Twórczość rysunkowa Zbigniewa Herberta a inspiracje antyczne

Abstract

Zbigniew Herbert, a man of great erudition as well as profound feelings towards the culture of Antiquity, becomes sometimes a victim of too schematic reading of his writings. He is said to have been either a eulogist of outworn ideas or a writer dedicated only to the classical principles. Nevertheless, an attentive reader can find the universal meaning of his poems and essays, conveying the truth about the human condition in the modern world with the clever usage of ancient schemes and motives. His strong belief in the great importance of the emotional domain, which he always considered as vital as the intellectual one, influences not only his writings but also his drawings in sketchbooks, published recently and still not known well by the general public. Herbert’s sketches reveal his rather close affinity with Ancient Greek vase painting; they also resemble some Mannerist methods of capturing the movement and portraying the reality in its outer and inner shape, its “body” and “soul”. However, the visual works of this great poet express above all his individual attitude towards the reality, especially towards the world of art.