Ivan García (Barcelona)

Apollo crucified: the classic tradition in Stanisław Wyspiański

Abstract: Stanisław Wyspiański, a many-sided Polish artist, whose concept of acting and drama influenced XXth century Polish theatre, very often resorted to the classical tradition in his illustrations, poetry and dramas. One of the mythological characters he deals with is the god Apollo, who symbolizes for Wyspiański the ending of a situation or paradigm of troubles, obscurity, ignorance or decrepitude and the beginning of something new. This significance of Apollo’s image can be found in three of Wyspiański’s works: the illustrations of the first chant of the Iliad, the stained glass Apollo and the ending of the drama Acropolis. In the Iliad Wyspiański, inspired by Heraclitus’ words, concludes the Homeric cycle with Apollo’s figure who returns harmony by playing a lyre in the form of a bow. On the stained glass, Apollo represents the passing of the Eudoxan planetary model to the Copernican system. In Acropolis, a drama where the main character is the Wawel cathedral, the parousia of a new time for Poland and Polish culture is represented by the Christ-Apollo’s apparition riding the sun cart like a deus ex machina at the end of the play.