Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (41.2000)

Typologically, the Madonna of Wrocław was not an isolated work of art as,
like other stylistically eminent sculptures of Madonnas, it was emulated by
others. These emulations were collected by Karl Heinz Clasen and analysed
by Dieter Grossman.'1 It should be added that, judging from the preserved
documents, these emulations were very scant. The oldest, related to the
Salzburg art, were the Madonna of Feicbten in Bavaria from ca. 1400 and
a relief from a tympanum of the Irrsdorf church from 1408. Other examples
come from Austria, Rhineland in its broad meaning and Bohemia. In view
of such a diversified locale of emulations it is impossible that Silesian-based
Beautiful Madonna was their direct prototype. It is eąually unlikely that the
above figures were based upon some unpreserved sculpted representations;
rather the transmission took place via graphic sources. This seems to be the
only explanation for creation of compilatory figures, with elements of Wrocław
type, in different times (ill. 8).11 12 13

The exact influence that the Madonna of Wrocław had on the Silesian
sculpture remains unknown but preliminary study shows that also in this case
such influence was very limited. It is assumed that the Madonna of Wrocław
was a prototype for a wooden figurę of so called Beautiful Madonna from
St. Elizabeth’s church from the beginning of the 15th century.12 The motif study
leads to an astonishing conclusion that this sculpture is a compilation of several
types: it contains features characteristic for Bohemian Madonnas and for
Madonna of Altenmarkt from Salzburg area. Is it possible that the sculptor did
not use the Wrocław prototype directly? Obviously, this is how such a mixture
of motifs should be understood. Other examples are provincial wooden
figures from the first ąuarter of the 15th century which refer to the Wrocław
prototype in a simplified and indirect way.14 * * * *An exception is a figurę from
Kąty Wrocławskie (Kanth, parish church, ca. 1420, ill. 9), exact in rendering
elements of composition and gestures but with a different folds pattern,
corresponding to the sculpture’s datę of creation."

The question of time and place of the Madonna’s of Wrocław creation
is at the same time the ąuestion of the origin of all Beautiful Madonnas.

11 Clasen, op. cit., pp. 76-153; Grossmann, Die Breslauer..., op. cit., pp. 231-264.

12 For example Madonnas from: the church in Mariental and ElsaE; Gantorplatz in Mainz
(Darmstadt, Landesmuseum), from Wezlar (Kassel, Museum), from the triptych in Rarogne
(Ziirich, Swiss National Museum), from Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen, from the church
in Skrzynno (Southern Poland) and Wiener Schóne Madonna (Wien, Kunsthistorisches Museum).
Some authors, especially Grossman, “Salzburgs Anteil...”, op. cit., p. 35ff and Die Breslauer...,
op. cit., p. 238ff, assume that each typological variant had to originate from a lost sculpted
prototype.

13 Wrocław, Muzeum Narodowe, inv. no. XI 122; A. Ziomecka, Śląska rzeźba gotycka. Katalog
zbiorów, Wrocław 1968, pp. 53-54; Grossmann, Die Breslauer..., op. cit., pp. 243-244.

14 For example a figurę from Łosiów, Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, vol. VII, part 4, p. 57;

figures from the collection of the National Museum in Wrocław, Ziomecka, op. cit., p. 62, 70;

A. Olszewski, “Niektóre zagadnienia stylu międzynarodowego w Polsce”, in Sztuka i Ideologia

XV wieku, Warsaw 1978, pp. 289-291.

11 Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, new series, vol. IV, part 22, p. 38.

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