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DOI Artikel:Schulz, Anne Markham: Writing Giammaria Mosca called Padovano
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49350#0254
249
ANNĘ MARKHAM SCHULZ
Providence, Brown University
Writing Giammaria Mosca called Padovano*
Iam delighted to have been asked to deliver a
talk at the presentation of my book for many
reasons: first, because it gives me an opportunity
to thank publicly all my Polish friends without whom
this book could not have been written; second,
because this lecture signals the successful
conclusion of ten years of work and the resolution of
an infinitude of seemingly intractable problems; and
third, because I have been asked to do what every
author dreams of doing - namely, of presenting what
in effect is a review of his own work!
I do not need to tell this audience that my book is
the first monograph on Padovano, the first treatment
that gives equal and complete coverage to his Italian
and his Polish careers, and the first to discuss
Padovano’s Polish career in any Western language.
In addition, I think, my book offers some lessons for
the futurę conduct of research in the art history of
Poland. One is the importance of archival research.
Polish art historians have at their disposal a gold
minę in the four major archives in Cracow - the
archives of the city, of Wawel Castle, of the
Cathedral, and of the Curia, and at Warsaw, in the
archives of the royal treasury, all of which are
extraordinary for their completeness. Up to 1551 the
city archives of Cracow have been scoured for
notices relating to artists and artisans by the editors
of Cracovia artificum\ and the same has been done
up to 1541 by Bolesław Przybyszewski, working in
the archives of the Curia. But beyond those dates and
for the archives of Wawel Castle, in particular, only
the most fragmentary notices have been published.
A thorough and systematic search - which is to say,
a perusal of every register in each of these archives
for every year of a set period - would turn up a
wealth of unknown facts about sculptors, painters,
and architects of the period. I myself encountered
new notices regarding Gian Jacopo Caraglio and
Giovanni Cini, and so many unpublished documents
about Girolamo Canavesi that I could not keep track
of them. In truth, the documents I found relating to
Canavesi described his activity as a merchant, which
seems to have engrossed him far morę than his
art. While perhaps not of supreme interest to the art
historian, these documents would shed much light
upon the social and economic history of Italians
settled in Cracow in the second half of the
16th-century. As a dissertation subject for a
promising historian, a biography of Canavesi, based
on archival research, would be excellent. To be surę,
it is necessary to know Latin, which, by now perhaps
has become an arcane subject in Polish schools. But
the history of the Renaissance cannot be studied
properly without it. In the case of Padovano, my
archival research turned up totally unknown
documents, which proved the origin of the Tombs of
two bishops of Vilnius, Walerian Protasewicz and
Jan of the Lithuanian Dukes, in our sculptor’s
workshop. Both were intended for the Cathedral of
Vilnius. The Tomb of Bishop Jan does not survive,
but fragments of the Tomb of Bishop Protasewicz
are still preserved in the erypt of the Cathedral.
Pursuing the trail of documents pertaining to the
manufacture of the ciborium for the church of St.
Mary’s at Cracow, I discovered its original patrons -
the Confraternity of the Assumption of the Virgin -
and its original site in the gallery above the church’s
entrance portal, as well as the earliest mention of
Girolamo Canavesi in Poland. Newly discovered
documents concerning Padovano’s house gave the
datę of Padovano’s death to within a month. By
contrast, the Italian archives - being, on the one hand,
infinitely vaster, and, on the other, less completely
preserved, and having undergone morę intensive
exploration than the Polish archives - yielded less
startling discoveries. Nevertheless, archival research
in Padua did enable me to write a precise account of
the various phases involved in the manufacture of the
relief of the Miracle of the Goblet in the Santo, an
account in which the Paduan bronze sculptor, Tiziano
Minio, madę an unexpected appearance as a young
apprentice in Padovano’s shop.
ANNĘ MARKHAM SCHULZ
Providence, Brown University
Writing Giammaria Mosca called Padovano*
Iam delighted to have been asked to deliver a
talk at the presentation of my book for many
reasons: first, because it gives me an opportunity
to thank publicly all my Polish friends without whom
this book could not have been written; second,
because this lecture signals the successful
conclusion of ten years of work and the resolution of
an infinitude of seemingly intractable problems; and
third, because I have been asked to do what every
author dreams of doing - namely, of presenting what
in effect is a review of his own work!
I do not need to tell this audience that my book is
the first monograph on Padovano, the first treatment
that gives equal and complete coverage to his Italian
and his Polish careers, and the first to discuss
Padovano’s Polish career in any Western language.
In addition, I think, my book offers some lessons for
the futurę conduct of research in the art history of
Poland. One is the importance of archival research.
Polish art historians have at their disposal a gold
minę in the four major archives in Cracow - the
archives of the city, of Wawel Castle, of the
Cathedral, and of the Curia, and at Warsaw, in the
archives of the royal treasury, all of which are
extraordinary for their completeness. Up to 1551 the
city archives of Cracow have been scoured for
notices relating to artists and artisans by the editors
of Cracovia artificum\ and the same has been done
up to 1541 by Bolesław Przybyszewski, working in
the archives of the Curia. But beyond those dates and
for the archives of Wawel Castle, in particular, only
the most fragmentary notices have been published.
A thorough and systematic search - which is to say,
a perusal of every register in each of these archives
for every year of a set period - would turn up a
wealth of unknown facts about sculptors, painters,
and architects of the period. I myself encountered
new notices regarding Gian Jacopo Caraglio and
Giovanni Cini, and so many unpublished documents
about Girolamo Canavesi that I could not keep track
of them. In truth, the documents I found relating to
Canavesi described his activity as a merchant, which
seems to have engrossed him far morę than his
art. While perhaps not of supreme interest to the art
historian, these documents would shed much light
upon the social and economic history of Italians
settled in Cracow in the second half of the
16th-century. As a dissertation subject for a
promising historian, a biography of Canavesi, based
on archival research, would be excellent. To be surę,
it is necessary to know Latin, which, by now perhaps
has become an arcane subject in Polish schools. But
the history of the Renaissance cannot be studied
properly without it. In the case of Padovano, my
archival research turned up totally unknown
documents, which proved the origin of the Tombs of
two bishops of Vilnius, Walerian Protasewicz and
Jan of the Lithuanian Dukes, in our sculptor’s
workshop. Both were intended for the Cathedral of
Vilnius. The Tomb of Bishop Jan does not survive,
but fragments of the Tomb of Bishop Protasewicz
are still preserved in the erypt of the Cathedral.
Pursuing the trail of documents pertaining to the
manufacture of the ciborium for the church of St.
Mary’s at Cracow, I discovered its original patrons -
the Confraternity of the Assumption of the Virgin -
and its original site in the gallery above the church’s
entrance portal, as well as the earliest mention of
Girolamo Canavesi in Poland. Newly discovered
documents concerning Padovano’s house gave the
datę of Padovano’s death to within a month. By
contrast, the Italian archives - being, on the one hand,
infinitely vaster, and, on the other, less completely
preserved, and having undergone morę intensive
exploration than the Polish archives - yielded less
startling discoveries. Nevertheless, archival research
in Padua did enable me to write a precise account of
the various phases involved in the manufacture of the
relief of the Miracle of the Goblet in the Santo, an
account in which the Paduan bronze sculptor, Tiziano
Minio, madę an unexpected appearance as a young
apprentice in Padovano’s shop.