DOI Artikel:
Miodońska, Barbara: Motywy Mistrza Kart do Gry i jego kopisty w krakowskich rękopisach iluminowanych około połowy XV wieku
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48235#0040
BARBARA MIODOŃSKA
who died on 16 October 1451. The inscription in the hand
of the scribe of the manuscript, Mikołaj Setesza (Sietesza),
a curate of the Cathedral of Cracow, give evidence thet
both parts of the Antiphonary were written before 1457.
The figures of the two fighting Wild Men in the lower
border ofleaf 155 v. in Part I (Fig. 8) have their prototypes
in the engraving by the Master of the Power of Women for
the eight of Wild Men (L. 27; Geisberg /1918/ I. 8; Fig. 7).
This time there is no doubt that the illuminator madę use
of this very engraving, as is shown by the representation of
the two figures, morę slender and delicate than those in the
cards of the Master of the Playing Cards.
It follows from the examples cited that both the engravings
of the Master of the Playing Cards and the copies of these,
which according to van Buren and Edmunds were already
in existence before the middle of the fifteenth century, were
known in Cracow about 1450. In the examples cited here,
iconographical reasons were the criterion for the choice of
motifs. The motifs copied from the engravings and connected
into sets form a commentary on the scenes in the initials and
are linked with them on the principle of contrast in meaning
The fighting Wild Men appear beside representations of St’
John the Baptist (the Antiphonary of Adam of Będków), the
Birth of Christ and the Resurrection (Missal no. 2 (KP) as
a symbol of the quarrelsome base passions of the original sa-
vage world of naturę, to which St. John opposes the announce-
ment of morał order and the coming of the kingdom of the
spirit. The Birth of Christ and his Resurrection are important
stages in the realization of this kingdom. The Yirgin Birth
of Christ is the triumph of chastity, of which the Wild Man
is the antithesis; the Resurrection is Christ’s victory over
sin and death, which the Wild Man may also personify.
The swan accompaying Christ rising from the dead is a popular
medieval symbol of the joyful death of a martyr.
The workshop practice here described was also applied
early by Silesian illuminators, as exemplified in the Wrocław
Antiphonary from the Wrocław Diocesan Archives (no. 47),
lost during the Second World War. Ernst Kloss, who assigned
it to 1410—15, did not notice that some of the figures of
Wild Men hunting with dogs which the illuminator intro-
duced into the margins of the leavers are derived from dra-
wings which originated in the second quarter of the fifteenth
century.
Tłum. Claire Grece-Dąbrowska
who died on 16 October 1451. The inscription in the hand
of the scribe of the manuscript, Mikołaj Setesza (Sietesza),
a curate of the Cathedral of Cracow, give evidence thet
both parts of the Antiphonary were written before 1457.
The figures of the two fighting Wild Men in the lower
border ofleaf 155 v. in Part I (Fig. 8) have their prototypes
in the engraving by the Master of the Power of Women for
the eight of Wild Men (L. 27; Geisberg /1918/ I. 8; Fig. 7).
This time there is no doubt that the illuminator madę use
of this very engraving, as is shown by the representation of
the two figures, morę slender and delicate than those in the
cards of the Master of the Playing Cards.
It follows from the examples cited that both the engravings
of the Master of the Playing Cards and the copies of these,
which according to van Buren and Edmunds were already
in existence before the middle of the fifteenth century, were
known in Cracow about 1450. In the examples cited here,
iconographical reasons were the criterion for the choice of
motifs. The motifs copied from the engravings and connected
into sets form a commentary on the scenes in the initials and
are linked with them on the principle of contrast in meaning
The fighting Wild Men appear beside representations of St’
John the Baptist (the Antiphonary of Adam of Będków), the
Birth of Christ and the Resurrection (Missal no. 2 (KP) as
a symbol of the quarrelsome base passions of the original sa-
vage world of naturę, to which St. John opposes the announce-
ment of morał order and the coming of the kingdom of the
spirit. The Birth of Christ and his Resurrection are important
stages in the realization of this kingdom. The Yirgin Birth
of Christ is the triumph of chastity, of which the Wild Man
is the antithesis; the Resurrection is Christ’s victory over
sin and death, which the Wild Man may also personify.
The swan accompaying Christ rising from the dead is a popular
medieval symbol of the joyful death of a martyr.
The workshop practice here described was also applied
early by Silesian illuminators, as exemplified in the Wrocław
Antiphonary from the Wrocław Diocesan Archives (no. 47),
lost during the Second World War. Ernst Kloss, who assigned
it to 1410—15, did not notice that some of the figures of
Wild Men hunting with dogs which the illuminator intro-
duced into the margins of the leavers are derived from dra-
wings which originated in the second quarter of the fifteenth
century.
Tłum. Claire Grece-Dąbrowska