DOI article:
Boczkowska, Anna: Dawid i Betsabe – Idea zwycięstwa i zbawienia w treściach nagrobka Kazimierza Jagiellończyka Wita Stwosza
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14539#0040
36
ANNA BOCZKOWSKA
Kingdom, in a quoter of the east side of the tomb (fig. 17). On the right side — according to expert description,
Wit Stwosz carved the figure of Philip Buonaccorsi-Kallimach (figs. 19, 20), the Italian humanist, poet. philosopher,
diplomat, King's secretary, settled in Cracow. Buonaccorsi-Kallimach was represented by Stwosz in the attitude of the
fiight of the Kingdom's armoriai bearings (fig. 17). Thèse attitude illustrâtes the real flight of Kallimach who, after
the King's death, ran away from Poland and had find refuge on the court of Emperor Maximilian. It is the best
proof that the tomb was not yet finished in the year of the King's death. Kallimach's headcover, a turban fastened
above the forehead with a multi-leaf clasp, is the materiał symbol of his important mission as an adviser and expert
of Near-Eastern Moslem matters. It was he, who, on the order of Casimir Jagellon, began a courteous diplomatie
dialogues with Lorenzo de Medici called the Magnificent and carried on by letter disputes with eminent Florentine
humanists — Marsiglio Ficino and Giovanni Pico delia Mirandola. offering them wonderful gifts paid from royal coffers.
It was probably owing to his initiatives that King Casimir considered the idea of identifying himself with David —
generally thought to be type of an idéal ruler. The imitatio David régis idea had been realized previously, among
others by the Hungarian King Matthew Korvin. In a miniature ornamenting the Bible, he himself founded. illuminated
at the Florentine workshop of Gerhard and Monte di Giovanni (Bibl. Laurentiami Ms. Plut. 15, cod. 15-17), Matthew
Korvin was presented in a double role: as David-king and prophet with regalia, and as David-army leading warrior,
who with an outstretched arm shows fleeing Philistines in Mahommedan costumes. The scène of David's victory over
Goliath has been presented in the foreground of the battle. The friendship shown by Korvin to the same Florentine
humanists with whom Kallimach was on friendly terms was not without influence on his décision to be identified
with David. The Italian humanist as a diplomat employed by the Polish ruler, having made severai trips to Italy,
stayed at Matthew Korvin's court at Buda in 1479. where he wrote a poetical work and dedicated it to the King
of Hungary. Therefore. he could have personally informed King Casimir about the interesting idea of the Hungarian
king's identification with David, the beloved hero of the city-state Florenze. The figure of David, following his victory
over Goliath had been sculptured by both Donatello and Verocchio and personified the citizens' virtue of Fortitudo. it
was. at the same time, a symbol of the Florentine struggle for freedom. As may be seen in the scène of David and
Goliath sculptured by Wit Stwosz, the idea also appealed to the Polish King. It was he, who after a just 13 years
war (1454-1466) gained complète victory over the powerful and well trained army of the Teutonic Order still remainig
one of the most dangerous enemies of the Slavonic empire of the Jagellons. This war which brough the king famé
and reepect both in Poland and throughout Europe ended with a peace treaty obliging the Order to return to
Poland Gdańsk Pomerania with Ziemia Chełmińska and Warmia hitherto known as Royal Prussia. The Grand Master
Ludwig von Erlichshausen, henceforth a vassal of the Crown, paid homage to King Casimir in Toruń, in the Arthur
Court hall on 19th October 1466. The escutcheons of Ziemia Dobrzyńska, Sieradz and Kujawy presented on the
two quarters of the north side of the tomb — they were lands appropriated by the Teutonic Order which had been,
on the basis of the eternal peace signed at Kalisz in 1343, annexed by Casimir the Great again to the Crown, though he
left Gdańsk Pomerania in their hands — express the idea of Casimir Jagellon's victorious continuation of the political
program of this eminent représentative of the Piast Dynasty. At the same time, they emphesaize the dynastie link
between Casimir the Great and and Casimir Jagellon's wife — Elizabeth Habsburg, since Sigismund of Luxemburg, Roman
Emperor, Elizabeth's grandfather was the great grandson of Casimir the Great.
