DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25050#0192
Yet another funerary work introduced the Renaissance into
Polish art. From 1502 to 1505, Francesco Fiorentino made an
arched wall niche, where a slightly earlier, still-Gothic slab with
the figure of King John Albert was placed. The Florentine forms
of the niche, formerly unknown in Cracow, carried a new, though
classically inspired, ideological message. The most significant
change was the replacement of the medieval baldachin with
a triumphal arch motif, later developed in the Sigismund Chapel
and adopted as a de rigueur feature of Polish Renaissance tombs.
The process of setting of this new type of tomb was completed
with the construction of Sigismund the Old’s monument. The
figure of the deceased was also composed in a quite new way and
was since represented as a person quietly asleep. The established
pattern is repeated, with all necessary changes, in the tombs of
bishops Tomicki, Gamrat, Maciejowski, Zebrzydowski and Pad-
niewski; and in the tombs of secular persons like Piotr Boratynski
and the Cracow Castellan Walenty D^binski. The tombs allow us
to trace the stylistic evolution from the Florentine Renaissance of
the Berrecci’s workshop to the Mannerism of Jan Michalowicz,
enriched with motifs imported from the Netherlands. Still further
modifications were introduced by Santi Gucci. In his figure
°f Sigismund Augustus he was still bound by the model of
Sigismund the Old’s statue but in Stephen Bathory’s tomb of 1595
he gave free rein to his taste for decorativeness and for ornamental
styling of the human figure.
In the seventeenth century, tombs with sculpted or sometimes
painted busts prevailed. The best examples are the tomb of Bishop
Jakub Zadzik, by Sebastian Sala, and a group of four tombs
around the St Stanislaus confession. The use of black marble
was more and more widespread. A version typical of the Coun-
tor-Reformation, with the kneeling figure of the deceased, is
^presented by the tombs of bishops Piotr Tylicki and Andrzej
Trzebicki. Late Baroque revelled in elaborate structures, often
Us*ng the sepulchral motif of the pyramid and whole sets of
allegorical figures. Large-scale monuments of this type, of the
Polish art. From 1502 to 1505, Francesco Fiorentino made an
arched wall niche, where a slightly earlier, still-Gothic slab with
the figure of King John Albert was placed. The Florentine forms
of the niche, formerly unknown in Cracow, carried a new, though
classically inspired, ideological message. The most significant
change was the replacement of the medieval baldachin with
a triumphal arch motif, later developed in the Sigismund Chapel
and adopted as a de rigueur feature of Polish Renaissance tombs.
The process of setting of this new type of tomb was completed
with the construction of Sigismund the Old’s monument. The
figure of the deceased was also composed in a quite new way and
was since represented as a person quietly asleep. The established
pattern is repeated, with all necessary changes, in the tombs of
bishops Tomicki, Gamrat, Maciejowski, Zebrzydowski and Pad-
niewski; and in the tombs of secular persons like Piotr Boratynski
and the Cracow Castellan Walenty D^binski. The tombs allow us
to trace the stylistic evolution from the Florentine Renaissance of
the Berrecci’s workshop to the Mannerism of Jan Michalowicz,
enriched with motifs imported from the Netherlands. Still further
modifications were introduced by Santi Gucci. In his figure
°f Sigismund Augustus he was still bound by the model of
Sigismund the Old’s statue but in Stephen Bathory’s tomb of 1595
he gave free rein to his taste for decorativeness and for ornamental
styling of the human figure.
In the seventeenth century, tombs with sculpted or sometimes
painted busts prevailed. The best examples are the tomb of Bishop
Jakub Zadzik, by Sebastian Sala, and a group of four tombs
around the St Stanislaus confession. The use of black marble
was more and more widespread. A version typical of the Coun-
tor-Reformation, with the kneeling figure of the deceased, is
^presented by the tombs of bishops Piotr Tylicki and Andrzej
Trzebicki. Late Baroque revelled in elaborate structures, often
Us*ng the sepulchral motif of the pyramid and whole sets of
allegorical figures. Large-scale monuments of this type, of the