Wojsław Molé (1886-1973)

Vojeslav Mole, a scholar of Slovenian origin (b. Kanal ob Soci, Slovenia, d. Eugene, Oregon, USA), was throughout his life associated with the Jagiellonian University of Cracow, where he was a professor. In 1945, he became Chair of the Department of Art History of Slavonic Nations, and in 1952, of the Department of History of Medieval Art and the Group of Art History Departments. During the years 1956 – 1960 he was director of the Institute of Art History. Mole was a pioneer of Early and Eastern Christian Studies in art. This article focuses on his work published in Polish, since it mostly influenced Polish art history. The majority of Mole’s books on art are university textbooks. Many were written for students. His main interests lay with the genesis of Early Christian art, Byzantine Art and the art of East and South Slavs. Mole explored the relationship between Eastern and Western culture and the evolution of Orthodox art. One of his most interesting publications was the comprehensive paper “Studies on the Art of the First Millennium AD: Art of the eastern periphery of the ancient world during the first half of the First Millennium and its importance to Early Medieval Art”. In it he attempted to identify the cultural components of the beginnings of Early Christian art, which also indirectly impacted on the emergence of Byzantine art and Orthodox Slavonic art. Much of his work from the 1950s and 1960s reveals a Marxist political orientation, promoted at that time; for instance, an interest in national characteristics in art alongside a lack of interest in its religious aspects. Molè’s textbooks have largely lost their value although they are still an interesting testimonial to the past and the identity of 20th-century art history.