Studia Waweliana (3.1994)

The implementation of the project was supervised by
Francesco Maria Lanci, in 1833 replaced by Wilhelm
Hofbauer of Berlin.

Numerous architects and artists were engaged in
the Potocki funerary chapel, creating an interior fuli of
harmony and grace. The Cracow sculptor Ferdynand
Kuhn faced the walls with marble; Fryderyk Bauman
and his sons were responsible for mosaics and for
fixing rosettes, the Italians Job Giobbe and Giovanni
Axerio, both brought from Munich, executed the
stuccowork, subsequently gilded by Karl Miillner of
Vienna; finally, Johann Georg and Ignaz Danninger
were the authors of all the bronzes.

In the course of the building operations there were
plans to remove from the chapel the 16th century
sepulchral monument of Bishop Filip Padniewski. How-
ever, in the face of the Cathedral Chapter's objection
these plans were relinąuished; instead, restoration of
the monument was undertaken, resulting in its recon-
struction which deprived it of its characteristic form
and a wealth of decoration.

The interior of the chapel was embellished with
great care and artistic taste. In 1838 an altar of gilded
bronze, executed by Johann Georg and Ignaz Danninger,
was brought from Vienna; it consisted of a mensa
decorated with a cross in a floral wreath and with
medallions bearing cherub's heads, and of a retable in
the form of a frame in which a Crucifixion painted by
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri called II Guercino was
mounted. The front of the door of the Neo-Classical
tabernacle, wrought in gilded bronze, was decorated
with a silver plaąuette representing the Agony in the
Garden, executed by the Italian Bartolomeo Bongio-
vanni, professor of ornamentation and sculpture at the
Yienna Academy. Fixed to the back of the door was

a 16th century gold plaąuette mounted on agate, which
depicted The Entombment; it was a gift from Pope
Leo XII to Artur Potocki.

The chapel was embellished with some sculptures
intended to enhance its function as a mausoleum. In
addition to four bas-relief angels executed in 1836 by
Josef Kahsmann, professor of sculpture at the Vienna
Academy, and hung in the pendentives of the dome,
the interior received some works in Carrara marble,
sculpted by Bertel Thorvaldsen, the most outstanding
Neo-Classical sculptor — second only to Canova. The
first of them was a statuę of Christ of Mercy, carved
in 1936 as a diminished replica of the sculpture in
St Mary's Church in Copenhagen; the remaining works
were two busts of deceased members of the family —
Artur Potocki (carved in 1833) and his mother, Julia
Potocka nee Lubomirska (finished in 1834 by Monti,
Thorvaldsen's collaborator). The statuę of Christ was
mounted on a marble pedestal made by a Viennese,
Schrott, with the set-in bas-relief, carved by Thorvald-
sen in 1835, representing three of Artur Potocki's
children, who had died in infancy. The two busts were
set up on tali bronze socles on either side of the altar.

The founder endowed the chapel with great munifi-
cence, allotting 100 thousand zlotys for its maintenan-
ce. She also donated to it two chalices, 14 chasubles,
numerous frontals, covers, and two Persian carpets.
She appointed a permanent chaplain whose responsi-
bilities comprised regular care of the chapel and
celebration of the liturgy for the defunct members of
the Potocki family.

On 3rd November 1840 Bishop Franciszek Zglenicki
consecrated the renovated chapel, which sińce then has
been called the Potocki Chapel.