DOI Heft:
Nr. 1
DOI Artikel:Ratkowska, Paulina: The remains of an altarpiece with the legend of St. John the Baptist: an unpublished work of the Franco-Gothic Style in the National Museum in Warsaw
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18818#0016
11. Spanish Master, the XIVth century, Retable, Barcelona, Collection Meteu (after Trens)
lectu sapientes, ore loquaces, natura magis quam doctrina valentes, sialu rigidi, vultu erecti, figura
universi similes et inter se dissimiles singuli, animo immortales, sensu imbecilli, corpore fragiles,
mente leves, diversi moribus, impares erroribus, ad studia inertes, proni ad voluptatem, cassi labore,
diuitiis caduci, sollicitudine anxii, singillatim mortales, prole mutabiles, vita queruli, tempore ce-
leres, tardi ad sapientiam, veloces ad morlem, de praeteritis nudi, de praesentibus exigui, de futuris
incerti, concipiuntur in iniąuitate, in peccato nascuntur, in labore vivunt, in dolore moriuntur.
(The men to conceive the things are quick enough, of the wise mind, of the eloąuent tongue,
provided much morę by naturę than by learning, of the straight stature, of the proud face,
resembling to each otlier yet the one from another varying, of weak senses, of the fragile body,
of sublime brains, of different customs as well as faults, not very apt to learn, eager for pleas-
ures, not much use of them in labor, their riches bring them to misfortune; frightened with
solitude, died separately; their descendants not alike to the aneestors, of the lamentable life
and of short time, bard for wisdom, easy to die, deprived of the past, poor in the present, of
dubious futurę, conceived in the iniquities, born in sin, they live within toil, die amidst pains).
Stylistically, a very close analogy to our panels is a wing of a lost Franco-Gothic altarpiece,
preserved now in the National Museum in Warsaw, with the representations of St John the
Evangelist, the Angel and the Warrior (fig. 8 —10). Here, too, the figures are placcd iD the
compartments separated by the horizontal bands of red, which provide the background for the
inscriptions. The compositional conception as well as the coloring and the figurę style of the work
allow to consider it as a creation of the same artistic circle, which produced the panels under diss-
10
lectu sapientes, ore loquaces, natura magis quam doctrina valentes, sialu rigidi, vultu erecti, figura
universi similes et inter se dissimiles singuli, animo immortales, sensu imbecilli, corpore fragiles,
mente leves, diversi moribus, impares erroribus, ad studia inertes, proni ad voluptatem, cassi labore,
diuitiis caduci, sollicitudine anxii, singillatim mortales, prole mutabiles, vita queruli, tempore ce-
leres, tardi ad sapientiam, veloces ad morlem, de praeteritis nudi, de praesentibus exigui, de futuris
incerti, concipiuntur in iniąuitate, in peccato nascuntur, in labore vivunt, in dolore moriuntur.
(The men to conceive the things are quick enough, of the wise mind, of the eloąuent tongue,
provided much morę by naturę than by learning, of the straight stature, of the proud face,
resembling to each otlier yet the one from another varying, of weak senses, of the fragile body,
of sublime brains, of different customs as well as faults, not very apt to learn, eager for pleas-
ures, not much use of them in labor, their riches bring them to misfortune; frightened with
solitude, died separately; their descendants not alike to the aneestors, of the lamentable life
and of short time, bard for wisdom, easy to die, deprived of the past, poor in the present, of
dubious futurę, conceived in the iniquities, born in sin, they live within toil, die amidst pains).
Stylistically, a very close analogy to our panels is a wing of a lost Franco-Gothic altarpiece,
preserved now in the National Museum in Warsaw, with the representations of St John the
Evangelist, the Angel and the Warrior (fig. 8 —10). Here, too, the figures are placcd iD the
compartments separated by the horizontal bands of red, which provide the background for the
inscriptions. The compositional conception as well as the coloring and the figurę style of the work
allow to consider it as a creation of the same artistic circle, which produced the panels under diss-
10