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Krakowski ołtarz Wita Stwosza i jego losy

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Walczy Ł.

Ochrona Zabytków

1983

issue 3-4

193-210

In nearly five hundred years of its history the main altar in St Mary’s Church in Cracow, completed in 1489, the work of Wit Stwosz, an outstanding sculptor, painter and constructor, underwent a number of conservations and renovations. Scarce source materials from the 1st half of the 16th century inform that already at that time a fine ornamental sculpture was seriously damaged; however, we do not know if they were repaired. The first major restoration of the altar took place in summer of 1643. The gilding was then made up and a new layer of oil or distemper paint (parts of the colour) was put on flesh tints, robes and on some other relief parts. Because of that, a general tone of the altar got darker. In the 18th century the Rev Jacek Łopacki (1723—61), archipresbyter in St Mary’s Church, planned to replace Stwosz’s polyptych with a baroque altar but did not manage to collect money for this investment. The deteriorating condition of the altar was subject to an emergency restoration in 1795, which consisted in putting a new layer of oil paint on parts painted in the 17th century and parts most heavily eaten by deathwatch (pinnacles over the coping’s canopies and branches of the Jess Tree). The most extensive restoration of the altar was carried out in 1866—71 under a supervision of professors from Cracow School of Fine Arts: Władysław Luszczakiewicz and Jan Matejko. During the' restoration all constructional parts of the altar were exchanged (except for side framework and sliding wings) and therefore it was necessary to paint anew two views of the interiors in the Annunciation and the Descent of the Holy Ghost. Following the principle to bring the altar to the condition worthy of the church interior all missing details were complemented; in some places even those which had not been there originally were put (pinnacle in the key of a semicircular arch in the cabinet). Reconstruction of pinnacles over canopies of the crown was never done because of objections on part of the conservator (Paweł Popiel). All gildings were renewed (on outside bas reliefs as matt); parts painted during earlier renovations were repainted (Łuszczkiewicz, well aware of inability to have it done properly, excluded the attempts to uncover the original polychromy from Stwosz’s days). The next renovation of the altar began in summer 1946 after its return fron Nurnberg, where it had been taken by the Germans, and lasted till summer of 1949 (for some reasons tie altar could return to St Mary’s Curch only in 19f7). The work was done under a supervision of Marian Slonecki, later professor at Conservation Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. As far as poljchromy is concerned, the renovation was just a contnuation of the earlier one, which allowed to uncover in full, an original coloured robe from Stwosz’s days. Tie gilding and missing elements of the sculpture were supplemented. The wood was protected against noxious insects by its impregnation with a solution of arsenic in alcohol and minium coating of unpolychromed xnd ungilded parts. Apart from that, figures of predella were impregnated in carbon dioxide. However, the problem of stabilizing the cabinet damaged during its dsmantling by a Nurnberg group in 1940 has not beer as yet successfully solved.

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1 Ochrona Zabytków

1 Walczy Ł.

1 1983

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Krakowski ołtarz Wita Stwosza i jego losy