Piwnica pod Fortuną w Lublinie, Renaissance painted cellar in Lublin, Poland.
Piwnica pod Fortuną is a cellar room on the first underground level of the Lubomelski House at Rynek 8, in Lublin's Old Town. It measures 7.10 m by 2.7 m, with a barrel vault 2.45 m high, and its limestone walls and vault carry 60.57 m² of late-Renaissance polychrome painting. The scheme has ten picture fields, nine still legible, framed by scrolling plant ornament.
The paintings were made after 1596, not in the 17th century as once thought. Seven scenes copy engravings from the Emblemata saecularia by Johann Theodor and Johann Israel de Bry, published in Frankfurt in 1596; two others follow Heinrich Ulrich's prints. A date scratched on a wall, 1679, shows the room was still visited later.
The walls display depictions of Venus, Amor, and the goddess Fortune, themes that were common across European Renaissance art of the time. These images tell stories about love, fate, and virtues that mattered to people living here.
Visitors can explore the cellar through guided tours that operate on most weekdays. It is helpful to check tour availability in advance, as opening times may vary seasonally.
Seven of the cellar's scenes were copied from engravings in the emblem book Emblemata saecularia by Johann Theodor and Johann Israel de Bry, first printed in Frankfurt in 1596. Two others, including Fortune on her sphere, derive from copperplates by Nuremberg engraver Heinrich Ulrich. The German inscription among the paintings led the occupying German authorities to have the frescoes cleaned and repainted in 1942.
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