| dc.description.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. | en |
