Outside their own country the art and architecture of Poland are still virtually unknown. Central Europeans might recall buildings in Silesia and the Baltic cities but these, surely, belong to German, rather than Polish art? Such a statement must today be regarded as superficial, if not misleading. The Gothic architecture of Western and Northern Poland constituted just two of a plethora of regional or "provincial" schools of Europe. The Renaissance art of Danzig had its home chiefly in the Netherlands. But, of course, the same can be said of most of the art in central Poland: The Polish Renaissance was virtually a direct import from Italy, high class art in the 18th Century was derived from France and the landscaped garden from Britain not to speak of cosmopolitan Neo-Classicism, or universal Modernism. Was there ever a "Polish Art", strictly speaking?
The fact is that ever since the late 18th Century, there has been an attempt to define forms or themes of art in Poland as specifically "Polish". It began with the depiction of great national events, with a love for the details of "national" dress and the Polish landscape. Architects, critics and preservationists began their campaigns to characterize all older buildings as belonging to a "national style". All this occurred just at the time when the Germans emphasized the "Germanness" of all art within Germany, and even beyond its borders, for example in adjacent Poland. National power was held to manifest itself not only in events but also in forms and styles. The Introduction to this book focuses in detail on the development of Polish art history and the art historical-political debate. The main text and the over 300 illustrations attempt to do justice to both the national and the European argument. On the whole Polish cultural nationalism tended to remain self-contained, even self-centered. This may help to explain why this book is the first-ever foreign work on Polish Art. Published in 1994 in Germany.