'GEMINAE VENERES'. NEO-PLATONIC MOTIFS IN THE RELIEF DECORATION OF THE SIGISMUND CHAPEL

• Authors: Boczkowska A.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

This article concerns some significant motifs of the Chapel's interior decoration. In its altar wall two female figurines were depicted in the Venus 'genetrix' and 'pudica' form whose nakedness may be interpreted as a neo-Platonic symbol of truth and innate beauty. The symbolism of these figures is expressed as a personification of two kinds of love: celestial and temporal, the former portrayed in the upper and the latter in the lower parts of the Chapel. In the Platonic and Humanist traditions these two types of Venus relate to a then popular concept devised by Marsiglio Ficino. Under the influence of studies carried out by contemporaneous humanists on the antique world, religious symbols were secularised and the inner meanings of their contents transformed. Rather than expressing the contrast between good and evil, the Chapel's twin figures of Venus portrayed a neo-Platonic harmony between the cosmic forces controlling the world of nature. And yet, in the figure of an undefeated Hercules in struggle, regarded as a model for a perfect ruler, a prefiguring may be perceived of the military triumphs of king Sigismund, whose numerous symbols, drawn from Roman imperial iconography, were depicted on the Chapel's walls. This neo-Platonic symbolism contained a very important eschatological motif pertaining to man as a divine creation that had been given the gift of freedom of choice. The contemplative pose of the king placed on his sarcophagus portrays the melancholia generosa of a great monarch beyond corporeal struggle under whose victorious leadership the 'golden age' was supposed to return to his state.

Keywords

EN

NEO-PLATONISM; SIGISMUND CHAPEL

Discipline

• ARTS_&_ARCHITECTURE: ARTS & ARCHITECTURE

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Sztuki PAN
• Journal: Biuletyn Historii Sztuki
• Year: 2005
• Volume: 67
• Issue: 1-2
• Pages: 97-130
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Boczkowska A.

• A. Boczkowska, c/o Instytut Sztuki PAN, ul. Dluga 26-28, 00-950 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

05PLAAAA00531357