An enormous collection of amber artefacts, referring in form and techniques to the achievements of the Gdansk masters of the heyday of artistic amber craftsmanship in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, produced exclusively in Lucjan Myrta’s studio was entrusted on permanent deposit to the Castle Museum in Malbork. The first exhibition of the collection was opened to the public on April 17 at 17:00 hrs and continued until the end of May.
Six years ago, the collection was presented in a somewhat different combination at the Main Town Hall in Gdansk, ushering the Amber Branch of the Historical Museum of the City of Gdansk. The Amber Branch’s first exhibition, consisting exclusively of some 200 works from Lucjan Myrta’s studio, was held on the Museum’s chief premises in the stately halls of the Town Hall. The exhibition entitled The Polish Jewels of the Sea opened on 10 July 2000 and enjoyed great popularity, both in the summer tourist season and beyond.
Myrta’s works: chests, receptacles, figurative sculpture and diverse decorative objects were impressive in the volume of amber material used to make them, their large sizes (usually larger than the amber artefacts of old) and their characteristic combination of beautiful natural colour varieties of amber without any artificial improvements. The public marvelled at the precision of the figurative sculpture, relief, intaglio, engraving and églomisé techniques that were forgotten for two hundred years.
The next exhibition organised by the Amber Branch of the Historical Museum of the City of Gdansk, which began to be called the Amber Museum upon its moving to its new premises, was entitled Amber Treasures. The exhibition was held in the partially restored Foregate Complex in May 2002. Lucjan Myrta’s work again accounted for the bulk of the exhibition (enlarged by 11 new artefacts). The Gdansk authorities agreed with the artist to purchase the entire collection of artefacts and natural amber specimens in the future (including the world’s biggest collection of large nuggets from various deposits and accumulations) as an integral set documenting Lucjan Myrta’s unique collecting passion. A passion that, alas, was incredibly expensive.
Unfortunately, this agreement proved impossible to realise. After the refurbishment of the Foregate Complex was completed, its cramped interiors in the former dungeon tower and the so-called “Neck” clashed both with the scale of the large artefacts and with their rich and spectacular form. That’s why a significant part of Lucjan Myrta’s collection was not exhibited at the opening ceremony of the Gdansk Amber Museum on 28 June 2006, but remained in the Museum’s storerooms instead.
This was a cause for conflict between the Museum’s management and the artist, who eventually sold Gdansk only a small fraction of his collection. Fortunately, this fraction includes an antique small table beautifully incrusted with amber and a chest modelled after an antique associated with King Stanislaus Leszczynski, as well as sets of specimens of unique colour varieties of amber. Two months after the opening of the Gdansk Amber Museum, most of the collection was transferred to Malbork as the result of an agreement with the management of the Castle Museum. Myrta’s works were exhibited in Sweden for several months as a supplement to an exhibition of historical artefacts from Malbork.
This spring, Lucjan Myrta’s collection, complemented with many new and previously unknown works, will be exhibited in the 400-metre Castle Hall, upstairs from the existing Malbork collection of established fame.
In the summer (from 12 June till 16 September), Lucjan Myrta’s art and natural specimen collections will be exhibited at Wawel Castle in Krakow. The Castle will also see the première of a grand treasure chest made exclusively of amber, supported only by gilded bronze legs. This treasure chest, modelled after a beautiful piece of furniture from the bedroom of Queen Marie Antoinette at Versailles, features several dozen kilograms worth of amber detail, more than the entire decor of the walls of the Amber Room in Tsarskoye Selo. From autumn on, the collection will be exhibited in Malbork.
From the several hundred objects in the collection, we have decided to present pictures of 3 jewel cases, two of which are similar to those which made “diplomatic careers” in the 17th century as gifts exchanged by monarchs, and one contemporary jewel case.
Photos:
1. Adrianna Jewel Case, 1997, natural amber, mammoth tusk and gold in slices. Size: 46 x 60 x 41 cm. Weight: 19,950 grams.
The biggest of the jewel cases from Myrta’s collection, called after the oldest daughter of the author. It is patterned after a coffer saved in Grünes Gewölbe collection in Dresden, made in Jamnitzer’s workshop in Nuremberg at the end of 16th century. Like the original, it retains style characteristics of late renaissance, especially strict discipline of a classical order.
2. Ewelina Jewel Case, 1998. It is made only of natural amber. Size: 46 x 51 x 36 cm. Weight: 17,000 grams. Called after the younger daughter of the author. A design borrowed from an ebony chest made in Jamnitzer’s workshop in Nuremberg at the end of 16th century, the original in Grünes Gewölbe collection in Dresden.
