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DOI Artikel:Kaminska, Rūta: The late Baroque church interiors of Livonia within pre-partition Poland
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.34475#0467
THE LATE BAROQUE CHURCH INTERIORS OF LlVONIA WITHIN PRE-PARTITION POLAND
457
4. DaMgavpi/^ JusaA cAarcA. Hew o/ /Ae organ ga//e/y. PAo/o; /935, LA7HP DC
The survived research material, mostly photographs of the 1920s and 1930s, and a
detailed survey of the mins from 1951 give some insight into the church building and its
interior finish. One can conclude that even the reduced decoration, adapting the building
to the needs of other confessions, suggests the rich overall impression devised and realised
at the time; various materials were used for interior finish (including artificial marble,
stucco decorations, painted and gilded details), eleven altars featured sculptures and
paintings and the premises were filled with artistically elaborated furnishings (fine wood-
carved benches and confessionals) and the wood-carved organ prospect in the balcony.^
The compact hall church with the equal-height nave and aisles features traditional order
elements but their arrangement relies on expressive, dynamic forms to create the space as
a unified whole, using the pulsating rhythm of curved and draped planes (gracious, curved
forms of the organ prospect, partition of walls), effects of perspective (pillars arranged in
a dense row) and expressive plastic details (complex configuration of pillars, sculptures,
manifold comice profiles, etc.). The High Altar retable stands out particularly, merging
with the decoration of the premise and topping the perspective of the nave; it had been
complemented with stucco decoration and initially also with sculptures and altarpieces.
Side altars placed at the ends of aisles repeat the composition on a reduced scale. Typical
motifs of all altar retables are the obliquely placed, detached columns, reminding of the
finish of buildings in Vilnius (Wilno). This motif shows also the pillar decoration, making
the subdivided plastic decor especially painterly — no other church of Polish Livonia can
boast of such a complex and vivid configuration and finish of aisle supports in Baroque
buildings. Unfortunately, no information has survived on the shapes of side altars next to
the pillars.
'^GLOVACKJS, op. cit., pp. 236-237.
457
4. DaMgavpi/^ JusaA cAarcA. Hew o/ /Ae organ ga//e/y. PAo/o; /935, LA7HP DC
The survived research material, mostly photographs of the 1920s and 1930s, and a
detailed survey of the mins from 1951 give some insight into the church building and its
interior finish. One can conclude that even the reduced decoration, adapting the building
to the needs of other confessions, suggests the rich overall impression devised and realised
at the time; various materials were used for interior finish (including artificial marble,
stucco decorations, painted and gilded details), eleven altars featured sculptures and
paintings and the premises were filled with artistically elaborated furnishings (fine wood-
carved benches and confessionals) and the wood-carved organ prospect in the balcony.^
The compact hall church with the equal-height nave and aisles features traditional order
elements but their arrangement relies on expressive, dynamic forms to create the space as
a unified whole, using the pulsating rhythm of curved and draped planes (gracious, curved
forms of the organ prospect, partition of walls), effects of perspective (pillars arranged in
a dense row) and expressive plastic details (complex configuration of pillars, sculptures,
manifold comice profiles, etc.). The High Altar retable stands out particularly, merging
with the decoration of the premise and topping the perspective of the nave; it had been
complemented with stucco decoration and initially also with sculptures and altarpieces.
Side altars placed at the ends of aisles repeat the composition on a reduced scale. Typical
motifs of all altar retables are the obliquely placed, detached columns, reminding of the
finish of buildings in Vilnius (Wilno). This motif shows also the pillar decoration, making
the subdivided plastic decor especially painterly — no other church of Polish Livonia can
boast of such a complex and vivid configuration and finish of aisle supports in Baroque
buildings. Unfortunately, no information has survived on the shapes of side altars next to
the pillars.
'^GLOVACKJS, op. cit., pp. 236-237.