Jak dwa zwierciadla

In 1912 Jacek Malczewski attained the zenith of his professional career and painted a Self-portrait with Tobias and the Parcae with which, similarly to Luca Cambioso and his Self-portrait, he paid homage to his father. Malczewski could have seen the work by the Genoese artist at the Uffizi in Florence and the phototeque of Karol Lanckoroński in Rozdół. It is difficult to imagine that he could have overlooked it even if only due to the physical resemblance to its author. There are, however, no sufficient premises for attributing an inspiring role to the Italian master. Malczewski owed the idea of his composition rather to a familiarity with the Bible in which generational continuity and changes are depicted in an intriguing and, at the same time, poignant fashion.