Stanisław Wyspiański’s drawing presenting six phases of division of a European fire salamander’s epidermis cell, made with a pencil, charcoal and pastels, which has been in the Jagiellonian University Museum’s collection since 1989, is dated 1894. According to the reminiscences of Professor Michał Siedlecki, it was drawn in the Institute of Zoology at the Jagiellonian University as an expression of gratitude for the possibility of examining stuffed birds, necessary to an artist for a certain painting. However, in 1894 Wyspiański stayed in Paris till September, and after his return to Cracow he did not receive any orders. The frieze of birds was to decorate the baroque church of the Franciscans in Cracow. The work in the church began on the 13th of June, 1895, while on the 23rd of October a distraught Wyspiański wrote to his friend that „birds are not allowed in the church of the Franciscans”9. Therefore, his examination in the Zoological Museum should be placed between these dates, and thus the original date of the drawing should be moved to 1895.
