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DOI Artikel:Ratkowska, Paulina: Two capitals in the collection of Mediaeval Art of the National Museum in Warsaw
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18861#0079
Paulina Ratkowska
rWO CAPITALS IN THE COLLETION OF MEDIAEVAL
ART OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM IN WARSAW
The present notiee is a supplement to the article devoted to three Romanesque capitals in tlie
Collection of Mediaeval Art1. They were sent from Geneva in 1936 by Stanisław Neyman,
the valued donor to the Museum, as a gift commemorating his dead step-daughter Wanda Woy-
ciechowska. The author wishes to discuss here two more Mediaeval capitals, belonging to the
same gift, kept now in the store-rooms of the Gallery of the Mediaeval Art (beyond the permanent
exhibition).
The first of them is a composite capital (fig. s. 1—4) of a free-standing colonette, executed in
white marble, its lacelike, highly stylized vegetal decoration, achieved by the deep under-
cutting of stone2. To quo te here the definition of Ch.R. Morey „the stone is tortured into under-
cutting to develop pictorial shadows".3 In the open-work of each side of the capital the fołlowing
motifs are discernible: interlace, palmette and whirled leaves of acanthus as well as the row of
double beads joined with rhombs. The delicate and precisely carved decoration perfectly accen-
tuates the shape of the capital — its soft profiles and harmonious proportions. On one side of the
capital there is a central convexity, caived in basketwork, below the rectangle surrounded with
vertical stems (the motif copied by the sculptor of a Hispano-Moorish capital in the Cincinnati
Art Museum4, who, as it seems, could transfer his techniąue of flatly carved leaves and petals
against the dark baekground to the repertoire of the carvers of Burgundy)5. The edge of the abacus
and the volutes are chipped in several places.
The capital described by the donor as Hispano-Moorish and dated to the Xth century finds
an analogy in the capitals coming from Medina Azzahra near Cordoba (Audience Hall of the
Palące, the so-called Salon Bico, dated 956/576 (fig. s. 5,6)). The capital recently published by
J. Sourdel-Thomine and B. Spuller, of similar shape and a slightly flater decoration, is supplied
with the Cufic inscription dating this work to the reign of Abderrahman III7 (fig. 5). The German
authors stress the abstract denaturalized character of Islamie ornamental decoration, which
seems to derive from the Byzantine concept of foliate decoration8 — the kind of carved lace used
as a net against the dark baekground.
The second of the capitals discussed here is of limestone9, carved on all four sides, aad thus,
1. P. Ratkowska, „Trois chapiteau?; au Musće National de Varsovie'\ Bullelin du Musee National de Varsovie
_ XIII, 1972, No 2-3, p. 35 sq.
2. Inv. 121882, dimensions: 29(21)x22 cm, diam. 13 om.
3. Ch.R. Morey, Mediaeval Art, New York, 1942, p. 236.
4. The Cincinnati Art Museum Bullelin, IX, 1972 No 3, p. 14. I thank cordially Professor Jan Białostocki
for this valuable publication lent me by him, as well as Mr Przemysław Trzeciak for his fiiendly suggestions.
5. M. Aubert, La sculpture franęaise au Moyen Ąge, n. p. 1946, p. 99, 104—105.
6. M. Gómez-Morcno, „El Arte arabe espanol hasta los Almohades, Arte mozarabe" ^rs Hispaniae, III, Madrid,
1951. figs. 84-87, 60.
7. J. Sourdel-Thomine, B. Spuller, Die Kunst des Islam (Propylden Kunstgeschichtc, B. IV, Berlin, 1973), p. 203,
pL No 98a.
8- P- Meyer, Historia sztuki europejskiej, I. Warszawa, 1973 p. 79
9. Inv. 121883, dimensions: 20 x 11 cm, diam. 23 cm.
69
rWO CAPITALS IN THE COLLETION OF MEDIAEVAL
ART OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM IN WARSAW
The present notiee is a supplement to the article devoted to three Romanesque capitals in tlie
Collection of Mediaeval Art1. They were sent from Geneva in 1936 by Stanisław Neyman,
the valued donor to the Museum, as a gift commemorating his dead step-daughter Wanda Woy-
ciechowska. The author wishes to discuss here two more Mediaeval capitals, belonging to the
same gift, kept now in the store-rooms of the Gallery of the Mediaeval Art (beyond the permanent
exhibition).
The first of them is a composite capital (fig. s. 1—4) of a free-standing colonette, executed in
white marble, its lacelike, highly stylized vegetal decoration, achieved by the deep under-
cutting of stone2. To quo te here the definition of Ch.R. Morey „the stone is tortured into under-
cutting to develop pictorial shadows".3 In the open-work of each side of the capital the fołlowing
motifs are discernible: interlace, palmette and whirled leaves of acanthus as well as the row of
double beads joined with rhombs. The delicate and precisely carved decoration perfectly accen-
tuates the shape of the capital — its soft profiles and harmonious proportions. On one side of the
capital there is a central convexity, caived in basketwork, below the rectangle surrounded with
vertical stems (the motif copied by the sculptor of a Hispano-Moorish capital in the Cincinnati
Art Museum4, who, as it seems, could transfer his techniąue of flatly carved leaves and petals
against the dark baekground to the repertoire of the carvers of Burgundy)5. The edge of the abacus
and the volutes are chipped in several places.
The capital described by the donor as Hispano-Moorish and dated to the Xth century finds
an analogy in the capitals coming from Medina Azzahra near Cordoba (Audience Hall of the
Palące, the so-called Salon Bico, dated 956/576 (fig. s. 5,6)). The capital recently published by
J. Sourdel-Thomine and B. Spuller, of similar shape and a slightly flater decoration, is supplied
with the Cufic inscription dating this work to the reign of Abderrahman III7 (fig. 5). The German
authors stress the abstract denaturalized character of Islamie ornamental decoration, which
seems to derive from the Byzantine concept of foliate decoration8 — the kind of carved lace used
as a net against the dark baekground.
The second of the capitals discussed here is of limestone9, carved on all four sides, aad thus,
1. P. Ratkowska, „Trois chapiteau?; au Musće National de Varsovie'\ Bullelin du Musee National de Varsovie
_ XIII, 1972, No 2-3, p. 35 sq.
2. Inv. 121882, dimensions: 29(21)x22 cm, diam. 13 om.
3. Ch.R. Morey, Mediaeval Art, New York, 1942, p. 236.
4. The Cincinnati Art Museum Bullelin, IX, 1972 No 3, p. 14. I thank cordially Professor Jan Białostocki
for this valuable publication lent me by him, as well as Mr Przemysław Trzeciak for his fiiendly suggestions.
5. M. Aubert, La sculpture franęaise au Moyen Ąge, n. p. 1946, p. 99, 104—105.
6. M. Gómez-Morcno, „El Arte arabe espanol hasta los Almohades, Arte mozarabe" ^rs Hispaniae, III, Madrid,
1951. figs. 84-87, 60.
7. J. Sourdel-Thomine, B. Spuller, Die Kunst des Islam (Propylden Kunstgeschichtc, B. IV, Berlin, 1973), p. 203,
pL No 98a.
8- P- Meyer, Historia sztuki europejskiej, I. Warszawa, 1973 p. 79
9. Inv. 121883, dimensions: 20 x 11 cm, diam. 23 cm.
69