DOI issue:
Nr. 3
DOI article:Artykuły
DOI article:Karpowicz, Mariusz: Kościół świętych Piotra i Pawła na Antokolu: Kilka uzupełnień*
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70770#0503
496
Mariusz Karpowicz
The Church of Saints Peter and Paul at Antokol.
Several Supplementary Remarks
The inside of the Church of Sts Peter and Paul at
Wilno’s Antokol features one of the richest stucco
decorations in Europe executed in the last quarter of
the 18th c. Its ideological programme is unique in
Europe, since the clue to its understanding can be
found in the ship model made of glass crystals and
suspended in the church’s dome, generally known to
symbolize the Church. Archival records inform that
the church’s founder Hetman Michal Kazimierz Pae
was also planning to make the high altar of crystals.
Unfortunately, he passed away in 1682, failing to
implement this exceptionally ambitious concept.
What remains of the planned altar is the figure of
Risen Christ, moved to a niche in a chancel wall,
where it actually neither suits nor fits. The statute is
a stucco version of Giambologna’s magnificent
‘flying’ Mercury, which the Antokol stuccatore Piotr
Perti must have seen in Rome. The Antokol statue of
Risen Christ has been added a gesture meant to be
sending a blessing from the height of the altar onto
His symbolic Church suspended in space as well as
the gathered faithful.
The second statue moved to a niche in a chancel
wall is the Madonna on a Dragon modelled on the
painting by Pietro da Cortona and Cirro Ferri.
Moreover, four pendentives with the Evangelists
follow Italian paintings: two repeat Giovanni Lan-
franco’s compositions from Rome’s Church of
S. Agostino, the other two copy Mattia Preti’s
drawing designs, currently kept at Naple’s Capo-
dimonte.
Translated by Magdalena Iwińska
Mariusz Karpowicz
The Church of Saints Peter and Paul at Antokol.
Several Supplementary Remarks
The inside of the Church of Sts Peter and Paul at
Wilno’s Antokol features one of the richest stucco
decorations in Europe executed in the last quarter of
the 18th c. Its ideological programme is unique in
Europe, since the clue to its understanding can be
found in the ship model made of glass crystals and
suspended in the church’s dome, generally known to
symbolize the Church. Archival records inform that
the church’s founder Hetman Michal Kazimierz Pae
was also planning to make the high altar of crystals.
Unfortunately, he passed away in 1682, failing to
implement this exceptionally ambitious concept.
What remains of the planned altar is the figure of
Risen Christ, moved to a niche in a chancel wall,
where it actually neither suits nor fits. The statute is
a stucco version of Giambologna’s magnificent
‘flying’ Mercury, which the Antokol stuccatore Piotr
Perti must have seen in Rome. The Antokol statue of
Risen Christ has been added a gesture meant to be
sending a blessing from the height of the altar onto
His symbolic Church suspended in space as well as
the gathered faithful.
The second statue moved to a niche in a chancel
wall is the Madonna on a Dragon modelled on the
painting by Pietro da Cortona and Cirro Ferri.
Moreover, four pendentives with the Evangelists
follow Italian paintings: two repeat Giovanni Lan-
franco’s compositions from Rome’s Church of
S. Agostino, the other two copy Mattia Preti’s
drawing designs, currently kept at Naple’s Capo-
dimonte.
Translated by Magdalena Iwińska