able to appreciate the dynamism and complexity of his mind's creative potential in this "Koncert renesansowy". Editor: I concur, it’s the emotional effect of all those figures that still resonates powerfully today. A concert performed but not complete; something started but with more road to journey. I am left wondering about its conclusion; perhaps that is the key and most successful element that allows us our own imagined take on it?