Malowidła ścienne w kościele św. Anny w Warszawie i ich konserwacja

• Authors: Zdziarska Romana

Title variants

EN

FRISCOES IN ST. ANNE'S CHURCH IN WARSAW AND THEIR CONSERVATION

• Languages of publication: PL EN

Abstracts

EN

In this article the issue concerning frescoes and their conservation has for the first time been treated as an integral historical and artistic process. Each fact or hypothesis is based on archival research, on analysis of its formal, iconographie and conservation aspects. It can be assumed that St. Anne's Church in Warsaw was decorated with frescoes from its earliest times. The oldest painted element, however, in the form of a commemorative inscription plate for Bernardine monks deceased from the plague, preserved in the foremost area of the old cloister vaulting, can be dated back to the years 1522-1533, although the church itself had been put up in the middle of the 15th cent. The fragments of floral and plant compositions that fill out the subsequent principal areas of the cloister vaulting are from the same period (broken in 1956). Unfortunately, we do not know what Adam Stańczyk's paintings looked like (15 79 -159 6), even though their existence has been proved in archival documents. As many as four relics from the 17th cent, illustrate the character of the interior decoration in the various years of the century. In the years 1632-1637, in connection with the renewed beatification process of Ladislaus from Gnielniowo, patron of Warsaw, a panorama of Old Warsaw came into being, preserved in the monastery choir, becoming no doubt a part of the biographical series (today shielded by the console with the painting of Our Lady). Other preserved elements are the fragments of two layers of frescoes in the main nave (1st bay on the northern side) — the first from 1663-1667, the second from 1670-1677. Both decorations were of a veiling nature and differed solely in their colour scheme. The first fell off together with the wall plaster as a result of equilibrium disturbances due to the settling of the escarpment. In the years 1680-1691 decorations were executed here by the Italian workshop of the Giorgioli brothers. No traces have survived after these. During the same period, the fruit and floral ornamentation of the window came into being in the choir section. However, it cannot be formally connected with the work of the Giorgioli brothers, known from the Bernardine Church at Czerniakow. The complete painting decoration from 1746-1753, created during the last phase of the efforts towards the beatification of Ladislaus of Gnielniowo, is the work of a monk — the artist Walenty Żebrowski and his four-person workshop. The ideological and iconographie program of the paintings was prepared by Mateusz Roznerski. Walenty Żebrowski was a nobleman from the Łomżyńskie district who had entered the monastery in 1737. His earliest known work had no doubt been created before this year for the Church of the Cistercian nuns in Owińska. He painted churches for the Bernardine monks in Poznań, Wschowa, Ostrołęka, Warta, Warsaw, Kalisz, Skępe and Łęczyca. He died in 1765 in Kalisz following a fall from the scaffolding. During the 28 years of his work for the Bernardine monks he had various co-workers. The work in Warsaw was executed by brothers Michał Thiem, Liboriusz Staniszewski, Piotr Chawałkiewicz and most probably easel painter Antoni Słaboszewski. Żebrowski's paintings were characterized by a vivid imagination in the application of decorative elements, exellent landscapes with visionary architecture, lightness in figurai compositions with a rather flat treatment of the figures and delicate, luminous colours with a predominance of red, ochre, light blue and warm green. The artist most frequently worked in the al secco technique, using tempera only as a finish. In Warsaw, only the chapel of Blessed Ladislaus of 1750-1753 has been executed al fresco, the colours having been intensified with dry fresco. Zebrowski's paintings are not characterized by an ecstatic moou, typical for many compositions of the time. It is full of air, light, it is narrative and has a grace possessing features of the Polish Bernardine work for which theological-iconographic and historical documentation was of greater importance than formal aspects. In the decorations of the architectural elements he manifested an interest in classicist form, shyly stepping beyond rococo. The portrait of Żebrowski with a painter's palette and portraits of his co-workers have been preserved on the dome of the Blessed Ladislaus chapel — in the earthly section presenting saints of the Bernardine order and Polish saints. Zebrowski's work was repainted three times. Its first renovation was carried out a hundred years later by Marcin Zaleski (17961877), Prof. of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Zaleski was not faithful to the original technique, using half-oil tempera. For varnishing he used oil on Zebrowski's dry fresco. Often the new picture did not correspond to the original. Zaleski introduced perspective corrections into Zebrowski's architectural compositions. He repainted many faces, changed the figure arrangement and strengthened the colours in the spirit of the 19th cent. However, he did not add his own figures and did not alter the iconographie and ideological contents of the entire composition. His work encompassed the main nave only. In the years 1903-1905 and 1912 renovation of the church interior was carried out by an interior decoration firm established in the middle of the 19th cenf. by Antoni Strzałecki. Antoni's sons Antoni Jan and Jan Michał worked here under his supervision. They repainted Zebrowski's work with half-oil tempera and oil paint (the figure and ornamentation parts), altering them in their formal aspect, colour and iconographie aspect without the slightest respect for the late baroque. The paintings in the Blessed Ladislaus chapel underwent nearly a total transformation then. New figures were introduced here in the place of the authentic ones. For example Jan Sobieski and his wife Marysieńka replaced Zygmunt and Anna Jagiellonka, in the scene originally representing Anna Mazowiecka praying to Blessed Ladislaus the Sobieskis were also painted in, and in the place of Bishop Karnkowski Archbishop Popiel was painted in and the figure of Rector Fiatowski, as well as a portrait of Antoni Strzałecki. In the vaulting the names Jan and Antoni Strzałecki were scraped in. In this manner, the painting was transformed into a 19th-century composition, no doubt a loss to its artistic value. In 1916 the monastery choir became the object of similar