DOI article:
Pencakowski, Paweł: Renesansowy ołtarz główny z katedry krakowskiej w Bodzentynie
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19890#0161
Prior to setting up the retable in the chancel of the cathedral the
previous, Gothic, altar of ca 1460 had been dismantled (cut up into
several parts counter to the Chapter's instructions). In 1649, within
a hundred years after the erection of the Renaissance altar in the
cathedral, it was taken apart and carried to the collegiate church in
Kielce, where it was kept until 1728, when. following another
dismantling, it found its way to its present place - the parish church
at Bodzentyn.
The altar represents an architectural retable type and assumes
the form of a huge triumphal arch alla serliana; it is decorated with
sculptures in the round, carved ornamentation, and a large picture
on a wooden support (vertical poplar boards dovetailed on the front
and back). Ali architectural elements and sculptures are gilded and
painted using azurite and other pigments (mainly for camations and
hair). The architectural form of the retable does not correspond to its
technical structure - cuboid cases joined together by a system of
pegs and relatively easy to disassemble.
The execution of an altar retable was a complicated task divided
into two rnain stages and carried out in places a long distance apart.
The whole work measures 615 x 1,230 cm, the ratio of width to
height being exactly 1:2. The author of the design of the Bodzentyn
Altar. which has not been preserved, was undoubtedly a “thoroughbred"
architect - perhaps Giovanni Cini of Siena (d. after 1564), connected
with the royal court, experienced. one of the leading Italian builders
and sculptors active in Cracow.
The work on the altar ts partly reflected in written sources: the
book of accounts of the royal court, Percepta pecuniarum privatorum
proventuum sacrae regiae maiestatis a die 25 aprilis 1546 [...] ad
diem ultimam anni ejusdem - a manuscript at the Head Office for
Old Documents in Warsaw - and in Acta Actorum, book IV, in the
Archives of the Cracow Chapter at Wawel.
The altar was madę in two stages (with an about three-year
inteiruption). First, from 1546 to 1547 the “Cracow Italians” (perhaps
members of Giovanni Cini’s workshop, who worked under his
supervision) executed the huge arch construction together with
ornamentation and reliefs. In addition to them a nameless joiner
worked there and received wages; he was responsible for the technical
structure of the retable. The wooden part was ready in 1547. At the
same time a picture was painted “to measure’’, signed with the words
PETRUS VENETUS1547: contrary to all opinions expressed hitherto,
it was executed in Venice (and not in Cracow).
It was then that a financial and competence crisis arose in the
realization of the retable: Sigismund I the Old died (lApril, 1548),
Sigismund Augustus was in dispute with the gentry and the faction
of his mother. Queen Bona, and Bishop Maciejowski (d. October
1550) quarrelled with Bona and the Chapter; besides, a fire broke
out on Wawel Hill. The work came to a standstill, to be resumed
after two years. An impetus to it was given by the preparations -
initially madę in secret - for the coronation of Barbara Radziwiłł, the
wife of Sigismund II Augustus, queen of Poland. Having neutralized
his opponents (with his mother at the head of them) and secured a
favourable attitude of the Church hierarchy, the young king succeeded
in having his consort, by then already seriously ill, crowned. The
ceremony was planned for 25 November, 1550, and by then the altar
must have been ready (in fact Barbara’s condition caused a delay in
the coronation by two weeks).
Thus the second stage of work on the retable, which embraced
its gilding, polychroming, and assembling, fell in the summer and
autumn of 1550, by which time Cini had left Cracow and his
workshop - as may be presumed - had dispersed. The task was
carried out by Marcin de Platea Pictorum and Stanisław. Both
Cracow artists received the rest of their wages as łatę as January and
February 1551.
The architectural structure of the retable - an arch alla serliana
- is one of the most widespread motifs in Italian Renaissance
architecture; it did not lose its popularity around the mid-16th century
either. The ornamentation covering the Cracow structure derives
entirely from the works of Italian sculpture and architecture that
were created in Cracow in the first half of the 16th century - above
all but not exclusively from the Sigismund Chapel. The difference
lies in the use of polychromed and gilt wood here. This is a new
feature, but the colour solution is undoubtedly Italian in origin. The
work is therefore Florentine in style and executed from a design by
an Italian architect, perhaps Cini (in his workshop ?).
