PROFESSOR ZDZISŁAW ŻYGULSKI JR.: AN OUTSTANDING PERSON, A GREAT PERSONALITY, A MUSEUM PROFESSIONAL, A RESEARCHER ON ANTIQUE WEAPONS, ORIENTAL ART AND EUROPEAN PAINTING (1921–2015)
Authors: Grzybkowska Teresa 
Published: March 2017

Professor Zdzisław Żygulski Jr. (1921–2015) was one of the most prominent Polish art historians of the second half of the 20th century. He treated the history of art as a broadly understood science of mankind and his artistic achievements. His name was recognised in global research on antique weapons, and among experts on Rembrandt and Leonardo da Vinci. He studied museums and Oriental art. He wrote 35 books, about 200 articles, and numerous essays on art; he wrote for the daily press about his artistic journeys through Europe, Japan and the United States. He illustrated his publications with his own photographs, and had a large set of slides. Żygulski created many exhibitions both at home and abroad presenting Polish art in which armour and oriental elements played an important role. He spent his youth in Lvov, and was expatriated to Cracow in 1945 together with his wife, the pottery artist and painter Eva Voelpel. He studied English philology and history of art at the Jagiellonian University (UJ), and was a student under Adam Bochnak and Vojeslav Molè. He was linked to the Czartoryski Museum in Cracow for his whole life; he worked there from 1949 until 2010, for the great majority of time as curator of the Arms and Armour Section. He devoted his whole life to the world of this museum, and wrote about its history and collections. Together with Prof. Zbigniew Bocheński, he set up the Association of Lovers of Old Armour and Flags, over which he presided from 1972 to 1998. He set up the Polish school of the study of militaria. He was a renowned and charismatic member of the circle of international researchers and lovers of militaria. He wrote the key texts in this field: Broń w dawnej Polsce na tle uzbrojenia Europy i Bliskiego Wschodu [Weapons in old Poland compared to armaments in Europe and the Near East], Stara broń w polskich zbiorach [Old weapons in Polish armouries], Polski mundur wojskowy [Polish military uniforms] (together with H. Wielecki). He was an outstanding researcher on Oriental art to which he dedicated several books: Sztuka turecka [Turkish art], Sztuka perska [Persian art], Sztuka mauretańska i jej echa w Polsce [Moorish art and its echoes in Poland]. Prof. Zdzisław Żygulski Jr. was a prominent educator who enjoyed great respect. He taught costume design and the history of art and interiors at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, as well as Mediterranean culture at the Mediterranean Studies Department and at the Postgraduate Museum Studies at the UJ. His lectures attracted crowds of students, for whose needs he wrote a book Muzea na świecie. Wstęp do muzealnictwa [Museums in the world. Introduction to museum studies]. He also lectured at the Florence Academy of Art and at the New York University. He was active in numerous Polish scientific organisations such as PAU, PAN and SHS, and in international associations such as ICOMAM and ICOM. He represented Polish art history at general ICOM congresses many times. He was also active on diverse museum councils all over Poland.