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DOI Artikel:Kalinowski, Konstanty: Roman artistic import to Wrocław: sculptures of St. Elizabeth Chapel
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28183#0012
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KONSTANTY KALINOWSKI
corona radiata.24 Putti at her feet hold a septer and a coronet, the symbols of her status
and they seem to be a reference to her earthly dignity she gave up. There are also
bread and a purse, all together symbolizing privileges, generosity and charity.
The way of presenting St. Elisabeth as a young beautiful woman in her cloister
robe and a princely coat is different from other, generally applied iconographical models
of presentation of this saint. She was usually shown as a matron in a humble dress.
Also the collection of all her attributes (but the model of a church and roses) is rather
unusual. Some difficulties arise when one tempts to find a homogeneous interpretation
of the three crowns that appear in the iconography of the saint since the second half
of the 15th century. They are viewed as symbols of her holy life when she was a virgin,
then a wife, then a widow. It can be also interpreted as an allusion to her purity, martyr-
dom and apostleship. Noteworthy is the multiplication of the attributes showing her
social status: the ermine coat, coronet, septer, their significance becomes understandable
only in a context of the program glorifying the family of landgraves of Hessen.25
Ercole Ferrata’s style, although close to the one represented by G. L. Bernini due
to many year’s cooperation of both artists, in the individual realizations seems to have
more features in common with the creativity of Alessandro Algardi; for example the
characteristic exaggerated idealization of a figure particularly noticeable in the sculpture
in Wrocław. Soft and delicate modelling is also one of the features. Also the gesture
of the hands and a turn of a slightly raised head belong to a constant repertoire of this
artist. It can be compared with the sculpture of St Agnes from the St Agnes church
at Piazza Navona in Rome.26
The statue of St Elisabeth shows the characteristics for the Roman sculpturs of Ber-
nini’s circle, masterly freedom in the application of plastic means, accuracy in depicting
materiality of a robe and flesh. Ferrata does the modelling of folds in a soft chiaroscuro
by means of which he obtains the effect of peace and certain classicism. The pair of
angels flanking the saint in this composition can be compared with the angels carrying
the frames of the altar paintings in the church in Castel Gandolfo, designed by Bernini
(in 1658- 1661) and in S Andrea in Rome (1658- 1670).27
The tomb of the founder, in its architectural shape, remains in a direct relation to
the altar as its counterpart, although the program dedicated to the cardinal begins already
at the chapel portal above which the cardinal’s bust and his coat of arms were placed.
24 F. Schmoll, Die Heilige Elisabeth in der bildenden Kunst des 13. bis 16. Jahrhunderts, Marburg
1918; K. Künstle, Ikonograhie der Heiligen, Freiburg 1926, p. 198-206; L. Reau, Iconographie de l'art
chrétien, t. 2, Paris 1958, p. 418.
2sThe glorifying character of the program of the chapel is clearly stressed by the title of a leaflet printed
in 1700 on the ocasion of bringing Figures to the chapel „Würdiges Andencken von dem Durchleuchtigsten
Stamm-Hause der HI. Elisabeth Fürstin und Landgräfin zu Hessen wie auch Dero gantzen ...Familiae von
der Hl Elisabeth an biss auff Friedericum...”. The subject of the paintings decorating walls and the voults
of the chaple are devoted to the life, deeds and virtues of the saint, which, according to baroque symbolics
are Finally crowned by the glorification scene presented in the heavenly sphere — in the cupola of the
chaple; see K. Kalinowski, Kaplica ..., p. 291 -292.
26 R. Wittkower, Art..., Fig. 119A.
27 R. Wittkower, G. L Bernini, London 1955, p. 223 - 224, fig. 75, 79. Similar in style angel executed
by E. Ferrate in the altar of St. Thomas of Villanova. Rome. S. Agostino, see J. Montagu, Roman Baroque
Sculpture. The Industry of Art. New Haven-London 2 Ed. 1992, Fig. 20.
KONSTANTY KALINOWSKI
corona radiata.24 Putti at her feet hold a septer and a coronet, the symbols of her status
and they seem to be a reference to her earthly dignity she gave up. There are also
bread and a purse, all together symbolizing privileges, generosity and charity.
The way of presenting St. Elisabeth as a young beautiful woman in her cloister
robe and a princely coat is different from other, generally applied iconographical models
of presentation of this saint. She was usually shown as a matron in a humble dress.
Also the collection of all her attributes (but the model of a church and roses) is rather
unusual. Some difficulties arise when one tempts to find a homogeneous interpretation
of the three crowns that appear in the iconography of the saint since the second half
of the 15th century. They are viewed as symbols of her holy life when she was a virgin,
then a wife, then a widow. It can be also interpreted as an allusion to her purity, martyr-
dom and apostleship. Noteworthy is the multiplication of the attributes showing her
social status: the ermine coat, coronet, septer, their significance becomes understandable
only in a context of the program glorifying the family of landgraves of Hessen.25
Ercole Ferrata’s style, although close to the one represented by G. L. Bernini due
to many year’s cooperation of both artists, in the individual realizations seems to have
more features in common with the creativity of Alessandro Algardi; for example the
characteristic exaggerated idealization of a figure particularly noticeable in the sculpture
in Wrocław. Soft and delicate modelling is also one of the features. Also the gesture
of the hands and a turn of a slightly raised head belong to a constant repertoire of this
artist. It can be compared with the sculpture of St Agnes from the St Agnes church
at Piazza Navona in Rome.26
The statue of St Elisabeth shows the characteristics for the Roman sculpturs of Ber-
nini’s circle, masterly freedom in the application of plastic means, accuracy in depicting
materiality of a robe and flesh. Ferrata does the modelling of folds in a soft chiaroscuro
by means of which he obtains the effect of peace and certain classicism. The pair of
angels flanking the saint in this composition can be compared with the angels carrying
the frames of the altar paintings in the church in Castel Gandolfo, designed by Bernini
(in 1658- 1661) and in S Andrea in Rome (1658- 1670).27
The tomb of the founder, in its architectural shape, remains in a direct relation to
the altar as its counterpart, although the program dedicated to the cardinal begins already
at the chapel portal above which the cardinal’s bust and his coat of arms were placed.
24 F. Schmoll, Die Heilige Elisabeth in der bildenden Kunst des 13. bis 16. Jahrhunderts, Marburg
1918; K. Künstle, Ikonograhie der Heiligen, Freiburg 1926, p. 198-206; L. Reau, Iconographie de l'art
chrétien, t. 2, Paris 1958, p. 418.
2sThe glorifying character of the program of the chapel is clearly stressed by the title of a leaflet printed
in 1700 on the ocasion of bringing Figures to the chapel „Würdiges Andencken von dem Durchleuchtigsten
Stamm-Hause der HI. Elisabeth Fürstin und Landgräfin zu Hessen wie auch Dero gantzen ...Familiae von
der Hl Elisabeth an biss auff Friedericum...”. The subject of the paintings decorating walls and the voults
of the chaple are devoted to the life, deeds and virtues of the saint, which, according to baroque symbolics
are Finally crowned by the glorification scene presented in the heavenly sphere — in the cupola of the
chaple; see K. Kalinowski, Kaplica ..., p. 291 -292.
26 R. Wittkower, Art..., Fig. 119A.
27 R. Wittkower, G. L Bernini, London 1955, p. 223 - 224, fig. 75, 79. Similar in style angel executed
by E. Ferrate in the altar of St. Thomas of Villanova. Rome. S. Agostino, see J. Montagu, Roman Baroque
Sculpture. The Industry of Art. New Haven-London 2 Ed. 1992, Fig. 20.