We can assume therefore, that Goliath (who hold on, instead of the Biblical spear, the ax, then an arm of XV c.
warrior), defeated by Casimir Jagellon-David, was primarily a personification of the Teutonic Order the more so because
this was a typological scène forecasting the Saviour's victory over Satan's emissaries on earth — heretics and heathen.
According to the opinions of the famous professor of Cracow Academy. the canonist Paul Włodkowic, voiced at the
Constance Council (1414-1418). still actual in the Cracow Court-university environment, the policy of the German
Teutonic state — rapacious. cruel towards faithful and infidels. inconsistent with God's, the canonic and natural laws and
the Order's own rules — deserved only the name of Prussian heresy {haeresis Prussiana) and satanic cruelty.
The defeated Goliath, according to ascribed meanings can also represent a symbol of victorious battles fought
by Casimir Jagellon against infidel Moslems, that is to say the King who was given by Providence the task of
defending the entire Latin Christianitas threatened by the Turkish onslaught. It was on the initiative of the Polish
King that Pope Innocent VIII — encouraged by the his military successes, himself a creator of the projects of a leagues
of monarchs against Moslems — made him the leader of the anti-heathen crusade against the Turks and Tartars.
The entire empire of the Jagellon, including Mazovia, Livonia, the German lands and Bohemia, were to take part
in the struggle against Moslems. The Pope decided that ail who under the leadership of the King of Poland would
take part in the fight against infidels would obtain plenary indulgence (document of 5th July 1486). While Philip
Buonaccorsi-Kallimach in a speech prepared for the anti-Turkish congress which took place in Rome in 1490, extolling
the incomparable économie and military power of the Jagellons (their country covering one million square kilomètres,
equalled the size of the Roman Empire) emphasized that only King of Poland was able to save Christian Europe
from the Moslems. And thus, the King who frightened his enemies and was respected by the whole of Europe,
has been presented on the third capital on the northern side of his tomb as David, continues the Saviour's mission
as the defender of God's people on earth; its deepest sensé was expressed on the first capital on the north side
in the scène depicting the décision of saving the world taken by the Creator during the act of création. The inclusion
of the figure of a real monarch presented as David-Christ into the cycle of the history of création and the rédemption
of the world has no precendence in European art and is an excellent example of the apotheosis of man's créative
power as an expression of a new Renaissance anthropocentrism cultivated by Cracow humanists and also of this current in
the history of Renaissance art which was called biblical humanism.
ANNA BOCZKOWSKA
Kingdom, in a quoter of the east side of the tomb (fig. 17). On the right side — according to expert description,
Wit Stwosz carved the figure of Philip Buonaccorsi-Kallimach (figs. 19, 20), the Italian humanist, poet. philosopher,
diplomat, King's secretary, settled in Cracow. Buonaccorsi-Kallimach was represented by Stwosz in the attitude of the
fiight of the Kingdom's armoriai bearings (fig. 17). Thèse attitude illustrâtes the real flight of Kallimach who, after
the King's death, ran away from Poland and had find refuge on the court of Emperor Maximilian. It is the best
proof that the tomb was not yet finished in the year of the King's death. Kallimach's headcover, a turban fastened
above the forehead with a multi-leaf clasp, is the materiał symbol of his important mission as an adviser and expert
of Near-Eastern Moslem matters. It was he, who, on the order of Casimir Jagellon, began a courteous diplomatie
dialogues with Lorenzo de Medici called the Magnificent and carried on by letter disputes with eminent Florentine
humanists — Marsiglio Ficino and Giovanni Pico delia Mirandola. offering them wonderful gifts paid from royal coffers.
