Przegląd prac konserwatorskich przy najcenniejszych zespołach sztuki gdańskiej

• Authors: Guć-Jednaszewska Teresa

Title variants

EN

A Review of Conservation Work on the Most Valuable Complexes of Artworks in Gdańsk

• Languages of publication: PL EN

Abstracts

EN

The article presents conservation work conducted on artworks in Gdańsk in the course of over forty years, i.e. from 1948 on, when the prime task was to safeguard and register historical monuments located in the storerooms of the Voivodeship Conservator of Historical Monuments following their evacuation during World War II. Part of the objects was transferred to the National Museum in Warsaw. It included works of medieval art i.a. from the St. Catherine and Holy Virgin Mary churches. In 1945 they became the property of the National Museum and at present constitute part of the permanent exposition of medieval art. On the other hand, objects collected in the Gdańsk conservation storerooms were conserved and originally handed over to the Pomeranian Museum (at present: the National Museum) in Gdańsk; after the completion of the reconstruction of suitable buildings, they were returned to the original interiors. Individual objects kept in the conservation storerooms up to this day have survived only fragmentarily, and require completion as well as considerable reconstruction. The large number of conservation work has made it necessary to select themes of greatest significance for Gdańsk. The enormous devastation of Gdańsk artworks calls for a special commentary, and the ensuing conservation work should be presented in more detail than the brief information offered in conservation chronicles. The wide range of conservation connected with Gdańsk architecture is, at the moment, being studied and shall be discussed in a special, consecutive issue of Ochrona Zabytkow. Among the numerous undertakings of Gdańsk conservators, particular attention is due to those conducted in churches, the town hall and the Artus Hall. In churches, conservation pertained to the majority of altars, paintings, sculptures and epitaphs dating from the fifteenth-seventeenth century. The largest amount of work was performed in the basilica of the Holy Virgin Mary, containing the noteworthy newly disclosed medieval murals in the transept and the St. James chapel, as well as the main altar (1511-1517) by master Michael from Augsburg, and numerous epitaphs dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth century, commemorating renowned Gdańsk patrician families. An exceptional undertaking was the reconstruction of a monumental astronomic clock (1460-1470) whose extant fragments include elements of the carvings with sculptures, three dials of the planetarium and two of the calendarium as well as a fragment of the mechanism. The work was initiated in 1983 and is being continued up to this day. More prominent conservation work was also carried out in the cathedral in Oliwa and in particular, the former main altar from l606 (at present in the transept) and the current main altar from 1688. Furthermore, conservation included a group of murals from 1583-1585, of special significance for the history of Gdańsk, with portraits of the Polish kings and Pomeranian dukes, together with a group of portraits, with similar themes and composition, painted on wood by Herman Han in the years I6l3-l6l6. Outstanding works of art in the churches of St. Nicholas, St. Catherine, St. Ignatius Loyola, the Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi were also included into conservation programmes. Despite enormous wartime devastation, the Gothic Town Hall retained most of the Renaissance outfitting of the Grand Council Chamber, whose thorough conservation lasted for more than 10 years. This complex included rich carvings by Simon Hoerle, seven allegorical paintings by Jan Vredeman de Vries, depicting civic virtues and vices and twenty five murals by Izaak van den Block, whose themes are connected with the history of Gdańsk, Greece and Rome or depict scenes from the Old Testament. Conservation also proved to be necessary in the richly outfitted Renaissance Old Town town hall, which fortunately survived intact. Particular attention should be paid to the conservation of two stone portals from the sixteenth century, a tripartite arcade from ca. 1560, decorated with allegorical figures and twelve paintings of Sybil, from ca. the middle of the seventeenth century, ascribed to Adolf Boy. The Artus Hall, one of the oldest such buildings extant in Europe, and built in the years 1476-1481, is of special importance for the history of Gdańsk. Its Renaissance front elevation, which dates from I6l7-l6l8, was executed according to a design by Abraham van den Block. The conservation of the interior (fifteenth-nineteenth century) is being completed after over a decade of work. It embraces panelling, sculptures, easel paintings, murals and a monumental tile stove as well as models of ships. Part of the outfitting was lost or devastated i.a. ogive oil paintings on canvas, which decorated the walls above the panelling up to the ceiling. Sculptures of St. James and St. George are the only surviving examples of the original Gothic interiors. Due to their considerable damages, all the objects were subject to careful conservation and are at present being installed. The accomplishments of conservators dealing with Gdańsk works of art are the outcome of many years devoted by conservators, artists, historians of art and archeologists.

• Publisher: Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa
• Journal: Ochrona Zabytków
• Year: 1993
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 109-124

Dates

published

1993

Contributors

author

Guć-Jednaszewska Teresa

Identifiers

ISSN

0029-8247