transformations, carried out by K. Kowalski and F. Konecki. During the period of the 2nd Republic, the architect Jan Łukasik, while conducting reconstruction work of the Gothic parts, revealed a fragment of the first layer of 17th-century paintings in the main nave, which had been repainted. In the years 1947-1957, while the church was sinking along with the escarpment due to the digging carried out when building the W-Z route, with the efforts to save the architectural shape (architectural surveillance was under Beata Trylińska, petrification of the escarpment was under Cebertowicz), the first conservation work was conducted in the Blessed Ladislaus Chapel. However, the conservation did not lead to a total exposure and preservation of Zebrowski's work. The modern methods used in painting frescoes were still unknown at the time. The original painting was soiled during its washing with water, the half-oil temperas used in reconstructed areas becoming quickly soiled. The painting completely lost any colouring to speak of. Conservation measures that werq fully professional in their technical and artistic aspects were undertaken some years later, in 1972-1980. The work was carried out by the best specialists in this field in Poland, Konstanty and Władysław Tiunin, graduates of the Department of Monument Conservation of Warsaw's Academy of Fine Arts. The work on St. Anne's Church had several phases. As a rule, simultaneonsly to the conservation and reconstruction work done in one part of the church, studies were conducted of the subsequent part, where authentic fragments of Zebrowski's paintings were uncovered, and photographic and descriptive documentation was made. In each beginning and ending phase of the work, there were committees of specialists consisting of experts from the Ministry of Culture and Art and representatives of the Conservation Office of the City of Warsaw, the Voivodeship Conservation Office, the Archepiscopal-Curia and the Rector of St. Anne's Church. At the commencement of the work, the state of preservation of the paintings was as follows. In the chapel of Blessed Ladislaus there were greying paintings by Żebrowski with remnants of repainting jobs done by the Strzałeckis. In the apse vaulting there were inaptly reconstructed parts of angels, while the walls were covered with a grey-ochre distemper. The vaulting of the first span was devoid of any paintings, because following the catastrophe of 1947-1949 it was rebuilt and covered with a new layer of wall plaster. Remnants of the frescoes were preserved only on the highest wall. On the second span of the chancel, partly covered with new wall plaster, the remnants of much blackened frescoes were visible, while on the walls there were preserved paintings redone by the Strzałeckis. The vaulting of the nave, repaired and covered with wall plaster in 1950, was devoid of paintings with the exception of small fragments. The walls of the nave were covered with repaintings done by the Strzałeckis. The preliminary studies of the Tiunins proved that under the three repainted layers there are Zebrowski's frescoes. This brought on the decision that they would be conserved (with the same technique as the original work, i.e. in the church al secco deepened with tempera, and in the chapel al fresco strengthened with dry fresco. In order to uncover the authentic 18th-century paintings from under the later repaintings done in tempera with strongly binding agents (of egg white and yolk) and oil repaintings, the Tiunins applied lime-lye compresses, using on the average from 10 to 20 kilograms of lye for each 10 litres of lime cream with a differentiated time of reaction from 15 minutes to 2 hours. The remaining lime pulp was washed off with cold water many times, thanks to which the paintings became brighter and were also protected against possible crystallization of the remaining lye. Losses in the authentic paintings were supplemented on a fine-grained limestone base by means of tempera with an egg binder, with the use of line strokes, so that in accordance with the principles of modern conservation they would differ from the original on close-up, and give a cgmpact picture from a distance. A separate issue was the reconstruction of paintings on the vaulting of the nave. They were reconstructed on the basis of photographs taken by the architect B. Trylińska in 1942 representing the condition following the repaintings by the Strzałeckis, a photograph of a painting by M. Zaleski and the uncovered authentic paintings in the chancel. The Tiunins began reconstruction already well familiar with the principles of composition, the colours and details typical for Zebrowski's paintings. The paintings were done in dry fresco with the use of natural colour pigmentation in agreement with the colour scheme of Żebrowski. Thanks to the repeated spraying with water they became frescoes of great durability. In composition, the reconstruction was based on the state of preservation of the paintings after the repaintings of the Strzałeckis, but was cleared of any 19th-century accretions. It is a very successful artistic experiment rendering Zebrowski's form and principles of composition. In order to record all the painting phases present on the walls of St. Anne's Church, the Tiunins left one fragment as an example on each of the walls. The elements added by the Tiunins are the mensae of the illusionistic chancel altars and the wainscot of the nave. The frescoes in St. Anne's Church unite the architecture with the altars. The most authentic frescoes have been preserved in the chapel of Blessed Ladislaus, the apse and on the walls of the nave — they constitute a part of the creative work of W. Żebrowski. In the vaulting of the chapel there is a portrait representation of a group consisting of five painters, which will be of great importance in the forther studies on Zebrowski's work.

Keywords

PL

konserwacja malowideł ściennych; kościół św. Anny w Warszawie; barokowe malowidła ścienne; wczesnorenesansowa dekoracja roślinna; polichromie w kościele św. Anny; twórcy malowideł; powstawanie malowideł; dzieła Walentego Żebrowskiego; renowacje malowideł Żebrowskiego; Konstanty i Władysława Tiuninowie; dorobek twórczy Konstantego i Władysławy Tiuninów; błogosławiony Ładysław z Gielniowa; patron Warszawy, Polski i Litwy; odtworzenie polichromii

• Publisher: Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa
• Journal: Ochrona Zabytków
• Year: 1989
• Issue: 3-4
• Pages: 207-237

Dates

published

1989

Contributors

author

Zdziarska Romana

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Identifiers

ISSN

0029-8247