George Zarnecki
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George Jerzy Zarnecki (Polish: Jerzy Żarnecki),
CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
, FBA, FSA (12 September 1915 – 8 September 2008) was a Polish Professor of the
History of Art The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic vis ...
. He was a scholar of
Medieval art The medieval art of the Western world covers a vast scope of time and place, over 1000 years of art in Europe, and at certain periods in Western Asia and Northern Africa. It includes major art movements and periods, national and regional art, gen ...
and English
Romanesque sculpture Romanesque art is the art of Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic style in the 12th century, or later depending on region. The preceding period is known as the Pre-Romanesque period. The term was invented by 19th-century ...
, an area of study in which he did pioneering research. From 1961 to 1974 he was a deputy director of the
Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...
, University of London.


Early life

Zarnecki was born in Stara Osota, then in the Russian Empire. His parents were Polish speaking, his father was a Polish convert from
Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
and his mother was Russian
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
.
Zarnecki attended
Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...
in
Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, he attained his MA in 1938 and, from 1936 to 1939, was a junior assistant at the University's Institute of Art History.


World War II

At the outbreak of war with
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, Zarnecki, his sister and parents headed for
Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
. He made his way to France via Italy, joined a Polish regiment and fought in
Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
, France. He was captured in 1940 and escaped twice, recaptured both times he spent two years as a
prisoner of War A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...
. He narrowly avoided being sent to a
concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
as a suspected Jew. The fact he was not
circumcised Circumcision is a surgical procedure, procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin ...
, and was wearing a crucifix his mother had given him, saved him from that fate. Using forged documents Zarnecki escaped to
Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...
and thence into
Franco's Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...
Spain where he was
interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
for a year before being allowed to go to England. Zarnecki escaped Spain and made his way to England in 1943. He joined the Free Polish Forces, attaining the rank of
Lance Corporal Lance corporal is a military rank, used by many armed forces worldwide, and also by some police forces and other uniformed organisations. It is below the rank of corporal, and is typically the lowest non-commissioned officer (NCO), usually equi ...
. He spent time compiling an index of the cultural losses that Poland was suffering as a result of the German invasion. Zarnecki was later awarded the French
Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...
and the Polish
Cross of Valor The Cross of Valour ( pl, Krzyż Walecznych) is a Polish military decoration. It was first introduced by the Council of National Defense on 11 August 1920. It is awarded to an individual who "has demonstrated deeds of valour and courage on the fi ...
( two bars) for his military service.


Career

After the war, Zarnecki stayed on in England and in 1945 attained a position as assistant at the
Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...
's Conway library. He got the job thanks to an earlier association with
Anthony Blunt Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), styled Sir Anthony Blunt KCVO from 1956 to November 1979, was a leading British art historian and Soviet spy. Blunt was professor of art history at the University of London, dire ...
, to whom he had been introduced in 1944. Zarnecki became a
naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...
British citizen on 1 July 1949. Whilst at the Courtauld he studied for his PhD, under the supervision of
Fritz Saxl Friedrich "Fritz" Saxl (8 January 1890, Vienna, Austria – 22 March 1948, Dulwich, London) was the art historian who was the guiding light of the Warburg Institute, especially during the long mental breakdown of its founder, Aby Warburg, whom h ...
director of the
Warburg Institute The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London in central London, England. A member of the School of Advanced Study, its focus is the study of cultural history and the role of images in culture – cros ...
,
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
. He was awarded his PhD in 1950, his
thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...
had been on the subject of 'Regional Schools in English Sculpture in the 12th century'. In 1949 Zarnecki was promoted to librarian of the Courtauld's Conway library, taking charge of its collection of photographs of sculpture and architecture. He helped organise, and embarked on, expeditions around Europe to build up the library's photographic holdings. In 1959, after serving 10 years as the Conway librarian, Zarnecki was appointed to the Courtauld's academic staff as a
Reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...
. During the
academic year An academic year or school year is a period of time which schools, colleges and universities use to measure a quantity of study. School holiday School holidays (also referred to as vacations, breaks, and recess) are the periods during which sch ...
1960 to 61 he held the position of Oxford University's
Slade Professor of Fine Art The Slade Professorship of Fine Art is the oldest professorship of art and art history at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and University College, London. History The chairs were founded concurrently in 1869 by a bequest from the art collecto ...
. In 1961 Zarnecki was made deputy director of the Courtauld Institute serving under the directorship of
Anthony Blunt Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), styled Sir Anthony Blunt KCVO from 1956 to November 1979, was a leading British art historian and Soviet spy. Blunt was professor of art history at the University of London, dire ...
. His role as deputy was largely administrative, he was mainly responsible for the day-to-day running of the Institute. He was appointed a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(CBE) in the 1970
New Year Honours The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...
, and was appointed to the
Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME) was a government advisory body responsible for documenting buildings and monuments of archaeological, architectural and historical importance in England. It was established in 19 ...
on 1 January 1972, and was later re-appointed for a further five years on 1 January 1979. He remained deputy director at the Courtauld for 13 years, until 1974, when Blunt retired as director. Zarnecki was widely expected to be appointed director but he did not apply for the position, preferring instead to return to academic teaching and research, and supervising doctoral dissertations including work by Deborah Kahn. It was revealed in 1979 that Blunt had been a spy for the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. Despite working with Blunt for almost 30 years Zarnecki described him as elusive, and was horrified by the spying revelation. Zarnecki officially retired in 1982, though he still continued to do much scholarly work. In 1984 he was the chairman of the committee that organised the Arts Council's major exhibition on English Romanesque art, held at
The Hayward The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the R ...
art gallery. This exhibition was the first time the subject matter had received such a wide audience. In 1987, Zarnecki and French scholar
Jean Bony Jean Victor Edmond Paul Marie Bony (born in Le Mans, France, 1 November 1908 – died in Brisbane, Australia, 7 July 1995) was a French medieval architectural historian specialising in Gothic architecture. He was Slade Professor of Fine Art at th ...
conceived the idea of creating a publicly available
digital archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...
of British and Irish Romanesque stone sculpture at the
British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...
. This was one of the first such projects of its type. In 2010, Zarnecki was honoured posthumously with a reception at the "Romanesque and the Past, Retrospection in the Art and Architecture of Romanesque Europe" conference held by the
British Archaeological Association The British Archaeological Association (BAA) was founded in 1843 and aims to inspire, support and disseminate high quality research in the fields of Western archaeology, art and architecture, primarily of the mediaeval period, through lectures, con ...
and The Courtauld.


