DOI issue:
Nr. 3
DOI article:Artykuły
DOI article:Jankowski, Aleksander: Ikonografia malarstwa ¬ściennego doby porozbiorowej w ko¬ściołach drewnianych Wielkopolski
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71010#0729
Ikonografia malarstwa ściennego doby porozbiorowej w kościołach drewnianych
719
Iconography of Wall Painting in Greater Poland Wooden
Churches in the Post-Partition Period
The cultural landscape of Greater Poland is co-
created by numerous examples of sacral wooden
architecture. There are 290 historic wooden churches,
some dozens of which still date back to the 15th - 17th
century. In 99 of them historic wall decoration has
been preserved; fifty-three of them are complexes
from the partition periods. The basis for the
iconography analysis is to be found in 27 sets of
paintings containing figura! motifs (as well as
emblematic and symbolic ones) preserved almost
exclusively in rural Catholic churches. The re-
maining, merely ornamental furnishing of sacral
interiors is most frequently made up of pattern-based
compositions of decorative character, devoid of any
ideological message.
Two oldest decorations with figura! motifs date
back to the early 19th century. In 19 churches
paintings from 1890-1915 have been preserved.
Chronologically varied programmes of wall
paintings of the post-partition period differ from the
older ones (16th- 18th c.) by a clearly smaller number
of figural motifs. Earlier typically elaborate
narrative cycles had disappeared. The iconographic
expression of painterly decoration generally boils
down to one or several single autonomized
representations. In those reduced figural program-
mes a slow process of breaking with the traditional
image conventions, present until the end of the 3rd
quarter of the 19th century is revealed. Local artists,
still trained in the guild system, when choosing
iconographic motifs referred to the repertory of
models that was well known to them. In many a case
the permanence of the traditional iconographic
schemes directly resulted from the faithfulness to the
regulations of the Canonical Law describing pre-
sentations, particularly those of dogmatic character,
in a detailed way. In the last quarter of the 19th
century in the iconographic programmes of painterly
wall decorations of the Greater Poland Province
clearer symptoms ofthe impact ofthe programme of
the religious life renewal proclaimed by the Holy
See could be observed, in the sphere of art em-
phasizing faithfulness to tradition, as well as com-
pliance with the dogmas and the canonical
regulations. The relations between the theory of
church art and the artistic praxis visible in the
wooden churches' wall decoration coincided with a
peculiar 'renaissance' of figurative murals in brick
churches of Greater Poland. The changes were
occurring with the participation of the already new
generation of painters, graduates from artistic
schools, or at least drawing classes, familiar with the
history of art, and well acquainted with a new history
domain, mainly iconography. The artists, including
those active in wooden churches, would derive from
the rich repertory of reproductions of paintings by
Raphael, Murillo, or Titian. Another popular oeuvre
for the purpose was that of Friedrich Overbeck.
The iconographic programmes of wooden
churches, modest in the application of figural motifs,
reflected predominantly Marian devotion, re-
promoted with the 1854 proclamation of the Im-
maculate Conception dogma. The devotion was
demonstrated mainly in the traditional presentations
of the Virgin and Child, Immaculate Conception,
Assumption, and Our Lady of the Rosary. Marian
motifs, dominating in the painterly wall decorations
actually marginalized Christological iconography. In
the preserved resources not even a single Passion
presentation has survived. Next to Marian motifs, a
permanent element of iconographic programmes
could be found in single effigies of saints. These
most frequently included the Evangelists embodying
the revealed foundations of the faith, but also
testifying to the compliance of the iconographic
contents that accompanied them with the Church's
teaching.
It was only in the late 19th century that gradually
more images of Polish saints appeared in the icono-
graphic programmes of wall painting. This was the
period that coincided with more intensified activity
of Polish Church promoting the cult of native saints.
Effigies of Polish saints were to make the faithful
realize the Christian roots of the national identity.
The patriotic message was to promptly manifest
itself in the iconographic programmes in brick
churches of Greater Poland in the form of assemblies
of Polish saints serving as 'advocates ofthe nation in
bondage', or in the paintings of the intervention of
Our Lady at Poland's breakthrough historic mo-
ments. The surviving wall paintings in wooden
churches lack this 'patriotic' literality. There, more
commonly only single effigies of Polish saints were
presented.
