DOI Heft:
Nr. 1
DOI Artikel:Łoś, Władysław; Vries, Adriaen de [Ill.]: Christ at the column by Adrian de Vries from the Hannewaldt Memorial at Żórawina
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18897#0042
I am not going to search for a model of the isolated statuę of Clrrist. In the present paper I
will look instead for the prototype of the figurę as it was originally composed on the Hannewaldt
memoriał. The reason to do it this way are of historical naturę. The dating of the whole monument
to 1608, which is four years later than the Christ statuę has becn cast, relies on the grounds
that such a date appears in the inscription of the memoriał. This inscription has been incised
on brass tablcts by a calligraphist from Wrocław a certain Caspar Rauch20. The date 1608 in it
refers to the death of Catharina Hannewaldt and therefore indicates only the terminus post quem
of the execution of the tablets, not the time of the erection of the monument21.
On the other hand, from the funeral sermon for Adam Hannewaldt it follows that he erected
the monument first and foremost for himself and that he understood the erection as an act
of personal devotion22. It scems a reasonablc conclusion to say that the whole memoriał
has been built betwcen the years 1600 and 1604, in the period of the full-scale rcnovation of
the church at Żórawina23.
The erection of the monument for himself and his family was certainly included by the donor
in his plans to rebuild the church. Aftcr the death of Catharina Hannewaldt in 1608 the tablets
commemorating her were placed on the already standing monument.
Attempting to solve the problem of the model of the discussed work one has to state at first
that the statuę from Żórawina presents a rather rare type of the Scourged Christ. During the
Middle Ages two principal patterns of representing Christ scourged at the high column were
developed21. The first one consisted in presenting Christ from the front, with his hands tied
behind his back and bound to the column. The other one was to show Christ from the front
or from the side with His hands tied in front of Him and embracing the column, represented
as rather thin in order not to harm the view of the figurę. Christ from Żórawina standing in
front of the column, but with hands crossed beforc Him belongs to neither of those two types.
Therc is another type of the Scourged Christ popular in North-Eastern Germany, including
Silesia, during the second half of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century. Christ stands
in a position similar to that of the Ecce Homo representations, with His hands crossed and tied
before him, a cord running under the arms, around His body, and bound to the ring fixcd above
His head on the column behind Him25. In spite of a certain likeness to that type, the position
of the body of Christ from Żórawina excludcs such a way of attaching Him to the column. It
is however possible that the donor had in mind the image of the described type as he was deciding
what the ordered statuę should look like in generał. Anyway, I am inclined to look clsewhere
for an immediate model, which could serve the sculptor.
Ulrich Middeldorf has lately Hsted a mimber of North-Europcan imitations of the silver
relief of the Flagellation by Guglielmo delia Porta, of which two specimens cast from the same
20. C. Buchwald, ,,Zur sehlesisehcr Kiinstlergeschichtc — Caspar Rauch, ein-breslauer Scnreibfcunstler", Sehlesiens Yorzcil.
N.F., VII, 1919, p. 217.
21. see notę 11.
22. Z. Hermann, op. cli., fols. D II — D III.
23. Sonie students thirtk that the rebuilding of the church at Żórawina was extended after the year 1604 (sec: E. Zakrzewska,
„Malowidła ścienne w kościele Św. Trójcy w Żórawinie", Roczniki Sztuki Śląskiej, XI, 1977, p. 97). There are no grounds
however, to believe so. No monument of Żórawina from the times of Adam Hannewaldt bears a date later than 1601.
Besidcs, in 1601 Zacharias Hermann preached on the occasion of the renovation of the church. (Z. Hermann, Yierzehen
Preditcgn An etlichen Santagen (und zu andere Zv.it) inn der renovirten Kirchen zum Rotensirben gethan, Breslau, 1607,
fols. L —- M IV. There is no evidence that the renovatiou of the church was not complcted at that time. (The sermon
to which I am referring is the fifth in the collcction of the Yierzehen Predigten. The date of its delivery is not given but
can be estimated aftcr the place of the sermon in the collcction and the dates of the other sermons).
24. G. Schiller, Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst, II, Giitersloh, 1968, p. 77.
25. see e.g. retable paintings of the Flagellation from the years 1486—1500 from the Wrocław churches. (T. Dobrzeniecki,
Mcdiaeval Paintings .Catalogue, National Museum in Warsaw, Warszawa, 1972, n.: 72 B; 83 B 2 a; 84 B 1 b).
