The article presents an account of the origins, course and effects of a trip to Poland in September 1969 by the Italian writer, journalist and painter Dino Buzzati (1906–1972). In Warsaw, Buzzati met the painter Maria Anto, with whom he formed a brief but intense artistic relationship.

The text presents the achievements of Wiesław Juszczak, who died in 2021, as a challenge that has not yet been taken up by the humanities. The reason for this may be the multiformity and thematic richness of his texts, almost always essayistic in nature (in the best, traditional sense), with an outstanding literary dimension, but at the same time a deep and broad scientific background. This applies to both his books on Polish painting around 1900, works on post-impressionists, as well as analyzes of archaic Greek thought about art, religious roots of art from various cultures, unconventional interpretations of Japanese films or Ingmar Bergman’s oeuvre.

This article is divided into two parts. Part I presents the origins and the research objectives of the authorial project Don Kichot Open Gallery/Don Quijote – galeria abierta. Its first product is a book titled identically to the project and published in collaboration with the POSET Foundation. It contains Miguel de Unamuno’s essay ‘El caballero de la triste figura’ (1896), translated into Polish by Carlos Marrodán Casas, and quality repro-ductions of nearly fifty artworks on the theme of Don Quixote (some of them shown for the first time) produced over a period of over 250 years. The album features the work of thirty Polish artists. Part II presents an interpretation of Marian Nowiński's painting ‘Don K[ichot] trwa dalej. W cieniu 2’ (Don K[Quixote] is still going on: In the shadow 2). A closer examination of this picture reveals a wealth of creative references to the Euro-pean and Polish tradition (Andrea Mantegna, Annibale Carracci, Orazio Borgianni and Jacek Malczewski respectively) and an artistic affinity for the cinema of Grigori Kozints-cev, Orson Welles and Terry Gilliam. The fusion of two aesthetics (painting and film) and diverse styles of painting (Renaissance, Baroque, twentieth-century symbolism) is testi-mony to both Nowiński's erudition and the boldness of his artistic ambition.

Rzeczy Piękne [Beautiful Things] (1918–1932) was a monthly publication of the Adrian Baraniecki Municipal Industrial Museum in Cracow. Among its distinctive features were a sophisticated graphic layout and eye-catching initials. The latter are remarkable for one more reason. While decorative initials are usually associated with of book design, it is rare to find a set of artistic ornaments commissioned specially for a periodical. This study has shown that the initials owe their distinct character not only to the ideas of the arts and crafts association Warsztaty Krakowskie [Cracow Workshops] but also to an original and attractive technique of composition.