POLSKA POŁUDNIOWO-ZACHODNIA (ŚLĄSK)

• Authors: Karłowska-Kamzowa Alicja

Title variants

EN

SOUTH-WESTERN POLAND

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

More than 30 complexes of Gothic wall-paintings, often quite large, have been uncovered in Silesia after the Second World War. The following paintings got destroyed : a cycle of St. Hedwig’s legend in the church of St Barbara in Wrocław, paintings in Pępice and fragments in Świętów Polski. In the Middle Ages nearly all churches in that region were decorated with paintings, sometimes every few tens of years. That is why we can find two or three Gothic layers under new plasters. The oldest well-known paintings come from the 13th century and at present are being uncovered at Świerzawa. The first half of the 14th Century left objects made in a drawing-like style, with a prevailing round line filled up with almost a flat coloured blotch. The oldest item is the Crucifixion, a kind of an enlarged miniature of the Mass Canon painted in a tomb’s niche in the valuts of the Franciscan church in Opole. A series of knightly scenes, a picture of the alive and the dead as well as that of St Christopher were executed in the second quarter of the 14th Century in the hall of an inhabited tower in Siedlęcin. Delicate, luminous scumbles forming the folding of the robes of the Saint (existing only in details) speak for a somewhat later time of the creation of this oldest secular wall decoration in Poland. Their form represents a method of painting known from such paintings as in Stein-on-the Danube in Austria or from Czech’s Strakonice, but they are examples of a broader artistic trend found in the European painting to the north from the Alps in the first half of the 14th century. A monumental figure of St Christopher at Pełcznica in a rigid two-dimensioned composition betrays the traditions of the 13th century. An untypical iconographie rendering (the Saint is represented in the prince’s coronet) is of Austrian origin This impuls might have come through family affinities. The wife of the Prince of Świdnica and Jawor come from the Habsburgs. The first group of paintings was created about the mid-14th century and in the third quarter of that century. The oldest of the objects, i.e.The painting at Strzelce near Sobótka, show analogies to figurative textiles. Their narrative character is particularly worthy of notice. One should also pay attention to the fact that the most important representations (from an ideological point of view) were shown on the eastern wall — in front of the eyes of the onlookers. Decorations in the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Ząbkowice (phase I) and at Jasiona were executed at a somewhat later date. A crearly-marked geometrization of the decorations was introduced there, while at Jasiona the emphasis was put on the representation of the Redemption and the Adjudication through enlarging their sizes. In the third quarter of the 14th century there appeared in Silesia works of the painters educated in the Prague artistic centre. These are pictures of the organ-left in the church at Małujowice (phase I), in St Anne’s Chapel attached to the Franciscan cloister at Opole (now transferred on a new groundwork) and the figure of St Christopher in the church at Strzegom. The representations were painted exclusively in a modelled coloured blotch andw ere moulded in relief. The idea of the idealization ofjthe figure, characteristic of the works created in the first half of that century, was abandoned. The next groups of local works began to appear in the 4th quarter of the 14th century. Paintings at Kalków and Modliszów were performed locally. Narrative zonal renderings are characterized by expanding the so-called „spatial dais” in which the figures were placed. Their tiny, narrow, lively figures differ from the figures found in earlier objects. The dating and links with local paintings determine analogies with Silesian illuminated manuscripts. Apart from them, one can also see painted decorations based on static compositions (Wilczków, Stare Bielsko), enriched only with narrative pictures (e.g. the fight of St George with a dragon at Wilczków). The representations were imbued with descriptive details. For instance, it was in a large self-contained picture of the fight of St George found in the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Ząbkowice (phase II) that an enlarged rendering, introduced by Simone Martini of Avignon, was applied. The picture of the castle, of the Royal couple and of the Princes were known from the European paintings from the 3rd quarter of the 14th century, while in Poland it appeared at the end of the century. Only few paintings from the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries have been preserved. In that field of art a fine style was not found on a broad scale. An exception was ,,The Annunciation” painted in the organ-loft of the church at Gościszów. It is supposed that the author of paintings at Brzeg, Krzyżowice and in the organ-loft of the church at Strzelniki (phase II) arrived to Silesia from Burgundy, together with the court of Prince Ludwig IT. He introduced a new way of forming the space painted on a broad scale, in which processions of horses and people moved. At the same time a big number of articles of everyday use, costume realities, etc, were shown. The way of painting was also new in Silesia : a free line — together with a modelled coloured blotch — formed a threedimensional space in the representations. The group of these represents an artistic level higher than that found in the objects created by