DOI Heft:
No. 2
DOI Artikel:Rodziewicz, Elżbieta; Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie [Mitarb.]: Late antique ivory and bone plaquettes in the National Museum in Warsaw
DOI Artikel:Dobrzeniecki, Tadeusz: The Farewell in Bethany: some iconographical notes
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17161#0047
none of these heads has a nimbus. Itispossible therefore that tłiey represent living peiaons, the
more so, that they have a certain likeness te tlie ecclesiastic dignitaries represented on wall-
paintings in the Faras Cathedra] where this plaąuette was disco vered. One may be allowed
to suppose, that drawings on this plaąuette were sketches for larger portraits. They oould be,
however, also sketches of saints; in such case we have to suppose that the nimbus was omitted
in the sketch for unknown reasons. Similar smali sketches for freseoes were discovered
also on the walls of the Cathedral. One can not however exclude the possibility that this plaąuet-
te is a part of a larger object decorated with more figures on both sides. The bad state of preser-
vation of the plaąuette makes a precise interpretation of its decoration difficult.
Tadeusz Dobrzeniecki
THE FAREWELL IN BETHANY
SOME ICONOGRAPHICAL NOTES
During the last war the Department of Mediaeval Art lost a Late Gothic wooden relief (fig. 1)
executed by an unknown Silesian master influenced by Vcit Stoss when in Cracow (1477 —1496)1.
The relief, undoubtedly the central part of a lost altarpiece, represented Christ taking leave
from His Molher. The same subject appears also on three other Late Gothic Silesian works
in the National Museum: on the relief from Rościsławice (district Wołów) (fig- 2)3 and the two
painted panels from Wrocław (fig- 3,5)3.
In studies on the iconography of this scenę, popular in art and Passion dramas, the view is
generally taken that the main literary source of the scenę was the well-known Meditaliones
Vitae Christi or writings directly depending on this text of the Franciscan author4. However,
the 72nd chapter of the Meditationes, usually referred to in discussion of the problem, does not
contain at all the description of the Parting proper. In the present article it is intended to bring
to light different Latin texts, the role of which for iconographical solutions is much more decisive.
At the same time the examples of the scenę preserved in Poland will be considered as an eyidence
of the dependence on these sources.
In 1532 in the Cracow Dominican convent of the Trinity, a Polish treatise was written with
a very circumstantial exposition of the Passion, illustrated with 121 miniatures, of which 116
remained. Discovered in 1958 and recently published in facsimile, it is is known in Polish lite-
raturę as the Dominican Medilalionss. The narrative of the Farewell in Bethany is here depicted
1. It comes probably from Ząbkowice. Bought in 1925. Inv.: 47060.106 X 84 cm, see M. Walicki, Katalog Polskiej Sztuki
Cechowej XIV—XVI (Rzeźba i malarstwo), Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, Warszawa, 1938, p. 11, No 7, fig. 6.
2. Inv.: 186734.154 X 104 cm. Deposited temporarily in the Muzeum Miejskie in Łódź (D.318). H. Braune and E. Wiese,
Schlesische Malerei und Plastik des Mitlclallers, Leipzig, 1926, p.61, No 122, pl. 128.
3. One of them, the votive picture of an abbot, comes from St Vincent's Abbey of Premonstratensians and is to be dated to
the early XVIth century, the second — the epitaph of Hans Starzedel of ca 1528 — comes from St Elisabeth's Church.
For Silesian examples of the scenę of the Farewell in Bethany see P. Knittel, Kirchliche Bilderkunde Schlesicns, Glatz,
1928, p. 27-28.
4. P. O. Riedmattcr, Die Ikonographie des Abschiedes Jcsu von Bclhanicn (Diss. Miinchen), Kallmunz, 1931; the same, ,,Ah-
schied Jcsu von Maria", Lexikon der Marienkunde, Regensburg, 1957, col. 28-33; O. Schmitt, , ,Abscbied Christi von Maria",
Reallexikon zur deutsehen Kuhstgeschichte, I, Stuttgart, 1937, col. 102 —105; A. Pigler, Barocktheinen, I, Budapest, 1956,
p.475 — 76;. L. Reau, Iconographie de fart chrćticn, II, Iconographie de la Bibie, II, Nouveau Testament, Paris, 1957, p. 395 — 96;
H. Aurenhammer, Lexikon der cliristlichcn Ikonographie, Wien, 1959, p. 29—31.
5. Rozmyślania Dominikańskie, Biblioteka Pisarzów Polskich, Seria A, No 3, Wrocław — Warszawa — Kraków-, 1965. All
our quotations are translated after this publication. The manuscript is preserved in the coiwent of Discalced
Carmelite nuns in Cracow.
