DOI article:
Kochanowska-Reiche, Małgorzata: Beautiful Madonna of Wrocław: the Question of Provenance and Original State
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18949#0049
Małgorzata Kochanowska-Reicbe
Beautiful Madonna of Wrocław
- the Question of Provenance
and Original State
The figurę of the Madonna of Wrocław (Breslau) belongs to first-rate
examples of Beautiful style and is a key object of art in the group of Beautiful
Madonnas (Scbóne Madonnas). Thus, the figurę is often mentioned in
scholarly works on the subject but usually only as a fragment of broader
dispute on the origins of Beautiful style and Beautiful Madonnas style. The
purpose of this paper is to present this sculpture against a background of
related examples, to confront various opinions and hypotheses regarding its
workshop origin.
Due to its high artistic ąuality the Madonna figurę is related with Wrocław
as an artistic centre but its actual place of origin remains unknown. In the
past some scholars mistakenly connected the sculpture with St. Elizabethk
or even St. Mary Magdalenek church in Wrocław.1 There is no information
as to how the sculpture was brought to the Schlesisches Museum fur
Kunstgewerbe und Altertiimer in Wrocław in 1898 (inv. no. 584:98), where
it remained until the evacuation during the Second World War. After its
recovery, the sculpture was moved to the National Museum in Warsaw
(previous inv. no. 187306, present - Sr. 8).
Until now it was rather arbitrarily assumed that the Madonna was madę of
limestone, artificial stone or even sandstone. Petrographic study madę in 2000
allowed for decisive determining of the rock type. On the basis of thin sections
and microchemical study it was determined that the sculpture is madę of marły
limestone consisting mostly of autogenic silica of organie origin.2
1 The information on St. Elizabeth’s church as the sculpture’s place of origin comes from
E. Wiese, Schlesiche Plastik, Leipzig 1923, caption to ill. XXV; this mistake was corrected by
H. Braune, E. Wiese, Schlesische Malerei und Plastik des Mittelalters, Leipzig 1926, p. 24, no. 35;
St. Mary Magdalene’s church is mentioned by W Pinder, Die Deutsche Plastik, Wildpark-
-Potsdam 1924, p. 168; both churches are mentioned by A. Pankiewicz (catalogue entry) in Die
Parler und der Schóne Stil 1350-1400, ed. by A. Legner, exh. cat., Cologne 1978, vol. II, p. 499.
2 The study, commissioned by the National Museum in Warsaw, was undertaken by Irena Koss,
Ph.D, from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.
47
Beautiful Madonna of Wrocław
- the Question of Provenance
and Original State
The figurę of the Madonna of Wrocław (Breslau) belongs to first-rate
examples of Beautiful style and is a key object of art in the group of Beautiful
Madonnas (Scbóne Madonnas). Thus, the figurę is often mentioned in
scholarly works on the subject but usually only as a fragment of broader
dispute on the origins of Beautiful style and Beautiful Madonnas style. The
purpose of this paper is to present this sculpture against a background of
related examples, to confront various opinions and hypotheses regarding its
workshop origin.
Due to its high artistic ąuality the Madonna figurę is related with Wrocław
as an artistic centre but its actual place of origin remains unknown. In the
past some scholars mistakenly connected the sculpture with St. Elizabethk
or even St. Mary Magdalenek church in Wrocław.1 There is no information
as to how the sculpture was brought to the Schlesisches Museum fur
Kunstgewerbe und Altertiimer in Wrocław in 1898 (inv. no. 584:98), where
it remained until the evacuation during the Second World War. After its
recovery, the sculpture was moved to the National Museum in Warsaw
(previous inv. no. 187306, present - Sr. 8).
Until now it was rather arbitrarily assumed that the Madonna was madę of
limestone, artificial stone or even sandstone. Petrographic study madę in 2000
allowed for decisive determining of the rock type. On the basis of thin sections
and microchemical study it was determined that the sculpture is madę of marły
limestone consisting mostly of autogenic silica of organie origin.2
1 The information on St. Elizabeth’s church as the sculpture’s place of origin comes from
E. Wiese, Schlesiche Plastik, Leipzig 1923, caption to ill. XXV; this mistake was corrected by
H. Braune, E. Wiese, Schlesische Malerei und Plastik des Mittelalters, Leipzig 1926, p. 24, no. 35;
St. Mary Magdalene’s church is mentioned by W Pinder, Die Deutsche Plastik, Wildpark-
-Potsdam 1924, p. 168; both churches are mentioned by A. Pankiewicz (catalogue entry) in Die
Parler und der Schóne Stil 1350-1400, ed. by A. Legner, exh. cat., Cologne 1978, vol. II, p. 499.
2 The study, commissioned by the National Museum in Warsaw, was undertaken by Irena Koss,
Ph.D, from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.
47