Objects

Illustration for Chapter XVI of the novel, titled (the chapters have summary titles) "– Wielkie przeszkody przy śpiewach. – Legenda o pieśni'' (Great obstacles during singing. – Legend of the song).

This is an illustration accompanying the legend of singing and the song mentioned in the chapter: it depicts an eagle stealing a string of song pearls; the string broke, whether due to getting stuck on the stars or burning in the sun (as seems to be depicted in the illustration). The pearls scattered into the sea, forest, stream, mountains (which began to 'sing,' 'speak'), and were also swallowed by birds - henceforth, singing. Finally, they fell into the human instrument (the instrument started playing, and the man began to speak); the man also later received the largest pearl from the birds, thanks to which he learned to imitate the voices of all the pearls.

The illustration can also be considered a synthetic depiction of many parts of the text of the legend, as it takes into account several stages of the development of the plot. Let us quote the passage about the pearl falling into the instrument (quoted according to the illustrated edition, i.e. J. Korczak, ,,Józki, Jaśki i Franki", Warsaw 2013, p. 109):

"At the cottage's threshold, a young boy sat, blowing into a small piece of wood. Suddenly, a pearl of song descended into one of the perforated holes, and the pipe began to hum. The boy was so enthralled that, for the very first time, he exclaimed,

'Oh, how beautiful!'"

This collage was made from pasted and drawn, painted elements. For example, the figure of the boy and the tree are drawn in pencil and crayon, and painted with ecoline; the leaves are glued, the outermost ones are painted, some inside the crown are drawn in crayon. It is a multicoloured work (maintained in the following colour tones: black and grey, brown, blue and navy blue, purple, green). In the book, it was printed in yellow and black, with the addition of a cloud element near the sun and a widened space at the bottom.

Illustration – copyright by Marianna Sztyma.