37
more so, that they have a certain likeness te tlie ecclesiastic dignitaries represented on wall-
paintings in the Faras Cathedra] where this plaąuette was disco vered. One may be allowed
to suppose, that drawings on this plaąuette were sketches for larger portraits. They oould be,
however, also sketches of saints; in such case we have to suppose that the nimbus was omitted
in the sketch for unknown reasons. Similar smali sketches for freseoes were discovered
also on the walls of the Cathedral. One can not however exclude the possibility that this plaąuet-
te is a part of a larger object decorated with more figures on both sides. The bad state of preser-
vation of the plaąuette makes a precise interpretation of its decoration difficult.
Tadeusz Dobrzeniecki
THE FAREWELL IN BETHANY
SOME ICONOGRAPHICAL NOTES
During the last war the Department of Mediaeval Art lost a Late Gothic wooden relief (fig. 1)
executed by an unknown Silesian master influenced by Vcit Stoss when in Cracow (1477 —1496)1.
The relief, undoubtedly the central part of a lost altarpiece, represented Christ taking leave
from His Molher. The same subject appears also on three other Late Gothic Silesian works
in the National Museum: on the relief from Rościsławice (district Wołów) (fig- 2)3 and the two
painted panels from Wrocław (fig- 3,5)3.
In studies on the iconography of this scenę, popular in art and Passion dramas, the view is
generally taken that the main literary source of the scenę was the well-known Meditaliones
Vitae Christi or writings directly depending on this text of the Franciscan author4. However,
the 72nd chapter of the Meditationes, usually referred to in discussion of the problem, does not
contain at all the description of the Parting proper. In the present article it is intended to bring
to light different Latin texts, the role of which for iconographical solutions is much more decisive.
At the same time the examples of the scenę preserved in Poland will be considered as an eyidence
of the dependence on these sources.
In 1532 in the Cracow Dominican convent of the Trinity, a Polish treatise was written with
a very circumstantial exposition of the Passion, illustrated with 121 miniatures, of which 116
remained. Discovered in 1958 and recently published in facsimile, it is is known in Polish lite-
raturę as the Dominican Medilalionss. The narrative of the Farewell in Bethany is here depicted
1. It comes probably from Ząbkowice. Bought in 1925. Inv.: 47060.106 X 84 cm, see M. Walicki, Katalog Polskiej Sztuki
Cechowej XIV—XVI (Rzeźba i malarstwo), Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, Warszawa, 1938, p. 11, No 7, fig. 6.
2. Inv.: 186734.154 X 104 cm. Deposited temporarily in the Muzeum Miejskie in Łódź (D.318). H. Braune and E. Wiese,
Schlesische Malerei und Plastik des Mitlclallers, Leipzig, 1926, p.61, No 122, pl. 128.
3. One of them, the votive picture of an abbot, comes from St Vincent's Abbey of Premonstratensians and is to be dated to
the early XVIth century, the second — the epitaph of Hans Starzedel of ca 1528 — comes from St Elisabeth's Church.
For Silesian examples of the scenę of the Farewell in Bethany see P. Knittel, Kirchliche Bilderkunde Schlesicns, Glatz,
1928, p. 27-28.
4. P. O. Riedmattcr, Die Ikonographie des Abschiedes Jcsu von Bclhanicn (Diss. Miinchen), Kallmunz, 1931; the same, ,,Ah-
schied Jcsu von Maria", Lexikon der Marienkunde, Regensburg, 1957, col. 28-33; O. Schmitt, , ,Abscbied Christi von Maria",
Reallexikon zur deutsehen Kuhstgeschichte, I, Stuttgart, 1937, col. 102 —105; A. Pigler, Barocktheinen, I, Budapest, 1956,
p.475 — 76;. L. Reau, Iconographie de fart chrćticn, II, Iconographie de la Bibie, II, Nouveau Testament, Paris, 1957, p. 395 — 96;
H. Aurenhammer, Lexikon der cliristlichcn Ikonographie, Wien, 1959, p. 29—31.
5. Rozmyślania Dominikańskie, Biblioteka Pisarzów Polskich, Seria A, No 3, Wrocław — Warszawa — Kraków-, 1965. All
our quotations are translated after this publication. The manuscript is preserved in the coiwent of Discalced
Carmelite nuns in Cracow.
37