DOI article:
Labuda, Adam S.: O retabulum Trójcy Świętej bractwa św. Jerzego w kościele Mariackim w Gdańsku
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28181#0055
ołtarz w kościele Mariackim w Gdańsku. Obraz jest nie jedynym w tym okresie
dowodem chłonności gdańskiego środowiska zleceniodawczego, podtrzymują-
cego kontakty z przodującymi środowiskami artystycznymi Europy Zachodniej.
O retabulum
Trójcy Świętej
bractwa
św. Jerzego...
On The Holy Trinity Retable of the St. George Brotherhood in St. Mary’s Church
in Gdańsk
The central part of the discussed retable accommodated a painting featuring The Holy
Trinity in the Pietas Domini type (ill. ill. 1,2). It is sited on a predella, adorned with three de-
picted items: The Holy Trinity - in this case as the Throne of Grace, St. George, and a saint
identińed as St. Olaf (ill. 3). The altar and the retable were the property of the St. George
Brotherhood, formed before the mid 14th century. The chapel of the Brotherhood had
even existed before 1403. The exposition of the retable next to St. Georges Pillar (ill. 2) was
documented by photographs dated before 1935 (ill. ill. 4-6) and even had previous men-
tions, yet not earlier than the mid 19th century. In the time between the two World Wars,
both parts of the retable were taken to Germany. The existence of the painting of The Holy
Trinity was only revealed in 2000; although the painting has currently been shown at
the Gemaldegalerie in Berlin. The predella had even earlier been exhibited to the public
in St. Johns Church in Berlin-Moabit. The latest disclosure of the painting fostered propa-
gation of the fact, known before the war already but not included in the then literaturę on
the subject - namely that the reverse of the table features the figures of King Arthur and the
Grand Master of The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem
(commonly called Teutonic Knights; ill. 27).
The first part of this paper concentrates on the reverse of the representation of The
Holy Trinity: issues regarding its style, its authorship, its place of origin or execution. The
writer presents the results of his own research, previously published in the study Die
Pitie-de-Nostre-Seigneur der St.-Georgsbruderschaft in der Danziger Marienkirche. Unter-
suchungen zu den Quellen des Bildtypus und der Herkunft des Malers, [in:] Kunstlerische
Wechselwirkungen in Mitteleuropa, hrsg. Jiri Fajt, Markus Horsch, Ostfildern 2006 (Studia
Jagełlonica Lipsiensia 1), pp. 161-181. The author also takes a stance on the opinions of
other scholars discussing the painting after the presentation of the study mentioned herein
(Albert Chatelet, Antje-Fee- Kóllermann, Antoni Ziemba).
Important trends and results of research pertinent to The Holy Trinity painting were
already outlined before the 2nd World War. Currently, it is only permitted to speak un-
eąuiyocally about the author of the painting as coming from The Netherlands and about
its typological-iconographic origins as Burgundian-French. The dating of the picture based
on stylistic criteria has still remained liąuid. In the light of proposals to datę, it spreads from
the first to the fifth decades of the 15th century. The writer of this paper acknowledges
the 1420s as the time of the creation of the piece. The painting itself constitutes a peculiar
phenomenon: still rooted in the premises of art of the 1400s, it reveals kinship with the
original - and best - Solutions of the ars nova of the Netherlands thanks to its painterly and
visual power of evoking the represented reality.
Most probably, the St. George Brotherhood of knights, having received the table with
the depiction of The Holy Trinity, complemented it with the paintings on the reverse. At
49
dowodem chłonności gdańskiego środowiska zleceniodawczego, podtrzymują-
cego kontakty z przodującymi środowiskami artystycznymi Europy Zachodniej.
O retabulum
Trójcy Świętej
bractwa
św. Jerzego...
On The Holy Trinity Retable of the St. George Brotherhood in St. Mary’s Church
in Gdańsk
The central part of the discussed retable accommodated a painting featuring The Holy
Trinity in the Pietas Domini type (ill. ill. 1,2). It is sited on a predella, adorned with three de-
picted items: The Holy Trinity - in this case as the Throne of Grace, St. George, and a saint
identińed as St. Olaf (ill. 3). The altar and the retable were the property of the St. George
Brotherhood, formed before the mid 14th century. The chapel of the Brotherhood had
even existed before 1403. The exposition of the retable next to St. Georges Pillar (ill. 2) was
documented by photographs dated before 1935 (ill. ill. 4-6) and even had previous men-
tions, yet not earlier than the mid 19th century. In the time between the two World Wars,
both parts of the retable were taken to Germany. The existence of the painting of The Holy
Trinity was only revealed in 2000; although the painting has currently been shown at
the Gemaldegalerie in Berlin. The predella had even earlier been exhibited to the public
in St. Johns Church in Berlin-Moabit. The latest disclosure of the painting fostered propa-
gation of the fact, known before the war already but not included in the then literaturę on
the subject - namely that the reverse of the table features the figures of King Arthur and the
Grand Master of The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem
(commonly called Teutonic Knights; ill. 27).
The first part of this paper concentrates on the reverse of the representation of The
Holy Trinity: issues regarding its style, its authorship, its place of origin or execution. The
writer presents the results of his own research, previously published in the study Die
Pitie-de-Nostre-Seigneur der St.-Georgsbruderschaft in der Danziger Marienkirche. Unter-
suchungen zu den Quellen des Bildtypus und der Herkunft des Malers, [in:] Kunstlerische
Wechselwirkungen in Mitteleuropa, hrsg. Jiri Fajt, Markus Horsch, Ostfildern 2006 (Studia
Jagełlonica Lipsiensia 1), pp. 161-181. The author also takes a stance on the opinions of
other scholars discussing the painting after the presentation of the study mentioned herein
(Albert Chatelet, Antje-Fee- Kóllermann, Antoni Ziemba).
Important trends and results of research pertinent to The Holy Trinity painting were
already outlined before the 2nd World War. Currently, it is only permitted to speak un-
eąuiyocally about the author of the painting as coming from The Netherlands and about
its typological-iconographic origins as Burgundian-French. The dating of the picture based
on stylistic criteria has still remained liąuid. In the light of proposals to datę, it spreads from
the first to the fifth decades of the 15th century. The writer of this paper acknowledges
the 1420s as the time of the creation of the piece. The painting itself constitutes a peculiar
phenomenon: still rooted in the premises of art of the 1400s, it reveals kinship with the
original - and best - Solutions of the ars nova of the Netherlands thanks to its painterly and
visual power of evoking the represented reality.
Most probably, the St. George Brotherhood of knights, having received the table with
the depiction of The Holy Trinity, complemented it with the paintings on the reverse. At
49