Gotyckie malowidła ścienne w Polsce. Wyniki badań przeprowadzonych w latach 1974-1979. Wstęp

• Authors: Karłowska-Kamzowa Alicja

Title variants

EN

GOTHIC WALL PAINTINGS IN POLAND. RESULTS OF THE STUDIES MADE IN THE YEARS 1974—1979

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

For the last forty years Gothic wall-paintings in Poland have not been made the subject of a synthetic study. The knowledge of historic materials in that period has changed to a large extent thanks to the conservatory works. A number of new wall-paintings have been revealed, which are important to the studies on the history of art in individual regions. On the other hand, a few paintings have been plastered up because of a very bad condition, while others have been rescued by their transfer on a new ground-work. In order to reconstruct the picture of all problems connected with the existence of this field of art in Poland the Institute of Art History attached to the A. Mickiewicz University in Poznań (from 1975 in cooperation with the Historical Monuments Documentation Centre in Warsaw) has worked out a catalogue of Gothic Wall-Paintings. Apart from the recording of objects, the work on the catalogue covered also the determination of a degree of authenticity of works, quite often repeatedly preserved, as well as the compiling of literature and all information contained in the available conservatory acts. This gave concrete results, particularly with regard to the wall-paintings in Eastern Pomerania. In the hitherto synthetic elaborations the problem of originality of wall-paintings has often escaped the notice of research workers. The knowledge of old descriptions of the paintings and of conservatory expertises from the time of their unveiling can exclude in future the uncovery of the objects previously regarded as destructs. Gothic wall-paintings have often been preserved in a vestigial form only. After carrying out conservatory works there arises occasionally a problem of the so-called arrangement, i.e. of the intiegraton of historic monuments with the interior and adjusting them to the needs of contemporary users. It was one of the reasons for the necessity to consider the problem of the so-called decorative systems of wall-paintings which always played specific functions in the interiors, adorning them in various ways. A theoretical reconstruction of the original painted decorations is indispensable when making conservatory decisions. It has also some significance in studies on Gothic architecture. In Poland this architecture was deprived of great complexes of portal sculptures and was decorated rather with wall-paintings than with stained-glass windows. The wall-painting played also didactic functions for a large public. The study of the subject programmes of wall-paintings which enrich and make up our knowledge on the formation of the mentality of the society and also on the methods of pictorial teaching in that time. Hence, along with possibilities, there exists the necessity of reading not only the subject but also the content of the paintings and occasionally their reconstruction. It is possible to determine the date of the creation of objects and to distinguish works created by individual artists or their workshops on the basis of studies covering individual territorial groups ; however, the studies made in connection with the Catalogue reveabd also a unity of the style development, the identity of nur erous decorative systems and the occurrence of certain analogous subjects in the entire territory of Poland. One can also observe specific local phenomena in three regions with the greatest number of historic monuments : in Little Poland, Silesia and Eastern Pomerania.

• Publisher: Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa
• Journal: Ochrona Zabytków
• Year: 1980
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 116-118

Dates

published

1980

Contributors

author

Karłowska-Kamzowa Alicja

• doc. dr hab., Instytut Historii Sztuki Uniwersytet im. A. Mickiewicza w Poznaniu