Instytut Sztuki (Warschau) [Hrsg.]; Państwowy Instytut Sztuki (bis 1959) [Hrsg.]; Stowarzyszenie Historyków Sztuki [Hrsg.]: Biuletyn Historii Sztuki (77.2015)

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Mariusz Karpowicz

its layout, as well as protruding columns which form
as if an internal delineated space, a kind of a small
stage (the Italians refer to this altar type as altare
a boccascena; it was invented by Gian Lorenzo
Bernini himself). All these elements clearly echo the
high altar in the Cracow Church of St Anne (1695),
the first one to introduce such innovations on our
territory. The next innovative and equally avant-
garde solution introduced is the construction of the
altar finial in an anti-architectural way: with clouds,
angels, and just clouds as the backdrop to the Holy
Spirit in the entablature sections. On the territory of
the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth only the high
altar at the Oliwa Cathedral (1688) anticipated the
Kurozwęki solution, since Fontana's Altar of St
Catherine at St Anne's Church dates from 1700. This
obviously leads to the conclusion that the design of
the Lancokoroński Chapel altar must have been
executed by the author of St Anne's Church
furnishings, since it clearly echoes the design of his
master and cousin, Carlo Fontana from the Albani
Chapel in the Roman Church of S. Sebastiano fuori
le Mura.
Another monument that must be attributed to
Baldassare Fontana as the designer is the Crucifixion
Altar in the former Parish Church in Sucha
Beskidzka (today by the church's southern wall). Its
design must have been created soon after 1700;
considering the time of its execution, it is also very
special and avant-garde. It boasts four fluted pillars
of a square section instead of columns and a huge
sunburst in its finial. First of all, however, it is
a spatial structure in which two middle edge-to-edge
and set forth pillars create such a boccascena, though
not essentially deep. The whole structure directly
echoes the Lamentation Altar at St Anne's Church.
The Cracow altar was executed in 1699-1700,
therefore the Sucha one is its almost immediate
reference. It could have been designed only by
Baldassare Fontana as he was the only one applying
such a repertory of forms (particularly the sunburst).
The next project designed by Fontana is to be
found in the stucco decoration of the portal leading
into the Chapel of Our Lady of Loreto at the Cracow
Church of Corpus Christi. The earlier frame is
crowned with a sunburst surrounding the Loreto
House with Virgin and Child sitting on it. The form
of this finial is unique and avant-garde and Fontana
was the only artist who applied such a solution in
Central Europe at the time.
A totally different idea is to be seen in the domed
oratory added to the presbytery of the Hebdów
church in ca 1700. The oratory plan, actually square,
was enriched with three semicircular apses, this
yielding in effect a cruciform plan. The dome's
stucco decoration and the altars in the apses date

from the same time. The scholars have already paid
attention to the sophisticated lighting of the oratory
space and the altars, referring to it as the "Baroque
play with the light," noting lateral illumination, in
the central part entering through little windows
placed in a purposefully added "annex". This "annex"
is Bernini'spozzo della luce - illuminated space which
Gian Lorenzo Bernini applied in e.g. Raimondi
Chapel at San Pietro in Montorio or in the Cornaro
Chapel at S. Maria di Vittoria. It is constructed by
making a large window in the gable wall,
subsequently turned into deep bay window
accompanied by windows in lateral walls. The
Hebdów pozzo della luce features a mediaeval statue
of Madonna lit from two invisible windows. This is
unquestionably a pioneering solution north of the
Alps, a conscious transfer of Bernini's idea conducted
by someone who was perfectly familiar with High
Baroque accomplishments in Rome. Therefore it is
Fontana, Bernini's follower who should be considered
as the designer of the set of altars, the box, and the
whole oratory.
The oratory's multilayer high altar ranks among
the best brilliant designs of church furnishings,
which constructs illusion in a masterly way. His
designer begins with illusion, and the first layer is
constructed as an altar. However, this is only a frame
made up of two lateral colonnades, joined at the top
with a sunburst, which gives and impression of a
homogenous whole. It is a built in rod screen,
displaying the proper altar hidden inside. The next
illusion consists in the suggestion that the altar is
located much further than in reality. Fontana
achieved the effect by diminishing the columns,
cornices, angels, versus the first layer. The third
measure is to be found in the afore-mentioned
"Baroque play with the light". In the relatively dark
space under the oratory dome, the presbytery part
gleams with light, although the light sources, namely
large lateral windows, remain invisible. Finally, the
fourth measure is the successful hiding of the "light
box" behind the altar. Therefore the author of this
sophisticated architecture suggests that it is the
miraculous statue of the Madonna that radiates by
itself, lighting up the whole space.
The two above remarks lead to the conclusion
that Baldassare Fontana was a refined designer,
initiated into the Roman world of High Baroque with
all its subtleties. This, in turn, yields two further
attributions: the first being the altar in the Morsztyn
Chapel in Wieliczka, until now regarded as
representing late Baroque. What accounts for its
attribution to Fontana is, in fact, the very structure,
typical of numerous altars, pear-shaped suspended
ornaments frequently used, finally the crowning with
the sunburst with little single clouds. The sunburst is