local artists. In Silesia the images of the interiors and the landscape were shown in a more simplified way (e.g. Lubiechowa, phase II, Strzelniki, the nave, phase II) ; Pogorzela — the organ loft (phase II), keeping up however this kind of enriching the composition. A specific method of moulding the form of paintings was also employed. The base was provided by a line — broad, rigid, water-coloured in light shades or run along the contour, which intensified the impression of a graphicality of paintings. It could still be seen in the 3rd quarter of the 14th century (in Sieroty, Jamielnica). The rendering of figures showed some features of gruffness and deformation of face features. In the second half of the century the paintings were imbued with realistic details in the stylization of figures and of the articles surrounding them (e.g. Hajduki Nyskie, phase II, Kałków, phase II). This evolutional process, ,»natural” for the art of the 15th century, was accelerated seemingly by new impulses coming from the West. This is proved by Netherlandic elements found in wall-decorations in St Mary’s Chapel at Ziębice or south-German elements in the paintings of a post-Franciscan church at Jaworów. A big group of paintings uncovered in Silesia, dating from the 1st half of the 16th century (Ząbkowice — organ-loft of the parish church, Świdnica — Market Hall, chapel at the church at Kłodzko, Modliszów —■ phase II, Pełcznica, phase II — porch, Tymowa, Pieszyce, Mojęcice — phase II, Niwiska and other smaller details) make it possible to study the accumulation of modern elements in this field of art. Of utmost significance was to adjust the scale of images to the size of the architectonic interiors and to the place of watching by recipients. It should be harmonized in such a way that the illussion of the space painted was so real that it would give a truly realistic impression. Quite often, however, small quarters were used which segmented the wall (Tymowa — the nave, Niwiska — the nave, Pieszyce), while their geometric divisions always levelled elements of the ralism contained in individual compositions. The architectonic wall maintained its flatness in its optical sense ; the decorative system remained medieval. There were no painted décoratives of big churches left in Silesia, although written sources show that they existed. The most numerous and well-known objects come from chapels or village churches which were decorated with zonic paintings divided in quarters. Human figures placed within these frameworks either monumentalized the interiors with static renderings or, which was found more often, represented pictured tales. In Silesia, the human figure provided the basic material of painted decorations. A geometric and plan ornament played there a much smaller role than, e.g. in East Pomerania. The quartered cycles emphasized chosen subjects through enlarging the composition (e.g. in Strzelniki — the nave, phase II ; Pogorzela — the organ-loft, phase I ; Jemielnica). Well-known in that region were also painted imitations of sculptures in tympanum (Krzyżowie), on the walls of the Stone Sacrarium (Ziębice), as well as, paintings on the elevation of Roman churches (Świerzawa and Świerz — already entirely faded). Moreover, one could also find self-contained compositions, occasionally imitating table pictures (Wroclaw — the cathedral, St Mary’s Church at Piasek — the porch), altar retabulae (Tymowa, the nave) and decorations of niches in the sacrarium. The latter kind of paintings could be seen in a number of variants ranging from the simple head of Christ (Strzelce near Sobótka, Wilczków) to the compositions imitating store constructions (Niwiska). Silesian paintings represent expanded and consitently „edited” catechetic subjects illustrating the creation of the world, man, sin (excerpts from the illustration of Genesis), e.g. in Strzelniki in the nave (phase II), Lubiechowa (phase II), through well-developed cycles of the Redemption (scenes from the childhood and Christ’s passion) and of the Adjudication. Next to that theme, there are illustrations of succourers : Mater Misericordiae and St Christopher. Numerous are also representations of the lives of the saints or their static renderings (e.g. St Hedwig, St John the Baptist, St Catherine), as well as specific rare images (unseen in other paintings in Poland) such as the Annunciation with a unicorn (Ziębica — St Mary’s Chapel) apocaliptic Madonna with a crown of rays (Wilczków), St Joseph in a carpenter’s workshop — from the Greeting of the Three Kings. Numerous variants of the latter subjects, e.g. three processions of the Kings meeting in Christ’s crib where Mary adorns the Child (Tymowa — the organ loft), Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin (Tymowa — the organ loft), the face of Christ in the closed garden (Strzelniki, the nave), the Passion according to Dominican Contemplations (Jawor), man’s faults in the form of scenes sham in the jaws of Leviathan. In the majority of cases it was possible to find original copies. Silesian painters created painted decorations outside the borders of the Odra Land, e.g. in Przyczyna Górna in Great Poland or Łany Wielkie in Little Poland. Future investigations may bring further findings in this field.

• Publisher: Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa
• Journal: Ochrona Zabytków
• Year: 1980
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 119-125

Dates

published

1980

Contributors

author

Karłowska-Kamzowa Alicja

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

References

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