Instytut Sztuki (Warschau) [Hrsg.]; Państwowy Instytut Sztuki (bis 1959) [Hrsg.]; Stowarzyszenie Historyków Sztuki [Hrsg.]: Biuletyn Historii Sztuki (78.2016)

Treści ideowe ołtarza głównego i prezbiterium w dawnym kościele cystersów w Oliwie

503

Ideological Contents of the High Altar and Presbitery
in the former Cistercian Abbey at Oliwa

In the Oliwa Cistercian Church (currently the Holy
Trinity Cathedral), a sumptuous Baroque high altar,
at the time a work unrivalled in Europe north of the
Alps, was raised in the 4th quarter of the 17th century.
The last conservation works conducted in 2012-13,
restored its vivid colour range and the original
placement of the symbols, yet first of all from under
numerous paint layers they uncovered high-class
alabaster fragments of a figural sculpture that had
until then been considered to be of stucco. This
allowed for a new interpretation of the ideological
contents of the altar. The altar retable was founded
by Abbot Michał Antoni Hacki (1630-1703),
grandson of the famous Gdansk painter Hermann
Han (1580-1627), and son of his co-worker, the
painter Peter Hacky (d. 1656). As he did not boast a
noble title, his election to become Abbot in 1683
was protested against and had to be decided by the
Seym General Assembly. He kept his position thanks
to the endorsement of King John III Sobieski, with
whom he had cooperated for years, also fulfilling
diplomatic missions. Before that Hacki had spent a
number of years in Rome as a chaplain of the former
Queen of Sweden Christina and had the opportunity
to personally see the oeuvre of the most outstanding
Baroque artists: G. L. Bernini, F. Borromini, Pietro da
Cortona, and others. Although the author of the Oliwa
altar remains unknown, he unquestionably came from
Rome. The model for the dynamic solution of the
glory was the "Throne of St Peter" (Cathedra Petri)
by G.L. Bernini, as well as the painting "Triumph of
the Holy Trinity" by Pietro da Cortona in the dome of
the Chiesa Nuova (Santa Maria in Vallicella) of the
Oratorians. The inspiration for the painting by A.
Stech is the three-partite painting Coronation of Our
Lady by H. Han from the high altar in Pelplin. Abbot
Hacki, when preparing a rich theological programme
for the high altar, also derived from literary sources
and used the vision of Paradise in Dante's Divine
Comedy. Both in the painting and in the glory God is
presented as an emanation of light, Our Lady and St
Bernard are shown as intermediaries between the
Order and God, while Abbot Hacki, just like Dante in
his poem, perceived the Divine essence Empireum
in the illumination. Regrettably, it had earlier
remained unnoticed that differentiated heads of the
angels spinning around the Eye of Providence
represent nine angelic choirs placed in compliance

with the treatise On the Celestial Hierarchy by
Pseudo-Dionysius Aeropagite and Dante's poem.
Today many of them do not reflect the original
division into triads, since in the past the destroyed
heads were replaced with other ones.
Raising such a formally avant-garde altar in a
Gothic interior, Abbot Hacki used the elements he
found there, founded by his predecessors. He
incorporated into the altar's ideological programme
panels with the effigies of the convent's benefactors
painted in 1613, including mainly Polish kings, and
founders from the ducal House of Gryffins who were
commemorated in a mausoleum of black marble
placed in the oldest western part of the presbytery.
The programme was completed with the epitaphs
of Abbot Kasper Geschkau (d. 1584) and Abbot
Dawid Konarski (d. 1616), both of eschatological
contents, and with a pulpit standing on Adam rising
from his tomb. The altar may have been raised to
commemorate the 500th anniversary of Cistercians'
arrival at Oliwa. However, the turmoil with the
election of the Abbot resulted in the fact that in 1686
Hacki had only a new burial crypt built below the
whole presbytery, whose surface was symbolically
divided into three sections. The part of the crypt
where members of the Gryffins were buried
corresponded with the effigies of the founders; the
Cistercians were buried below three middle spans
with the frescoes: Paradise and The Triumph of the
Church; the eastern part, under the altar, was the
burial place of the first Cistercians, and in 1703,
possibly of Hacki as well.
Various ideological contents can be found in the
set of the Holy Trinity Altar and the presbytery of
the Cistercian convent church at Oliwa: theological,
commemorative and eschatological; historical and
political; Hacki's intellectual interests; as well as the
glorification of the founder of the altar. A son and
grandson of artists, he achieved a high social status
thanks to his intellect, reason, and knowledge. A
burgher by descent, he became an adviser to kings,
appreciated by popes, respected by monastic circles
and clergy. Despite his title to become abbot had to be
confirmed by the Seym General Assembly, he
handsomely compensated for the suffered humiliation
by the fact that his effigy was immortalized in the high
altar, and by creating an outstanding work of art as for
its intellectual, theological, and artistic qualities.

Translated by Magdalena Iwińska