DOI Heft:
Nr. 3
DOI Artikel:Artykuły
DOI Artikel:Karpowicz, Mariusz: Baltazar Fontana - architekt
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71007#0417
Baltazar Fontana - architekt
407
almost identical with those in Sucha, the altar of the
Holy Cross at St Anne's Church, in Hebdów or other
afore-mentioned Moravian examples. If this
attribution is correct, then an important time caesura
has to be moved: that of the appearance of the
sunburst on the Polish territory. The first such
project is obviously the Chapel of St Odile in
Moravia's Vyskov (1692), followed by Wieliczka,
while the high altar at St Anne's Church (1695) is
only the third work (its design dating from 1693).
Worth recalling here is the world precedent: the
Confession of St Francis Xavier in the right transept
of the Church of II Gesu in Rome (1676?) designed
by Gian Lorenzo Bernini himself.
The second attribution is the altar of marble,
marbleization, and stucco in the first chapel on the
right of the Church of St John the Baptist (the Servite
Order) in Mendrisio, the latter located in the Canton
of Ticino, some dozen kilometres from Baldassare's
birthplace, Chiasso. The altar dedicated to the saint
of the Servite Order, S. Pellegrino Laziosi, must
have been created before 1733. Its forms, unique in
the area, reveal Fontana's authorship without a
shadow of doubt.
Fontana was both an outstanding stuccoist and
architect, designing both architecture of a grand and
small scale (buildings' furnishings). He was an
innovator who transferred Bernini's avant-garde
forms northwards; particularly the sunburst finial,
which though conceived in Rome was not appreciated
there, but was fully successful north of Italy in the 18th
century. Among his many works, his true capolavoro
is to be still seen, however, in the Cracow Church of
St Anne, one of the most precious and outstanding
projects of its time in Europe. Baldassare Fontana also
transferred the comprehensive mathematics of light.
It has to be strongly emphasized that his designs are
far ahead of everything that was happening in
Europe north of the Alps and are pioneering in the
17th century.
Translated by Magdalena Iwińska
407
almost identical with those in Sucha, the altar of the
Holy Cross at St Anne's Church, in Hebdów or other
afore-mentioned Moravian examples. If this
attribution is correct, then an important time caesura
has to be moved: that of the appearance of the
sunburst on the Polish territory. The first such
project is obviously the Chapel of St Odile in
Moravia's Vyskov (1692), followed by Wieliczka,
while the high altar at St Anne's Church (1695) is
only the third work (its design dating from 1693).
Worth recalling here is the world precedent: the
Confession of St Francis Xavier in the right transept
of the Church of II Gesu in Rome (1676?) designed
by Gian Lorenzo Bernini himself.
The second attribution is the altar of marble,
marbleization, and stucco in the first chapel on the
right of the Church of St John the Baptist (the Servite
Order) in Mendrisio, the latter located in the Canton
of Ticino, some dozen kilometres from Baldassare's
birthplace, Chiasso. The altar dedicated to the saint
of the Servite Order, S. Pellegrino Laziosi, must
have been created before 1733. Its forms, unique in
the area, reveal Fontana's authorship without a
shadow of doubt.
Fontana was both an outstanding stuccoist and
architect, designing both architecture of a grand and
small scale (buildings' furnishings). He was an
innovator who transferred Bernini's avant-garde
forms northwards; particularly the sunburst finial,
which though conceived in Rome was not appreciated
there, but was fully successful north of Italy in the 18th
century. Among his many works, his true capolavoro
is to be still seen, however, in the Cracow Church of
St Anne, one of the most precious and outstanding
projects of its time in Europe. Baldassare Fontana also
transferred the comprehensive mathematics of light.
It has to be strongly emphasized that his designs are
far ahead of everything that was happening in
Europe north of the Alps and are pioneering in the
17th century.
Translated by Magdalena Iwińska