DOI Artikel:
Chruszczyńska, Wiesława: Wystrój rzeźbiarski kościoła św. Eliasza w Lublinie
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36972#0087
WYSTRÓJ RZEŹBIARSKI' KOŚCIOŁA ŚW. ELIASZA
81
As the records are not available it is not possible to establish the origin of the sculptural decoration of
S. Elijah. The question of the technique employed and the authorship may be solved by the analysis of
the style and form. The main altar decorates the interior of the church. The altar is late baroque,
architectonic, two-storeyed, made of wood, white in colour, richly decorated with a gilded rococo
ornament,, a free-standing sculpture and figures of angels. There is also a pulpit of the jutting pillar type
with the figures of the four evangelists on the pillar. The carving on the altar represents the legend of
S. Elijah.
The two figures on the altar, one on either side of the tabernacle represent holy popes:
S. Thelesphorus on the left and S. Sylvester on the right. The main idea behind the design of the altar is
revealed in a group of three figures at the altarpiece. S. Elijah is the central figure of the scene: the
prophet in a chariot of fire drawn by two horses. On either side of the scene there are two figures
representing S. Peter and S. Paul respectively.
The Carmelite sculptural decoration is a product of a woodcarver’s workshop which had developed
its own stylistic variety distinct from other well-known workshops supplying Lublin. The altarpiece
reveals artistic individuality visible in the expression of emotional tension referred to as rococo
expressionism.
The comparative analysis has discovered stylistic features of the Lublin group of figures which permit
to associate them with the carved figure attributable to Master Plersch, well-known in Warsaw in the
middle eighteenth century.
Bearing in mind that fact as well as family relations between Plersch and the Fontanas, and the
connections between religious orders founded at the same time (the Calced Carmelites in Warsaw and
Lublin) we may assume that either a worker from Plersch’s shop or the master himself produced the
sculptural decoration in the church of S. Elijah in Lublin.
6 — Roczniki Humanistyczne
81
As the records are not available it is not possible to establish the origin of the sculptural decoration of
S. Elijah. The question of the technique employed and the authorship may be solved by the analysis of
the style and form. The main altar decorates the interior of the church. The altar is late baroque,
architectonic, two-storeyed, made of wood, white in colour, richly decorated with a gilded rococo
ornament,, a free-standing sculpture and figures of angels. There is also a pulpit of the jutting pillar type
with the figures of the four evangelists on the pillar. The carving on the altar represents the legend of
S. Elijah.
The two figures on the altar, one on either side of the tabernacle represent holy popes:
S. Thelesphorus on the left and S. Sylvester on the right. The main idea behind the design of the altar is
revealed in a group of three figures at the altarpiece. S. Elijah is the central figure of the scene: the
prophet in a chariot of fire drawn by two horses. On either side of the scene there are two figures
representing S. Peter and S. Paul respectively.
The Carmelite sculptural decoration is a product of a woodcarver’s workshop which had developed
its own stylistic variety distinct from other well-known workshops supplying Lublin. The altarpiece
reveals artistic individuality visible in the expression of emotional tension referred to as rococo
expressionism.
The comparative analysis has discovered stylistic features of the Lublin group of figures which permit
to associate them with the carved figure attributable to Master Plersch, well-known in Warsaw in the
middle eighteenth century.
Bearing in mind that fact as well as family relations between Plersch and the Fontanas, and the
connections between religious orders founded at the same time (the Calced Carmelites in Warsaw and
Lublin) we may assume that either a worker from Plersch’s shop or the master himself produced the
sculptural decoration in the church of S. Elijah in Lublin.
6 — Roczniki Humanistyczne