ABSTRACT
In December 1910 Szymanowski wrote to Zdzisław Jachimecki:
When will people understand at last that art is not born of its own, that every artist is an aristocrat, who must have behind him the twelve generations of Bachs and Beethovens, if he is a musician, or Sophocleses and Shakespeares, if he is a poet or a playwright … If Italy didn’t exist, I could not exist either. I am not a painter or a sculptor, but when I walk along the museum halls, the churches, even the streets … when I become aware of the entire generations of the most beautiful, most genial of people, I feel that it is worthwhile living and working. 1
