DOI Artikel:
Kaleciński, Marcin: Gdańska Fontanna Neptuna
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43645#0110
Marcin sculpture Lars Olof Larsson. When tackling the questions of sculpture created within
Kaleciński the circle of the Danish royal patronage in the 16lh and 17lh centuries, the latter per-
ceived sonie analogies between a bronze statuę of a lion devouring a horse in the
Rosenberg Castle park and the Gdańsk Neptune. The Danish sculpture group was
commissioned by King Christian IV and it paraphrases the Roman copy of a Hel-
lenist sculpture whose fragments have been preserved at the Palazzo dei Conservatori
in Romę. The plein-air figurę from Rosenberg is by Peter Husurn, a sculptor who may
have come from Southern Jutland, and who most likely died in ca. 1620.
Iconography-wise, the Gdańsk Neptune ranked arnong the group of modern rep-
resentations of the god, devoid of any references to the ancient convention. The latter
showed the majesty of his posturę, a composed gesture, a benign and calm counte-
nance. The authors of the Gdańsk fountain and their clients must have borne in mind
analogical, earlier such monuments, first of all Italian.
The Gdańsk Neptune is unique Europę, sińce its task is not to deify an absolute
monarch, as was the case of his almost contemporary Danish Neptune by de Vries,
a kind of an iconographic alter ego of Christian IV. The message of the Gdańsk sculp-
ture as an allegory of the city which Consolidated its power thanks to the sea, fitting
in with the story of man subduing the element that seas are, remains elear. However,
the concept of the Gdańsk sculpture is represented, first of all, in the antinomy between
Neptune and the sea horses, in the antinomy of the ruler of the seas holding a trident,
embodying the sovereign over the elements together with sea creatures, and the fan-
tasy monsters, personifying dangerous forces of naturę.
The allegoric meaning of Gdańsks Neptune is to be derived directly from Virgils
concept, bearing in mind that in the case of the Gdańsk res publica, the ruler had
been replaced by a collective protagonist: Gdańsks patriciate, representing community
aspirations, a legislator and implementer of the vision of the free city in the period of
Calvinist dominance. In such suggested exegesis of the public sculpture, emblematic
of the city, a second after Orpheus allegorical figurę derived from the Antique culture
and bringing forth the ideał of social peace was found.
Kaleciński the circle of the Danish royal patronage in the 16lh and 17lh centuries, the latter per-
ceived sonie analogies between a bronze statuę of a lion devouring a horse in the
Rosenberg Castle park and the Gdańsk Neptune. The Danish sculpture group was
commissioned by King Christian IV and it paraphrases the Roman copy of a Hel-
lenist sculpture whose fragments have been preserved at the Palazzo dei Conservatori
in Romę. The plein-air figurę from Rosenberg is by Peter Husurn, a sculptor who may
have come from Southern Jutland, and who most likely died in ca. 1620.
Iconography-wise, the Gdańsk Neptune ranked arnong the group of modern rep-
resentations of the god, devoid of any references to the ancient convention. The latter
showed the majesty of his posturę, a composed gesture, a benign and calm counte-
nance. The authors of the Gdańsk fountain and their clients must have borne in mind
analogical, earlier such monuments, first of all Italian.
The Gdańsk Neptune is unique Europę, sińce its task is not to deify an absolute
monarch, as was the case of his almost contemporary Danish Neptune by de Vries,
a kind of an iconographic alter ego of Christian IV. The message of the Gdańsk sculp-
ture as an allegory of the city which Consolidated its power thanks to the sea, fitting
in with the story of man subduing the element that seas are, remains elear. However,
the concept of the Gdańsk sculpture is represented, first of all, in the antinomy between
Neptune and the sea horses, in the antinomy of the ruler of the seas holding a trident,
embodying the sovereign over the elements together with sea creatures, and the fan-
tasy monsters, personifying dangerous forces of naturę.
The allegoric meaning of Gdańsks Neptune is to be derived directly from Virgils
concept, bearing in mind that in the case of the Gdańsk res publica, the ruler had
been replaced by a collective protagonist: Gdańsks patriciate, representing community
aspirations, a legislator and implementer of the vision of the free city in the period of
Calvinist dominance. In such suggested exegesis of the public sculpture, emblematic
of the city, a second after Orpheus allegorical figurę derived from the Antique culture
and bringing forth the ideał of social peace was found.