Secesyjna stolarka drzwi zewnętrznych w Krakowie

• Authors: Janicka Anna

Title variants

EN

The Art Nouveau Woodwork of Outer Doors in Cracow

• Languages of publication: PL EN

Abstracts

EN

Numerous elevations of Cracow town houses from the turn of the nineteenth century have lost their original character. One of the still preserved architectonic elements of the façades are historical doors. The old woodwork has been irreplaceably destroyed due to incompetent repair or the replacement of original doors with contemporary counterparts. The characteristic features of Art Nouveau doors in Cracow town houses include a great variety of construction solutions, plastic forms and types of decoration motifs. The doors possess a loom construction (with a tenoned transom bar) located behind the break jamb, and installed by means of a hook, a bolt or a flat bar. In 69 cases we are dealing with left-wing doors, and only in a single instance are the doors right-wing. The skylights and windows are, as a rule, arranged in a loom pattern behind the break jamb, and only sometimes do they have rebate and semi-permanent frames. The door wings represent a frame-panel construction, with the panel sunk in from the inner side along the perimeter, and the double panel with an indirect rail sunk into into the wing frame. The compositions of the wings in Art Nouveau doors in Cracow are strongly associated with tendencies predominant in art at the beginning of the twentieth century. Traits typical for that period include the application of such means of expression as a fluid undulating line with gentle modelling or a flat sphere with geometricised forms. Due to their composition expression, the doors in question can be divided into three groups: with curvilinear, rectilinear and mixed forms. The first group is composed of doors with a prevalence of fluid and “rigid” configurations, while the group with rectilinear forms is distinct for radiant shapes with right and slant angles. Taking into consideration the composition configurations and stylistic solutions employed for designing Art Nouveau door woodwork, the doors can be ascribed, with a great dose of probability, to a concrete architect. Particular attention is due to Henryk Lamensdorf, Bieniamin Torbe and Jan Zawiejski, chiefly owing to the artistic level of the designs, their individual composition style, and care for preserving a diversity of composition forms. Decorative arrangements occur mainly on the wings, cover strips and transom bars. The themes of the embellishment motifs include predominantly stylised plants, naturalistic floral forms and geometrical depictions. The profiles of the frames, bars and the sashes of the skylights and the windows assume rectilinear and curvilinear forms, usually as a series of bandages, cavettos or offsets. Technical analysis demonstrates considerable neglect of all the components of historical doors. Typical devastation of the woodwork affected the lower parts of the wings and the timber at the level of the handle, caused by the installation of interphones. The most frequently missing elements include window bars, metal grating and door hardware, especially handles and a signboards. Finally, extensive destruction occurs in the case of the original glazing, supplemented by unsuitable material. In her work on premises for a conservation programme, the author took into account, first and foremost, the historical values of the given object conceived as a document, which exerts a great impact on leaving the authentic object in its place. Just as significant are the aesthetic qualities, decisive for the removal of secondary supplements and the reconstruction of the missing fragments in accordance with the technology and style of the door. In view of the criterion of the utilitarian qualities of the monument, and thus the fulfilment of contemporary requirements as regards exploitation and technology, it is necessary to reconstruct the fittings and to adapt them to modern interphones.

Keywords

PL

secesyjna stolarka drzwi zewnętrznych w Krakowie; secesyjna stolarka drzwiowa; Kraków; secesyjna elewacja; krakowskie budowle secesyjne; secesyjne drzwi; konstrukcja drzwi secesyjnych; kompozycje skrzydeł drzwi secesyjnych; dekoracje drzwi; prześwity drzwi; nadświetla drzwi

• Publisher: Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa
• Journal: Ochrona Zabytków
• Year: 2001
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 345-356

Dates

published

2001

Contributors

author

Janicka Anna

• Kraków

References

• J. Bieniarzowna, J. Małecki, Dzieje Krakowa, t. IV: Krakow w latach 1 7 9 6 -1 9 0 8 , Krakow 1979, s. 366.
• J. Purchla, Jan Zawiejski, architekt przełomu XIX i XX wieku, Warszawa 1986, s. 47.
• J. P u r c h l a , powstał nowoczesny Krakow, Krakow 1990, s. 48.
• Z. Beiersdorf, Architekt Teodor Talowski (w:) Sztuka z 2 poł. XIX wieku. Warszawa 1973, s. 199-214.
• J. Krawczyk, Charakterystyczne cechy zabytkowej stolarki drzwiowej i jej problematyka konserwatorska, referat wygłoszony na sesji „Zabytkowe budowle drewniane i stolarka architektoniczna wobec wspołczesnych zagrożeń”, Toruń 2 4 -2 5 IX 1999, s. 6.

Identifiers

ISSN

0029-8247