36
will look instead for the prototype of the figurę as it was originally composed on the Hannewaldt
memoriał. The reason to do it this way are of historical naturę. The dating of the whole monument
to 1608, which is four years later than the Christ statuę has becn cast, relies on the grounds
that such a date appears in the inscription of the memoriał. This inscription has been incised
on brass tablcts by a calligraphist from Wrocław a certain Caspar Rauch20. The date 1608 in it
refers to the death of Catharina Hannewaldt and therefore indicates only the terminus post quem
of the execution of the tablets, not the time of the erection of the monument21.
On the other hand, from the funeral sermon for Adam Hannewaldt it follows that he erected
the monument first and foremost for himself and that he understood the erection as an act
of personal devotion22. It scems a reasonablc conclusion to say that the whole memoriał
has been built betwcen the years 1600 and 1604, in the period of the full-scale rcnovation of
the church at Żórawina23.
The erection of the monument for himself and his family was certainly included by the donor
in his plans to rebuild the church. Aftcr the death of Catharina Hannewaldt in 1608 the tablets
commemorating her were placed on the already standing monument.
Attempting to solve the problem of the model of the discussed work one has to state at first
that the statuę from Żórawina presents a rather rare type of the Scourged Christ. During the
Middle Ages two principal patterns of representing Christ scourged at the high column were
developed21. The first one consisted in presenting Christ from the front, with his hands tied
behind his back and bound to the column. The other one was to show Christ from the front
or from the side with His hands tied in front of Him and embracing the column, represented
as rather thin in order not to harm the view of the figurę. Christ from Żórawina standing in
front of the column, but with hands crossed beforc Him belongs to neither of those two types.
Therc is another type of the Scourged Christ popular in North-Eastern Germany, including
Silesia, during the second half of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century. Christ stands
in a position similar to that of the Ecce Homo representations, with His hands crossed and tied
before him, a cord running under the arms, around His body, and bound to the ring fixcd above
His head on the column behind Him25. In spite of a certain likeness to that type, the position
of the body of Christ from Żórawina excludcs such a way of attaching Him to the column. It
is however possible that the donor had in mind the image of the described type as he was deciding
what the ordered statuę should look like in generał. Anyway, I am inclined to look clsewhere
for an immediate model, which could serve the sculptor.
Ulrich Middeldorf has lately Hsted a mimber of North-Europcan imitations of the silver
relief of the Flagellation by Guglielmo delia Porta, of which two specimens cast from the same
20. C. Buchwald, ,,Zur sehlesisehcr Kiinstlergeschichtc — Caspar Rauch, ein-breslauer Scnreibfcunstler", Sehlesiens Yorzcil.
N.F., VII, 1919, p. 217.
21. see notę 11.
22. Z. Hermann, op. cli., fols. D II — D III.
23. Sonie students thirtk that the rebuilding of the church at Żórawina was extended after the year 1604 (sec: E. Zakrzewska,
„Malowidła ścienne w kościele Św. Trójcy w Żórawinie", Roczniki Sztuki Śląskiej, XI, 1977, p. 97). There are no grounds
however, to believe so. No monument of Żórawina from the times of Adam Hannewaldt bears a date later than 1601.
Besidcs, in 1601 Zacharias Hermann preached on the occasion of the renovation of the church. (Z. Hermann, Yierzehen
Preditcgn An etlichen Santagen (und zu andere Zv.it) inn der renovirten Kirchen zum Rotensirben gethan, Breslau, 1607,
fols. L —- M IV. There is no evidence that the renovatiou of the church was not complcted at that time. (The sermon
to which I am referring is the fifth in the collcction of the Yierzehen Predigten. The date of its delivery is not given but
can be estimated aftcr the place of the sermon in the collcction and the dates of the other sermons).
24. G. Schiller, Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst, II, Giitersloh, 1968, p. 77.
25. see e.g. retable paintings of the Flagellation from the years 1486—1500 from the Wrocław churches. (T. Dobrzeniecki,
Mcdiaeval Paintings .Catalogue, National Museum in Warsaw, Warszawa, 1972, n.: 72 B; 83 B 2 a; 84 B 1 b).
36