Personal life

Zarnecki was married to Anne Leslie Frith in 1945. They first met in 1944 during an air raid when they both took shelter together in
Regent's Park tube station Regent's Park is a London Underground station south of Regent's Park. It is on a northern cusp of Fitzrovia and Marylebone on the Bakerloo line, between Baker Street and Oxford Circus. Its access is on Marylebone Road, within Park Crescent, i ...
. She claimed to be impressed by his ostentatious uniform, thinking that he must be a General. The marriage produced a son, the space scientist
John Zarnecki Jan Charles "John" Zarnecki, (born 6 November 1949 in Finchley, Middlesex, England) is an English space science professor and researcher. Since 2013, Zarnecki has been a Director of the International Space Science Institute (Berne, Switzerla ...
, and a daughter.


Honours and memberships

Zarnecki received various honours and awards: * 1966, member of the
Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...
in Princeton, New Jersey * 1968, Fellow of the British Academy * Fellow, and former vice-president of the
Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...
* 1970, Commander of the Order of the British Empire * 1978, awarded the Gold Badge of the Polish
Order of Merit The Order of Merit (french: link=no, Ordre du Mérite) is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by K ...
* 1982,
Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
professor,
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
* 1986, Honorary Fellow of the Courtauld Institute. * 1992, foreign member of the
Polish Academy of Learning The Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences or Polish Academy of Learning ( pl, Polska Akademia Umiejętności), headquartered in Kraków and founded in 1872, is one of two institutions in contemporary Poland having the nature of an academy of scien ...
* 1994, foreign member of the
Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...


Selected bibliography

Amongst Zarnecki's published works are: *''English Romanesque Sculpture 1066 – 1140'' (1951) *''English Romanesque Sculpture 1140 – 1210'' (1953) *''English Romanesque Lead Sculpture'' (1957) *''1066 and Architectural Sculpture'' (1966) *''Romanesque Art'' (1971) *''Art of the Medieval World'' (1975) *''Cathedrals and Monastic Buildings of the British Isles'' (1976) *''Studies in Romanesque Sculpture'' (1979) *''English Romanesque Art 1066 – 1200'' (1984) *''Further Studies in Romanesque Sculpture'' (1992)


References


External links


George Zarnecki's full bibliography
at
Copac Copac (originally an acronym of Consortium of Online Public Access Catalogues) was a union catalogue which provided free access to the merged online catalogues of many major research libraries and specialist libraries in the United Kingdom and Ire ...
.
Portrait of George Zarnecki
at the National Portrait Gallery.
The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zarnecki, George 1915 births 2008 deaths Polish art historians Polish antiquarians Jagiellonian University alumni Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences Members of the Polish Academy of Learning Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Academics of the Courtauld Institute of Art Slade Professors of Fine Art (University of Oxford) Fellows of the British Academy Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom