An Unknown Painting by the Cracow Master of the Holy Kinship

• Authors: Bury Katarzyna

Title variants

PL

Nieznany obraz krakowskiego Mistrza Rodziny Marii

• Languages of publication: PL EN

Abstracts

EN

The present paper presents a hitherto unknown painting from the beginning of the sixteenth century, or rather its fragments which were re-used as to make a drawer, part of a sacristy cabinet. Five pieces of the painting have survived to this day, of which four have preserved the paint layer. The painting was done in tempera on limewood support with gilding in the background, halos and some elements of the draperies. The panels, now in a private collection, are heavily damaged: visible are numerous cracks, the paint layer is flaking in many places, and there are traces of woodworm damage on the reverse. The painting has never undergone a conservation treatment. The panels have been numbered in the following way: panel I depicts St Anne and Joachim against a tali wali; panel II shows Mary, Joseph and Mary Salome against gilt background with punched decoration in its upper part; panel III shows Judas Thaddeus, Jacob the Less and Simon (?); panel IV is a plank with fragmented depiction of Salome holding a book on her lap, whereas the plank of panel V was stripped of the paint layer. Panel I, II and V measure approximately 48 x 65 cm, panel III is approximately 60 x 65 cm, and the remnant of painting on panel IV measures 27 x 65 cm. Every plank is about 1.3 cm thick. Iconographic analysis allowed for a hypothetical reconstruction of the original composition which most probably featured St Anne with her husbands and Mary, Jesus and Mary's two stepsisters with their sons; in total thirteen persons. The theme, particularly popular in panel painting of Lesser Poland, has its sources in the Apocrypha: the description of Mary's stepsisters and their children can be found, among others, in the introduction to the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, the so-called Trinubium Annae. Iconographic analysis revealed numerous parallels of the painting in ąuestion with the works from the workshop of the Cracow Master of the Holy Kinship, being one of the most active painting workshops in Cracow at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Additionally, the subject matter of the newly discovered painting, i.e. the Holy Kinship, confirms the appropriateness of the surrogate name given to the anonymous Cracow master. The author of the article also tried to demonstrate how the subseąuent paintings depicting the Holy Kinship, produced by the Cracow workshop, influenced one another, and proposed to date the painting under consideration between 1510-1520, favouring the later date. Originally the painting may have been destined for St Anne's chapel in the parish church of St John the Baptist at Pilica and commissioned by Mikołaj (Nicholas) of Pilica, then the owner of the place, who, according to archival documents, supported the church. The painting under discussion is a testimony to the extensive propagandist action undertaken by the bishop of Cracow, Jan Konarski, who expanded the cult of St Anne over the whole diocese of Cracow. The bishop did not restrict himself to merely theoretical propagation of the cult of Jesus' grandmother, but was personally involved in its application by funding artworks, such as the high altar for the church at Bodzentyn or one at Biecz.

• Publisher: Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Institute of History of Art
• Journal: Modus. Prace z historii sztuki
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 10-11
• Pages: 57-78

Contributors

author

Bury Katarzyna