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DOI Artikel:Ratkowska, Paulina: The remains of an altarpiece with the legend of St. John the Baptist: an unpublished work of the Franco-Gothic Style in the National Museum in Warsaw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#0021
22. The Calling of the First Disciples, Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale Ms Ital. 115 (after Medi-
tations)
of the Santiago Confraternity of 1336 executed in Burgos.20 The head of the one of the riders
is treated in the same calligraphic manner as the head of Herod (fig. 14). The resemblances
cover not only hair falling on the shoulders in fiat separated strings and the splitted beard
but also the etnic type; the proportions of the bodies are similar as well as the manner of set-
ting heads as if pressed into the shoulders. The figurę of St John the Baptist in the Beheading
is based on the same pattern of a triangle as the figurę of the Evangelist in the Last Judge-
mcnt of the manuscript (fig. 17, 18). Ali analogies disscussed here are connected with Castile,
and it seems quite possible (having in mind the inscriptions) that our panels could be executed
there. This hypothesis should be, howeyer, proyed in the light of ampler comparatiye materiał
inaccessible to the author of the present study. Chronologically, the first scene of the cycle
on the Warsaw panels is the Baptism of Christ shown in the Cappadocian iconographic yersion
so popular in the Latin West.21 Its characteristic feature is the bell-shaped water of Jordan
reaching the waist of Jesus and the gesture of the Sayiour masking his nudity (in our image
the latter is transposed to the vivid gesture of Jesus’ liands pressed to his body). The costume
of the Baptist — the tunic and pallium — which he wears also in other representations of our
cycle as well as the figurę of the Angel holding the cloth of the Baptized penetrated into this
yersion from older Syrian type. In Spanish mediaeyal art the Precursor is morę freąuently
shown in the melote forming a dress with the sleeyes. A remarkable feature is the omission
of the Dove — the symbol of Holy Ghost. It did not probably result from the limited space of
the compartment nor reflect the painter’s ignorance sińce we can find few examples of such
omission even in the orthodox Byzantine painting, to quote here the miniaturę of the London
Psalter of 10 6 6 22 or the miniaturę of Ms Iyiron 5 of the XIIIth century.23 It seems quite
20. A. L. Mayer, Gotik in Spanien, Leipzig, 1928, fig. 117, 118.
21. G. de Jerplianion, La Voie des Monuments, Paris, 1930, ch. VIII: Epiphanie et Thiophanie. Le Bapteme de Jesus
dans la liturgie et dans l'art chrćtien, p. 165 ff.; G. Millet, Recherches sur Viconographie de VEvangile aux XIVe, XVe
et XVI siecles, Paris, 1916, p. 170 ff.
22. Millet, op. cit., p. 143.
23. N. Pokrovskij, Jevangielie v pamiatnikach ikonografii ..., St Petersburg, 1892 p. 183.
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tations)
of the Santiago Confraternity of 1336 executed in Burgos.20 The head of the one of the riders
is treated in the same calligraphic manner as the head of Herod (fig. 14). The resemblances
cover not only hair falling on the shoulders in fiat separated strings and the splitted beard
but also the etnic type; the proportions of the bodies are similar as well as the manner of set-
ting heads as if pressed into the shoulders. The figurę of St John the Baptist in the Beheading
is based on the same pattern of a triangle as the figurę of the Evangelist in the Last Judge-
mcnt of the manuscript (fig. 17, 18). Ali analogies disscussed here are connected with Castile,
and it seems quite possible (having in mind the inscriptions) that our panels could be executed
there. This hypothesis should be, howeyer, proyed in the light of ampler comparatiye materiał
inaccessible to the author of the present study. Chronologically, the first scene of the cycle
on the Warsaw panels is the Baptism of Christ shown in the Cappadocian iconographic yersion
so popular in the Latin West.21 Its characteristic feature is the bell-shaped water of Jordan
reaching the waist of Jesus and the gesture of the Sayiour masking his nudity (in our image
the latter is transposed to the vivid gesture of Jesus’ liands pressed to his body). The costume
of the Baptist — the tunic and pallium — which he wears also in other representations of our
cycle as well as the figurę of the Angel holding the cloth of the Baptized penetrated into this
yersion from older Syrian type. In Spanish mediaeyal art the Precursor is morę freąuently
shown in the melote forming a dress with the sleeyes. A remarkable feature is the omission
of the Dove — the symbol of Holy Ghost. It did not probably result from the limited space of
the compartment nor reflect the painter’s ignorance sińce we can find few examples of such
omission even in the orthodox Byzantine painting, to quote here the miniaturę of the London
Psalter of 10 6 6 22 or the miniaturę of Ms Iyiron 5 of the XIIIth century.23 It seems quite
20. A. L. Mayer, Gotik in Spanien, Leipzig, 1928, fig. 117, 118.
21. G. de Jerplianion, La Voie des Monuments, Paris, 1930, ch. VIII: Epiphanie et Thiophanie. Le Bapteme de Jesus
dans la liturgie et dans l'art chrćtien, p. 165 ff.; G. Millet, Recherches sur Viconographie de VEvangile aux XIVe, XVe
et XVI siecles, Paris, 1916, p. 170 ff.
22. Millet, op. cit., p. 143.
23. N. Pokrovskij, Jevangielie v pamiatnikach ikonografii ..., St Petersburg, 1892 p. 183.
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