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Portal Sieni Gdańskiej na Długim Targu i wystrój rzeźbiarski kamienicy Andrzeja Schlütera Starszego przy ul. Piwnej 1 w Gdańsku

100%

Angielska-Szemelowska A.

Ochrona Zabytków

1992

issue 4

324-341

The portal of the house at 43 Długi Targ Street, called „the Danzig Vestibule" and the sculptures at the facade of the house at 1 Piwna Street in Gdańsk are counted among the most beautiful monuments of the town. Unfortunately, only the portal of the Danzig Vestibule survived from the magnificent decoration of its elevation which is presented at a seventeenth- century engraving. The object, which represents the style of the .so-called „northern mannerism", was probably created in the last decade of the 16th c. in the workshop of a sculptor of Flemish origin, Willem van der Meer the Elder. The analysis of this work licenses the hypothesis that the inventor of its artistic form drew models from Cornelis Floris. The ideological program of the portal combines the Neoplatonic ideas with the civic rights obeyed in the protestant Danzig. The sculptures placed on the facade of the house at 1 /2 Piwna Street, created half a century later, include busts of kings, soldiers and ancient heroes, mascarons and ornaments in the shell style and a portal richly decorated with figurai sculptures. Based on research we suppose that most of the sculptures were made by Andrzej Schluter the Elder in the years 1 6 3 8 -4 0 to the order of the first owner of the house, Hans von Enden. He probably designed the interiors of his house himself in the way that expressed a complex political and religious program. In the centre of the facade composition there are sculptures glorifying the military activity of the Vasa king as well as reliefs which testify to his interest in Noestoicism. In the portal sculptures personifying theological virtues were placed. As the portal and the sculptures of the facade were preserved in a very bad state the authoress of the present article was employed to execute research and conservation of these objects in the years 1983-85. The damages observed included substantial losses in the sculptures, sliding and fracturing of elements as well as numerous traces of fire. Moreover, the surface was covered with thick layers of paint and substances resulting from sulphate corrosion of stone. After research it was concluded that the objects had been made of sandstone with limy and loamy binder, called Gotlandic from the place of its origin. Low resistance of that type of stone to atmospheric influence should be attributed to its mineral composition, as well as with low durability parameters, high porosity and absorption level and its ability to conduct water. The presence of the limy binder contributes to the granular disintegration of sandstone and to the emergence of substances containing gypsum. Moreover, loamy minerals, constituting the other component of the binder, are susceptible to changes of humidity and temperature. Due to the so-called „swelling effect" strong internal stresses occur in stone, causing the element to fracture. Another factor which predestined sculptures of Gotlandic sandstone to this process is the microtexture of mica. The disintegration of the sculptures at 1 /2 Piwna Street and the portal of the Danzig Vestibule was significantly accelerated by incompetent conservation in the past. The conservation was limited to inserting fillings made of another kind of sandstone into the structure of the portal of the Danzig Vestibule, replenishing the losses in highly alkaline sculptures with strong and non-porous cement and covering the surface with several layers of emulsion paint (the Danzig Vestibule) or oil paint (Piwna Street). The damages in the discussed objects were extended by fires which happened in both houses in the past. The new conservation plan included both the technical renovation of all the objects and the restoration of their formed function of grand residences. The artistic arrangement was to be realized on the basis of research and iconography. The authoress, who worked on the conservation of all the objects, was greatly surprised to discover an original, well-preserved Baroque polychromy on the sculptures and the portal of Hans von Enden's house. This important discovery allowed for reconstructing the significance and function of polychromy in case of stone sculptures. Moreover,thanks to its specific properties, it protected the stone sculptures from the destructive influence of the environment. The conservation of the portal of the Danzig Vestibule and the sculptures on the facade of 1 /2 Piwna Street was started with a preventive strengthening of the falling surface of stones, pasting and protecting the fracturing elements, splits and cracks. Then the layers produced by sulphate corrosion, emulsion and oil paint were removed from the surface by mechanical and chemical methods (by hydrolysis). The objects lacking the original polychromy were desalted by forced migration to diffused environment. Cement inserts and additions were carefully removed. Both portals and the sculptures were structurally impregnated and made resistant to water. The fracturing elements were additionally strengthened with aluminium tie bars, also for the safety of the users of the buildings. The losses in sculptures were refilled with mortars based on epoxy resin (the facade reliefs) or on lime and cement. The latter were prepared of low alkaline Portland cement and a mixture of aggregates of chosen granulation. Then, the well-preserved original Baroque polychromy was conserved following the earlier advice of the Conservation Committee. Finally, it should be mentioned that all conservation procedures were preceded with chemical analyses of paint layers and the level of stone salinity.

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1 Ochrona Zabytków

1 Angielska-Szemelowska A.

1 1992

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Portal Sieni Gdańskiej na Długim Targu i wystrój rzeźbiarski kamienicy Andrzeja Schlütera Starszego przy ul. Piwnej 1 w Gdańsku