DOI Artikel:
Ameisenowa, Zofia: Cztery polskie rękopisy iluminowane z lat 1524 - 1528 w zbiorach obcych
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26698#0096
by the nuncio Niccolo Fabri to Pope Clement VII, «heresia maledetta di Lutero ha incominciato
a labcfactar quel paese». Such were the generał lines of Krzycki's comment, but even morę interesting
are the anaiogies between the agony of Christ and the anguish of the Church he traced in his Latin
poems imagMem Forr: Pe&mptorM noj!r: and Ih Firginrm Afalrrn: rrace on the ias three
pages of his treatise: these poems are the literary cxpression of the same motives as those depicted
in some miniatures of the four manuscripts here described. This means that there was a direct causa)
relation of what was expressed by literaturę, poetry and painting with what was taking piace at that
time in Poland and with what moved the hearts and the imagination of the pocplc. The threats to
the unity of the Church, to the social structure of the State, and to the frontiers of the country caused
a deep psycho!ogicai shock in Poland. This shock had a thematic and forma) influence on Po)ish re-
ligious painting during the reign of Sigismund I: the pictures of the time were anything but Renaissancc.
Indeed, this phenomenon was not restricted to Po)and a)one, but extended to the whołe o Centra)
Europę, sińce neither the art of the Danube school nor the emmerging from the same background
and at the same time splendid, but in the human sense tragic art of Griinewatd can be ciassified as
Renaissance. Quite rightly Vogt caHed this sty)e anticiassica). It makes no difference to the present
argument that Grunewald was a rcaHy great artist, whereas Brother Stanislas had a much lesser
talent. The significant point is that this period of great changes and upheava)s impressed a deep
stamp on both of them.
Of al) the visual arts religious painting is most strongly infiuenced by tradition so far as the choice
of themes is concerned. The themes painted by the Polish artists at the beginning of the 16th century,
when not secu)ar, were strict)y associated with titurgy and religious cu)t; such motives prevailed in
the pictures of the painters active in Cracow. One of the methods the Church used in her fight against
the Reformation in addition to the strict adherence to orthodoxy, was to enhance religious sentiments
and to give them a form allowing dramatic expression.
As is to be seen from what was said here neither King Sigismund I nor Queen Bona, nor for that
matter the lay and ecclesiastical dignitaries of their court supported Italian Renaissance painters
in preference to the Polish ones. On the contrary their placed their orders for the various and many
works of art they needecl with a Pole who had received his basie training in Cracow and only completed
it in Vienna. It would have been natural and could have been expected that the Queen who was
Italian and a friend of Isabella d'Este, the first lady of the Italian Renaissance, would favour Italian
painters. But this was not the case. The religious motives prevailing in Cracow in the second and third
decade of the 16th century were mystical and had their sources in the visions of St Brigid, in the writings
of St Bernard, and in purely Polish collections of prayers such as the prayer-book of Constance or the
«Clypeus Spiritualis» illustrated on various occasions by Brother Stanislas. The arrival in 1518 of
Queen Bona, who was Italian, could have submitted the Cracow painters to the influences of the Italian
Renaissance, but it did nothing of the kind and the problem remains a matter of mere speculation.
What actually happened was a generał crisis: political, economic, religious and artistic. Motives
derived from the passion and from mystical experiences became the most common in pictures and
miniatures. At the beginning of the 15th century the meditations of the mystics, who initiated the
HM&rna on the passion of the Lord or on the joys and sorrows of the Virgin Mary inspired
French and Flemish painters; similarly in the twenties of the 16th century the realistic, sometimes
so realistic as to become terrifying, descriptions of the wounds and the sufferings of Christ dominated
the writings of the mystics and found their reflection in the visual arts.
There remains the question whether we may speak of Renaissance painting in Cracow in the
period 1520 to 1535 and whether Samostrzelnik was an exponcnt of the Renaissance. In this author's
opinion and according to what S. Komornicki wrote already thirty years ago Cracow never had any
Renaissance painting and Brother Stanislas was not a Renaissance painter. Nothing in his manuscripts
but the shape of letters and a certain proportion of ornamental motives came from Italy. On the other
hand, he was the first exponent of the anticlassical style in Poland, of the style whicli was the Central
European counterpart of what in Italy and the Netherlands has been caHed mannerism.