The full-relief sculptures of SS. Wenceslaus and Stanislaus in
the niches and of the Archangel Michael and two Angels on the
pediment of the coping are of a different artistic origin. Some of
them (above all St Wenceslaus) were modelled on the figures in the
Sigismund Chapel. Nevertheless, a “Northern'’ element is discemible
in their form, for instance, in the characteristically angular folds of
their garments and in the meticulous observation and reproduction
of the world - here the faces, hands, feet, etc. There are, however,
various shortcomings in their anatomy. All this permits the statement
that the sculptor was trained in a Northern (Cracow ?, German ?)
circle, and later superficially adopted various Italian elements through
the works of the Cracow Italians, such as Bartolomeo Berrecci, Cini,
Gian Maria Padovano, and others. The matter remains open, as we
cannot definitively rule out an Italian artist who adopted some
Northern elements.
The picture, representing The Crucifixion in the iconographically
expanded, epic formula, is the work of the Venetian artist Piętro degli
Ingannati, a member of thefraglia of Venetian painters, who, when
painting the picture, was about 60 years old. This unjustly forgotten
artist belonged to the broadly understood school of Giovanni Bellini
and for many years had a workshop in Vemce, modemizing his art,
chiefly in respect of colour, drawing on the achievements of his better-
known fellow artists. These were first Giorgione, Palma Vecchio,
Lorenzo Lotto, and Bemardino Licinio, and from the 1540s also Titian.
However, his characteristic aggiornamento stilistico does not
enconrpass the design of the composition, the landscapes which rernain
essentially Bellinesque, or the physiognomical expression of the figures
which is highly subdued.
Two historical subjects and subsidiary themes were represented
in the Renaissance altar of Cracow Cathedral. The first of the rnain
subjects is the painted, thus really visible in the central span of the
retable, Crucifixion of Christ. The second, but rendered in an entirely
different manner, is The Last Judgment. It appears in the retable in
three different ways - in a historical form: in the figures of its
participants the Archangel Michael and his companions; in
a typological form “inscribed”, as it were, in The Crucifixion which,
in the iconographic formula applied here, constitutes an antetype of
The Last Judgment; and in a symbolic rendering, in the gate motif.
previous, Gothic, altar of ca 1460 had been dismantled (cut up into
several parts counter to the Chapter's instructions). In 1649, within
a hundred years after the erection of the Renaissance altar in the
cathedral, it was taken apart and carried to the collegiate church in
Kielce, where it was kept until 1728, when. following another
dismantling, it found its way to its present place - the parish church
at Bodzentyn.
The altar represents an architectural retable type and assumes
the form of a huge triumphal arch alla serliana; it is decorated with
sculptures in the round, carved ornamentation, and a large picture
on a wooden support (vertical poplar boards dovetailed on the front
and back). Ali architectural elements and sculptures are gilded and
painted using azurite and other pigments (mainly for camations and
hair). The architectural form of the retable does not correspond to its
technical structure - cuboid cases joined together by a system of
pegs and relatively easy to disassemble.
The execution of an altar retable was a complicated task divided
into two rnain stages and carried out in places a long distance apart.
The whole work measures 615 x 1,230 cm, the ratio of width to
height being exactly 1:2. The author of the design of the Bodzentyn
Altar. which has not been preserved, was undoubtedly a “thoroughbred"
architect - perhaps Giovanni Cini of Siena (d. after 1564), connected
with the royal court, experienced. one of the leading Italian builders
and sculptors active in Cracow.
The work on the altar ts partly reflected in written sources: the
book of accounts of the royal court, Percepta pecuniarum privatorum
proventuum sacrae regiae maiestatis a die 25 aprilis 1546 [...] ad
diem ultimam anni ejusdem - a manuscript at the Head Office for
Old Documents in Warsaw - and in Acta Actorum, book IV, in the
Archives of the Cracow Chapter at Wawel.
The altar was madę in two stages (with an about three-year
inteiruption). First, from 1546 to 1547 the “Cracow Italians” (perhaps
members of Giovanni Cini’s workshop, who worked under his
supervision) executed the huge arch construction together with
ornamentation and reliefs. In addition to them a nameless joiner
worked there and received wages; he was responsible for the technical
structure of the retable. The wooden part was ready in 1547. At the
same time a picture was painted “to measure’’, signed with the words
PETRUS VENETUS1547: contrary to all opinions expressed hitherto,
it was executed in Venice (and not in Cracow).