It was probably owing to his initiatives that King Casimir considered the idea of identifying himself with David —
generally thought to be type of an idéal ruler. The imitatio David régis idea had been realized previously, among
others by the Hungarian King Matthew Korvin. In a miniature ornamenting the Bible, he himself founded. illuminated
at the Florentine workshop of Gerhard and Monte di Giovanni (Bibl. Laurentiami Ms. Plut. 15, cod. 15-17), Matthew
Korvin was presented in a double role: as David-king and prophet with regalia, and as David-army leading warrior,
who with an outstretched arm shows fleeing Philistines in Mahommedan costumes. The scène of David's victory over
Goliath has been presented in the foreground of the battle. The friendship shown by Korvin to the same Florentine
humanists with whom Kallimach was on friendly terms was not without influence on his décision to be identified
with David. The Italian humanist as a diplomat employed by the Polish ruler, having made severai trips to Italy,
stayed at Matthew Korvin's court at Buda in 1479. where he wrote a poetical work and dedicated it to the King
of Hungary. Therefore. he could have personally informed King Casimir about the interesting idea of the Hungarian
king's identification with David, the beloved hero of the city-state Florenze. The figure of David, following his victory
over Goliath had been sculptured by both Donatello and Verocchio and personified the citizens' virtue of Fortitudo. it
was. at the same time, a symbol of the Florentine struggle for freedom. As may be seen in the scène of David and
Goliath sculptured by Wit Stwosz, the idea also appealed to the Polish King. It was he, who after a just 13 years
war (1454-1466) gained complète victory over the powerful and well trained army of the Teutonic Order still remainig
one of the most dangerous enemies of the Slavonic empire of the Jagellons. This war which brough the king famé
and reepect both in Poland and throughout Europe ended with a peace treaty obliging the Order to return to
Poland Gdańsk Pomerania with Ziemia Chełmińska and Warmia hitherto known as Royal Prussia. The Grand Master
Ludwig von Erlichshausen, henceforth a vassal of the Crown, paid homage to King Casimir in Toruń, in the Arthur
Court hall on 19th October 1466. The escutcheons of Ziemia Dobrzyńska, Sieradz and Kujawy presented on the
two quarters of the north side of the tomb — they were lands appropriated by the Teutonic Order which had been,
on the basis of the eternal peace signed at Kalisz in 1343, annexed by Casimir the Great again to the Crown, though he
left Gdańsk Pomerania in their hands — express the idea of Casimir Jagellon's victorious continuation of the political
program of this eminent représentative of the Piast Dynasty. At the same time, they emphesaize the dynastie link
between Casimir the Great and and Casimir Jagellon's wife — Elizabeth Habsburg, since Sigismund of Luxemburg, Roman
Emperor, Elizabeth's grandfather was the great grandson of Casimir the Great.
We can assume therefore, that Goliath (who hold on, instead of the Biblical spear, the ax, then an arm of XV c.
warrior), defeated by Casimir Jagellon-David, was primarily a personification of the Teutonic Order the more so because
this was a typological scène forecasting the Saviour's victory over Satan's emissaries on earth — heretics and heathen.
According to the opinions of the famous professor of Cracow Academy. the canonist Paul Włodkowic, voiced at the
Constance Council (1414-1418). still actual in the Cracow Court-university environment, the policy of the German
Teutonic state — rapacious. cruel towards faithful and infidels. inconsistent with God's, the canonic and natural laws and
the Order's own rules — deserved only the name of Prussian heresy {haeresis Prussiana) and satanic cruelty.
The defeated Goliath, according to ascribed meanings can also represent a symbol of victorious battles fought
by Casimir Jagellon against infidel Moslems, that is to say the King who was given by Providence the task of
defending the entire Latin Christianitas threatened by the Turkish onslaught. It was on the initiative of the Polish
King that Pope Innocent VIII — encouraged by the his military successes, himself a creator of the projects of a leagues
of monarchs against Moslems — made him the leader of the anti-heathen crusade against the Turks and Tartars.
The entire empire of the Jagellon, including Mazovia, Livonia, the German lands and Bohemia, were to take part
in the struggle against Moslems. The Pope decided that ail who under the leadership of the King of Poland would
take part in the fight against infidels would obtain plenary indulgence (document of 5th July 1486). While Philip
Buonaccorsi-Kallimach in a speech prepared for the anti-Turkish congress which took place in Rome in 1490, extolling
the incomparable économie and military power of the Jagellons (their country covering one million square kilomètres,
equalled the size of the Roman Empire) emphasized that only King of Poland was able to save Christian Europe
from the Moslems. And thus, the King who frightened his enemies and was respected by the whole of Europe,
has been presented on the third capital on the northern side of his tomb as David, continues the Saviour's mission
as the defender of God's people on earth; its deepest sensé was expressed on the first capital on the north side
in the scène depicting the décision of saving the world taken by the Creator during the act of création. The inclusion
of the figure of a real monarch presented as David-Christ into the cycle of the history of création and the rédemption
of the world has no precendence in European art and is an excellent example of the apotheosis of man's créative
power as an expression of a new Renaissance anthropocentrism cultivated by Cracow humanists and also of this current in
the history of Renaissance art which was called biblical humanism.