88
a labcfactar quel paese». Such were the generał lines of Krzycki's comment, but even morę interesting
are the anaiogies between the agony of Christ and the anguish of the Church he traced in his Latin
poems imagMem Forr: Pe&mptorM noj!r: and Ih Firginrm Afalrrn: rrace on the ias three
pages of his treatise: these poems are the literary cxpression of the same motives as those depicted
in some miniatures of the four manuscripts here described. This means that there was a direct causa)
relation of what was expressed by literaturę, poetry and painting with what was taking piace at that
time in Poland and with what moved the hearts and the imagination of the pocplc. The threats to
the unity of the Church, to the social structure of the State, and to the frontiers of the country caused
a deep psycho!ogicai shock in Poland. This shock had a thematic and forma) influence on Po)ish re-
ligious painting during the reign of Sigismund I: the pictures of the time were anything but Renaissancc.
Indeed, this phenomenon was not restricted to Po)and a)one, but extended to the whołe o Centra)
Europę, sińce neither the art of the Danube school nor the emmerging from the same background
and at the same time splendid, but in the human sense tragic art of Griinewatd can be ciassified as
Renaissance. Quite rightly Vogt caHed this sty)e anticiassica). It makes no difference to the present
argument that Grunewald was a rcaHy great artist, whereas Brother Stanislas had a much lesser
talent. The significant point is that this period of great changes and upheava)s impressed a deep
stamp on both of them.
Of al) the visual arts religious painting is most strongly infiuenced by tradition so far as the choice
of themes is concerned. The themes painted by the Polish artists at the beginning of the 16th century,
when not secu)ar, were strict)y associated with titurgy and religious cu)t; such motives prevailed in
the pictures of the painters active in Cracow. One of the methods the Church used in her fight against
the Reformation in addition to the strict adherence to orthodoxy, was to enhance religious sentiments
and to give them a form allowing dramatic expression.
As is to be seen from what was said here neither King Sigismund I nor Queen Bona, nor for that
matter the lay and ecclesiastical dignitaries of their court supported Italian Renaissance painters
in preference to the Polish ones. On the contrary their placed their orders for the various and many
works of art they needecl with a Pole who had received his basie training in Cracow and only completed
it in Vienna. It would have been natural and could have been expected that the Queen who was
Italian and a friend of Isabella d'Este, the first lady of the Italian Renaissance, would favour Italian
painters. But this was not the case. The religious motives prevailing in Cracow in the second and third
decade of the 16th century were mystical and had their sources in the visions of St Brigid, in the writings
of St Bernard, and in purely Polish collections of prayers such as the prayer-book of Constance or the
«Clypeus Spiritualis» illustrated on various occasions by Brother Stanislas. The arrival in 1518 of
Queen Bona, who was Italian, could have submitted the Cracow painters to the influences of the Italian
Renaissance, but it did nothing of the kind and the problem remains a matter of mere speculation.
What actually happened was a generał crisis: political, economic, religious and artistic. Motives
derived from the passion and from mystical experiences became the most common in pictures and
miniatures. At the beginning of the 15th century the meditations of the mystics, who initiated the
HM&rna on the passion of the Lord or on the joys and sorrows of the Virgin Mary inspired
French and Flemish painters; similarly in the twenties of the 16th century the realistic, sometimes
so realistic as to become terrifying, descriptions of the wounds and the sufferings of Christ dominated
the writings of the mystics and found their reflection in the visual arts.
There remains the question whether we may speak of Renaissance painting in Cracow in the
period 1520 to 1535 and whether Samostrzelnik was an exponcnt of the Renaissance. In this author's
opinion and according to what S. Komornicki wrote already thirty years ago Cracow never had any
Renaissance painting and Brother Stanislas was not a Renaissance painter. Nothing in his manuscripts
but the shape of letters and a certain proportion of ornamental motives came from Italy. On the other
hand, he was the first exponent of the anticlassical style in Poland, of the style whicli was the Central
European counterpart of what in Italy and the Netherlands has been caHed mannerism.
88