It was then that a financial and competence crisis arose in the
realization of the retable: Sigismund I the Old died (lApril, 1548),
Sigismund Augustus was in dispute with the gentry and the faction
of his mother. Queen Bona, and Bishop Maciejowski (d. October
1550) quarrelled with Bona and the Chapter; besides, a fire broke
out on Wawel Hill. The work came to a standstill, to be resumed
after two years. An impetus to it was given by the preparations -
initially madę in secret - for the coronation of Barbara Radziwiłł, the
wife of Sigismund II Augustus, queen of Poland. Having neutralized
his opponents (with his mother at the head of them) and secured a
favourable attitude of the Church hierarchy, the young king succeeded
in having his consort, by then already seriously ill, crowned. The
ceremony was planned for 25 November, 1550, and by then the altar
must have been ready (in fact Barbara’s condition caused a delay in
the coronation by two weeks).
Thus the second stage of work on the retable, which embraced
its gilding, polychroming, and assembling, fell in the summer and
autumn of 1550, by which time Cini had left Cracow and his
workshop - as may be presumed - had dispersed. The task was
carried out by Marcin de Platea Pictorum and Stanisław. Both
Cracow artists received the rest of their wages as łatę as January and
February 1551.
The architectural structure of the retable - an arch alla serliana
- is one of the most widespread motifs in Italian Renaissance
architecture; it did not lose its popularity around the mid-16th century
either. The ornamentation covering the Cracow structure derives
entirely from the works of Italian sculpture and architecture that
were created in Cracow in the first half of the 16th century - above
all but not exclusively from the Sigismund Chapel. The difference
lies in the use of polychromed and gilt wood here. This is a new
feature, but the colour solution is undoubtedly Italian in origin. The
work is therefore Florentine in style and executed from a design by
an Italian architect, perhaps Cini (in his workshop ?).
The full-relief sculptures of SS. Wenceslaus and Stanislaus in
the niches and of the Archangel Michael and two Angels on the
pediment of the coping are of a different artistic origin. Some of
them (above all St Wenceslaus) were modelled on the figures in the
Sigismund Chapel. Nevertheless, a “Northern'’ element is discemible
in their form, for instance, in the characteristically angular folds of
their garments and in the meticulous observation and reproduction
of the world - here the faces, hands, feet, etc. There are, however,
various shortcomings in their anatomy. All this permits the statement
that the sculptor was trained in a Northern (Cracow ?, German ?)
circle, and later superficially adopted various Italian elements through
the works of the Cracow Italians, such as Bartolomeo Berrecci, Cini,
Gian Maria Padovano, and others. The matter remains open, as we
cannot definitively rule out an Italian artist who adopted some
Northern elements.
The picture, representing The Crucifixion in the iconographically
expanded, epic formula, is the work of the Venetian artist Piętro degli
Ingannati, a member of thefraglia of Venetian painters, who, when
painting the picture, was about 60 years old. This unjustly forgotten
artist belonged to the broadly understood school of Giovanni Bellini
and for many years had a workshop in Vemce, modemizing his art,
chiefly in respect of colour, drawing on the achievements of his better-
known fellow artists. These were first Giorgione, Palma Vecchio,
Lorenzo Lotto, and Bemardino Licinio, and from the 1540s also Titian.
However, his characteristic aggiornamento stilistico does not
enconrpass the design of the composition, the landscapes which rernain
essentially Bellinesque, or the physiognomical expression of the figures
which is highly subdued.
Two historical subjects and subsidiary themes were represented
in the Renaissance altar of Cracow Cathedral. The first of the rnain
subjects is the painted, thus really visible in the central span of the
retable, Crucifixion of Christ. The second, but rendered in an entirely
different manner, is The Last Judgment. It appears in the retable in
three different ways - in a historical form: in the figures of its
participants the Archangel Michael and his companions; in
a typological form “inscribed”, as it were, in The Crucifixion which,
in the iconographic formula applied here, constitutes an antetype of
The Last Judgment; and in a symbolic rendering, in the gate motif.