Vicious circle, Jacek Malczewski from the old master collection

Vicious circle, Jacek Malczewski (1897)

"Vicious circle" has been considered one of Malczewski's major works and is generally interpreted as an allegory of the role of an artist.

The painting depicts a fantastic vision of human figures whirling dynamically in mid-air in a magical circle. The artist represented himself as a pensive boy sitting on top of a stepladder above the titular vicious circle and holding a brush in his hand. He is surrounded by the naked bodies of Bacchantes; youths and elderly men personifying the feelings and imagination of a young artist. Paradoxically, they seem both real thanks to the painting's illusory visual expression and unreal because of the abstract space they occupy in the painting. The left and better-lit side of the painting symbolizes sensual ecstasy while the right, dark side represents the fears and anxiety of the artist. According to Irena Kossowska, this inner dualism of the artist's creativity portrays the vitality of human instincts as well as the tragedy of human fate. In this work, Malczewski expresses the idea of the tortured creative genius of the artist who is searching for inspiration. The work can be interpreted as a question on the nature of art and the vocation of an artist.

Jacek Malczewski was a Polish symbolist painter who is one of the most revered painters of Poland, associated with the patriotic Young Poland movement following a century of Partitions. He is regarded as the father of Polish Symbolism. His creative output combined the predominant style of his times, with historical motifs of Polish martyrdom, the romantic ideals of independence, Christian and Greek mythology, folk tales, as well as his love of the natural world. He was the father of painter Rafał Malczewski.