Despite the proclaimed slogans of the revival of
religious art, the limitation of figural motifs for the
sake of pattern-based ornamental compositions of
decorative character, typical of wall decorations in the
post-partition period, eventually resulted in increasing
shallowness of the ideological iconographic
719
Iconography of Wall Painting in Greater Poland Wooden
Churches in the Post-Partition Period
The cultural landscape of Greater Poland is co-
created by numerous examples of sacral wooden
architecture. There are 290 historic wooden churches,
some dozens of which still date back to the 15th - 17th
century. In 99 of them historic wall decoration has
been preserved; fifty-three of them are complexes
from the partition periods. The basis for the
iconography analysis is to be found in 27 sets of
paintings containing figura! motifs (as well as
emblematic and symbolic ones) preserved almost
exclusively in rural Catholic churches. The re-
maining, merely ornamental furnishing of sacral
interiors is most frequently made up of pattern-based
compositions of decorative character, devoid of any
ideological message.
Two oldest decorations with figura! motifs date
back to the early 19th century. In 19 churches
paintings from 1890-1915 have been preserved.
Chronologically varied programmes of wall
paintings of the post-partition period differ from the
older ones (16th- 18th c.) by a clearly smaller number
of figural motifs. Earlier typically elaborate
narrative cycles had disappeared. The iconographic
expression of painterly decoration generally boils
down to one or several single autonomized
representations. In those reduced figural program-
mes a slow process of breaking with the traditional
image conventions, present until the end of the 3rd
quarter of the 19th century is revealed. Local artists,
still trained in the guild system, when choosing
iconographic motifs referred to the repertory of
models that was well known to them. In many a case
the permanence of the traditional iconographic
schemes directly resulted from the faithfulness to the
regulations of the Canonical Law describing pre-
sentations, particularly those of dogmatic character,
in a detailed way. In the last quarter of the 19th
century in the iconographic programmes of painterly
wall decorations of the Greater Poland Province
clearer symptoms ofthe impact ofthe programme of
the religious life renewal proclaimed by the Holy
See could be observed, in the sphere of art em-
phasizing faithfulness to tradition, as well as com-
pliance with the dogmas and the canonical
regulations. The relations between the theory of
church art and the artistic praxis visible in the
wooden churches' wall decoration coincided with a
peculiar 'renaissance' of figurative murals in brick
churches of Greater Poland. The changes were
occurring with the participation of the already new
generation of painters, graduates from artistic
schools, or at least drawing classes, familiar with the
history of art, and well acquainted with a new history
domain, mainly iconography. The artists, including
those active in wooden churches, would derive from
the rich repertory of reproductions of paintings by
Raphael, Murillo, or Titian. Another popular oeuvre
for the purpose was that of Friedrich Overbeck.
The iconographic programmes of wooden
churches, modest in the application of figural motifs,
reflected predominantly Marian devotion, re-
promoted with the 1854 proclamation of the Im-
maculate Conception dogma. The devotion was
demonstrated mainly in the traditional presentations
of the Virgin and Child, Immaculate Conception,
Assumption, and Our Lady of the Rosary. Marian
motifs, dominating in the painterly wall decorations
actually marginalized Christological iconography. In
the preserved resources not even a single Passion
presentation has survived. Next to Marian motifs, a
permanent element of iconographic programmes
could be found in single effigies of saints. These
most frequently included the Evangelists embodying
the revealed foundations of the faith, but also
testifying to the compliance of the iconographic
contents that accompanied them with the Church's
teaching.
It was only in the late 19th century that gradually
more images of Polish saints appeared in the icono-
graphic programmes of wall painting. This was the
period that coincided with more intensified activity
of Polish Church promoting the cult of native saints.
Effigies of Polish saints were to make the faithful
realize the Christian roots of the national identity.
The patriotic message was to promptly manifest
itself in the iconographic programmes in brick
churches of Greater Poland in the form of assemblies
of Polish saints serving as 'advocates ofthe nation in
bondage', or in the paintings of the intervention of
Our Lady at Poland's breakthrough historic mo-
ments. The surviving wall paintings in wooden
churches lack this 'patriotic' literality. There, more
commonly only single effigies of Polish saints were
presented.
Despite the proclaimed slogans of the revival of
religious art, the limitation of figural motifs for the
sake of pattern-based ornamental compositions of
decorative character, typical of wall decorations in the
post-partition period, eventually resulted in increasing
shallowness of the ideological iconographic