DOI Artikel:
Jamski, Piotr: Kaplica świętego Kazimierza w Wilnie i jej twórcy
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49518#0050
44
Piotr J. Jamski
remains unknown. It is possible that the sculptors
and merchants Laurent Swijs of Amsterdam and
Pieter Adriaen van Delft as well as the merchant
Philippo Calendrini were also involved in these
transactions. Expensive materials were applied to
decorate the interiors, including black marble from
the Meuse valley, the result in all likelihood from
deposits in Namur and Dinant, as well as Basecle
and red marble originating from Rance. The smali
amounts of white marble came from Carrara. To face
the external elevations the Silurian grey-green sand-
stone of Gotland known as ‘Burgsvik’ was applied.
As work progressed on the Chapel, preparations
were madę to create an appropriately rich interior
furnishing, which involved, among other things, or-
dering a magnicent altar of silver and ebony from
Augsburg, that featured eight cast figures from
around 1627 by Hans Jakob Bair the elder and
younger which support the burial reliąuary of St.
Casimir. From the materials presented it would ap-
pear that Sigismund III Vasa was the initiator of the
sanctuary chapel in Vilna Cathedral in anticipation of
the ceremoniał translation of the Commonwealth’s
patron saint as planned for the 1630s. Work was con-
tinued under Ladislaus IV, as a result of which a sepa-
rate sacristy arose alongside painted and decorative
work, such as that of the cupola. Among other artists,
the painter Bartolomeus Strobel (d. 1636) and
Giacinto Campana (1639-1644), the architects and
builder Benedict Molli (1646-8) were brought in. In
the years preceding the Swedish and Russich inva-
sion of 1654, the Chapel was placed under the pro-
tection of the entire Vasa family, as represented by:
Cecylia Renata, Constance, the king’s brother John
Casimir and Charles Ferdinand.
For Sigismund III Vasa it was important to em-
phasise the Roman character of the architecture, in
which respect references were madę not only to the
Baroąue architecture evolving in the actual city situ-
ated on the Tiber but above all that of the Papacy.
There is no doubt that the considerations of Robert
Bellarmin, according to which Reality (meaning
both naturę and human creatures) was intended as a
manifestation of God’s presence, and as a conse-
ąuence of this maxim the creating of the most mag-
nificence, richest trappings of the divine cult. The
Vilna building was also intended to forcibly lay em-
phasis on the confession of the king in a city of var-
ied ethnic, cultural and religious make-up, in which
Christian Orthodoxy, Protestantism and Judaism
were also very strongly presented. The Chapel of St.
Casimir in Vilna represents one of the most impor-
tant expressions of the dynastie and religious propa-
ganda conducted under the three Vasa monarchs of
the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, who, being
portrayed as inheritors of the Jagiełlonians and spir-
itual guardians of the holy Royal Prince, created a
magnificent monument of mutual glory.
Translated by Peter Martyn
1. The Castle complex ofYilna. Detail ofa panorama
of the city by Tadeusz Makowski, ca. 1600
2. St. Casimir Chapel and its sacristy. Detail of the
painting St. Casimir by an anonymous artist
3. St. Casimir Chapel in the mid-17th cent.
4. St. Casimir Chapel and the Lower Castle prior to
the latter ’s destruction
Acknowledgemenmts
Collections of Lietuvos Dailes Muzeiejaus in
Vilna, inventory no. T 888: 2
Daniel Petzeld, Lux Tyszkoviciancie, Vilna 1649: 3
Anonymous drawing from 1802: 4
Piotr J. Jamski
remains unknown. It is possible that the sculptors
and merchants Laurent Swijs of Amsterdam and
Pieter Adriaen van Delft as well as the merchant
Philippo Calendrini were also involved in these
transactions. Expensive materials were applied to
decorate the interiors, including black marble from
the Meuse valley, the result in all likelihood from
deposits in Namur and Dinant, as well as Basecle
and red marble originating from Rance. The smali
amounts of white marble came from Carrara. To face
the external elevations the Silurian grey-green sand-
stone of Gotland known as ‘Burgsvik’ was applied.
As work progressed on the Chapel, preparations
were madę to create an appropriately rich interior
furnishing, which involved, among other things, or-
dering a magnicent altar of silver and ebony from
Augsburg, that featured eight cast figures from
around 1627 by Hans Jakob Bair the elder and
younger which support the burial reliąuary of St.
Casimir. From the materials presented it would ap-
pear that Sigismund III Vasa was the initiator of the
sanctuary chapel in Vilna Cathedral in anticipation of
the ceremoniał translation of the Commonwealth’s
patron saint as planned for the 1630s. Work was con-
tinued under Ladislaus IV, as a result of which a sepa-
rate sacristy arose alongside painted and decorative
work, such as that of the cupola. Among other artists,
the painter Bartolomeus Strobel (d. 1636) and
Giacinto Campana (1639-1644), the architects and
builder Benedict Molli (1646-8) were brought in. In
the years preceding the Swedish and Russich inva-
sion of 1654, the Chapel was placed under the pro-
tection of the entire Vasa family, as represented by:
Cecylia Renata, Constance, the king’s brother John
Casimir and Charles Ferdinand.
For Sigismund III Vasa it was important to em-
phasise the Roman character of the architecture, in
which respect references were madę not only to the
Baroąue architecture evolving in the actual city situ-
ated on the Tiber but above all that of the Papacy.
There is no doubt that the considerations of Robert
Bellarmin, according to which Reality (meaning
both naturę and human creatures) was intended as a
manifestation of God’s presence, and as a conse-
ąuence of this maxim the creating of the most mag-
nificence, richest trappings of the divine cult. The
Vilna building was also intended to forcibly lay em-
phasis on the confession of the king in a city of var-
ied ethnic, cultural and religious make-up, in which
Christian Orthodoxy, Protestantism and Judaism
were also very strongly presented. The Chapel of St.
Casimir in Vilna represents one of the most impor-
tant expressions of the dynastie and religious propa-
ganda conducted under the three Vasa monarchs of
the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, who, being
portrayed as inheritors of the Jagiełlonians and spir-
itual guardians of the holy Royal Prince, created a
magnificent monument of mutual glory.
Translated by Peter Martyn
1. The Castle complex ofYilna. Detail ofa panorama
of the city by Tadeusz Makowski, ca. 1600
2. St. Casimir Chapel and its sacristy. Detail of the
painting St. Casimir by an anonymous artist
3. St. Casimir Chapel in the mid-17th cent.
4. St. Casimir Chapel and the Lower Castle prior to
the latter ’s destruction
Acknowledgemenmts
Collections of Lietuvos Dailes Muzeiejaus in
Vilna, inventory no. T 888: 2
Daniel Petzeld, Lux Tyszkoviciancie, Vilna 1649: 3
Anonymous drawing from 1802: 4