I am currently in Poland, my fatherland. Today I have decided to visit the National Museum to one more time see the European Painters of my favorite era of 16^th and 19th century, which is called the Renaissance. When I came to the museum I realized that they are hosting a new exhibition called “Brescia – The Renaissance in Northern Italy”. I was so extremely happy, that I have decided to share with you some of the information about it.

Brescia is a small city situated half way between Venice and Milan. Local artists developed a distinct style, which radiated from these two mighty centers, as well as through the dialogue with the art coming from Florence, Rome and Northern Europe. The collection has been created and compiled from private collectors such as Italian Academia Carrera in Bergamo and most prominent the Polish Museums in Krakow, Warsaw and the Royal Castles: Wawel and Lancut.

All exhibition rooms were filled with outstanding paintings mostly of sacral motifs, portraits and landscapes. What I mostly adore in this period is the attention to detail. The amount of work devoted to observe and preserve in one single memory of the all shades and colours, shadows and facial expressions will never seize to amaze me. It gives me such a deep emotional experience and every time I view them, they show me a new level of my own understanding of that piece of art.

I know that people may think that since we have photography we don’t need these types of paintings anymore. That the moment could easily be captured with an easy snap of one touch of a fingertip… I disagree.

How wonderful and rudimentary at the same time it is. How much inspiration we loose due to the simplicity of our life?

I have observed young students from an art school, who obtained the permission to learn paintings by copying other artists. However I spent almost a full day in museum, when I talked to them they admitted that to render all the details, they cannot progress much in one day! It takes many days to do one small painting.

Our contemporary art of today does not provide much inspiration to me. When I contemplate art, I like to see precision and details. It is – to me – as I would feel their breath when they bent over the canvas to see better, when they were sweating to catch the proper proportions and perspective. It is as though I was there with them and felt almost every touch of stroke of the brush touching the canvas, and heard the friction between paint and canvas…

A truly inspiring experience. I am looking forward to my next section – the theatre. I will share with you my thoughts about it over next 2-3 weeks.