Objects

We begin our review of theatrical scenery designs by Bolesław (Beniamin) Pacanowski with four of them featuring views of the town (MPOLIN-M1141, MPOLIN-M1142, MPOLIN-M1143, MPOLIN-M1144). Framed by a box-like stage with a curtain at the top, they present a prospect – a vast panorama of the town. The perspective leads the viewer along a wide, unpaved street to a two-storey brick building (town hall?) standing in the background, covered with a high, steep roof. The ornamental pediment with a clock is crowned with a huge figure of a man with a cross in his hand. On both sides of the street densely stand brick (with arcades) or wooden houses. Above the door of one of them hangs a square signboard with a red cross, indicating a pharmacy or a doctor's surgery. A rectangular signboard with the inscription "TO THE LAST GROSH" hangs over the windows of the inn next door.

The scenery with the inn, the crooked houses and the lofty building of the town hall could have been the background for both the works of Sholem Aleichem and Icchok Leib Peretz.

Renata Piątkowska