The painting of Krzysztof Nowicki is deeply rooted in the legacy of the old masters. By reinterpreting early modern European artworks, the artist, much like Mannerist creators, combines undeniable formal sophistication with a fondness for erudite and theoretical themes. His oil compositions, immersed in Baroque sensibility, embody a centuries-old artistic heritage, undergoing a creative process of deconstruction.
Through his meticulous rendering of textures or the softness of fabrics, Nowicki not only showcases exceptional craftsmanship but also draws upon the iconographic repertoire characteristic of illusionistic painting. His work, such as After Falconry (2022), reveals clear connections to the trompe-l'œil tradition. By employing the motif of an illusionistically painted curtain, the artist taps into a vast repertoire of meanings that the art and literary discourse has historically assigned to such representations. From the ancient debate between Zeuxis and Parrhasius, as recounted in Pliny's Natural History, to the curtain's presence in the Bible, and its iconography in Dutch Baroque painting, the motif has served multiple symbolic functions. Such faithfully reproduced elements were traditionally a means to play with viewers' perceptions, blurring the line between representation and reality while demonstrating the artist's virtuosity. Naturalistically rendered draperies, appearing to cascade over the painting's surface, were a testament to the creator’s extraordinary mimetic skills.
Scenes of hunting and aristocratic portraits in Nowicki's work also draw deeply from the art historical canon. His sophisticated reinterpretations of the old masters’ works seem to bear the patina of time, penetrating their very structure and evoking the transience of every moment. His paintings appear to dissolve before our eyes under the weight of thick paint, which seems to drip from the canvas as if influenced by gravity. These illusionistic streaks of liquid carry a dual meaning: on one hand, they echo the vanitas tradition, referencing degradation and the specters of the past; on the other hand, they nod to the Baroque era’s fascination with water and fluid, malleable forms. The often monochromatic palette—browns and grays—evokes the appearance of aged compositions, as if viewed through layers of weathered varnish.
A distinctive feature of Nowicki's oeuvre is his dog portraits. The use of the term "portrait," traditionally reserved for human likenesses, is deliberate. The hunting dogs depicted by the artist are rendered with the same reverence as the aristocrats accompanying them. Noble greyhounds and vigilant pointers transcend their role as mere attributes of royal power to become central protagonists in many of his compositions. These dogs, abstracted from seventeenth-century hunting scenes, are often magnified on Nowicki's canvases. As their scale increases, so does their prominence within the academic hierarchy of painting subjects. Once relegated to the still life category in artistic tradition, these animals now take center stage as autonomous subjects.
However, this elevation does not entirely liberate them from their subjugation to humanity. The splendor of the past, woven into the depictions of animals and humans on Nowicki's canvases, is neither a naive nostalgia nor a romanticized idealization of bygone eras. The artist avoids aestheticizing the past, instead confronting its darker legacies of death and cruelty. Hunting rituals, emblematic of the nobility, serve as evidence of a deeply entrenched belief in human supremacy over other species. During hunts, dogs, so meticulously rendered in Nowicki’s paintings, were paradoxically instrumental in humanity's domination of nature. They participated in hunting ceremonies that glorified killing for the court’s entertainment. Spectacle, authority, and domination were constant elements of these deadly performances, where Thanatos was cloaked in ornamental garb to obscure or soften its brutal reality.
From this perspective, the dogs in Nowicki's paintings become symbols of the ambivalent relationship between humans and nature. The animal, almost the focal point of the composition in Portrait of Count Anton Lamperg-Sprinzenstein (2024), resembles a bronze sculpture dusted with gold leaf—a trophy and an ambiguous sign of these fraught interactions. Such reflections are particularly relevant in the Anthropocene era, prompting critical examination of humanity’s relationship with the natural world.
Krzysztof Nowicki’s paintings are built upon the creative transformation of numerous models rooted in art historical traditions. His works can be analyzed as intellectual puzzles filled with literary and philosophical contexts, iconographic clues, and historical references. They not only evoke associations with various cultural texts but also inspire critical reflection on both the past and the present.