Modus: Prace z historii sztuki (6.2005)

Devoiio and Pietas on the vaults of the rooms on either side of the chancel, and numerous
decorative elements).

An observation made on the monumental fresco on the barrel vault of the nave, whose
composition was found to closely recall the painting by Franz Xaver Karl Palko, a student
of the Viennese Academy, m the high altar of the Trinitanan church in Bratislava, was
fundamental to the correct interpretation of the artistic associations of the Cracow work
(Garas, 1987).

It seems that to this end Piltz, who may have seen Palko's painting, made use of an en-
graving executed after this painting by Franz Leopold Schmittner (as is testified by the de-
tails visible both in the engraving and in Piltz's fresco, but absent in Palko' s prototype).

The way in which Piltz adapted the composition of an easel painting to the reąuire-
ments of an illusionist vault picture seems particularly interesting. The frescoist appears
to have referred to Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's concept (vault fresco, Institution of the
Rosary, 1738-1739, Venice, S.Maria dei Gesuati) and set individual elements of Palko's
composition against an original structure of monumental stairs which appears in the
above-mentioned Venetian fresco.

In addition, Piltz's polychrome is testimony to his being rooted in the Moravian artistic
culture. Thus, for instance, the type of central painting - an oblong composition opening
up to a view of heaven - along the vault barrel, the oval grisaille medallions surrounding
the central depiction, and the ornamental framing of the Assumption panorama recall his
direct relations with the studios of two outstanding Moravian fresco painters Johann Georg
Etgens and Johann Christoph Handke.

In the Assumption fresco Piltz also referred to his own, Moravian experience (The
Apotheosis of the Holy Trinity panorama, the Trinitarian church at Holeśov, where he had
introduced a similar or identical repertory of poses), whereas in his illusionist altars he
followed the type popularized by Pozzo's treatise (their structural scheme is otherwise
closely akin to that of the Cracow altars linked with Francesco Placidi).

Piltz, a provincial artist, exhibiting nevertheless a sound technical background and
quite an individuality, made an attractive and successful compilation of patterns. The set
of paintings decorating the Trinitarian church in Cracow's Kazimierz surpasses his earlier
works in concept and scalę: on the basis of his experience gained during the years of prac-
tice in Moravia (an illusionistic depiction opening up to a view of heaven, painted along
the vault, a type of ąuadrature independent of the really existing architecture, grisaille
medallions framing the central fresco, and Regence-type ornamentation already anachro-
nistic by the 1750s) and using the concepts of contemporary painters, representatives of
the leading artistic circles (Palko, Tiepolo), he created an original composition which was
also outstanding in Poland and which was soon to be imitated (Józef PrechtFs fresco on
the vault of the chapel in the Trinitarian church at Brahiłów (ca. 1770).

Moreover, the set of the Trinitarian frescoes is an excellent testimony to the mecha-
nisms characteristic of the artistic life in Little Poland at that time. The activity of the fres-
coists from the neighbouring Moravia and Silesia almost totally dominated 18th century
monumental painting and determined its character. The artists influenced by the Viennese
Academy introduced into Cracow some patterns not only from that circle, but - due to
their practice of using engravings and models - also from much more distant and no less
prestigious sources such as, in this particular case, a fresco by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

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