DOI Artikel:
Żukowski, Jacek: Chrzest i koronacja Władysława Jagiełły: Rysunek Matthäusa Gundelacha w wiedeńskiej Albertinie
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67299#0090
Jacek Żukowski
Royal Castle in Warsaw - Museum
The Baptism and Coronation of Ladislaus II Jagiełło:
A Drawing by Matthaus Gundelach in the Albertina in Vienna
The subject of this study is a drawing in the collection of the Albertina Museum,
which refers to the Wawel coronation of Ladislaus II Jagiełło (1386). The work
signed by Matthaus Gundelach was probably executed in 1640, most probably at
the behest of Ladislaus IV. He commissioned the commemoration of the event
that lay at the foundation of Vasa dynastie propaganda, as the Vasas held that
“their” dynasty was founded by Jagiełło, despite the fact that Sigismund III was
a Jagiellon only through the female linę. The scene of the Wawel coronation,
depicted under the aegis of two putti holding torches of Hymen (an evocation
of the marriage of the Lithuanian grand duke and Queen Jadwiga), is accom-
panied by two smaller scenes: an image of Jagiełło s baptism (with Archbishop
Bodzanta and Duke Vytautas/Witold, his brothers and nephews, and finally his
godfather and godmother, Jadwiga), and an abbreviated view of a battle in the
name of the Cross. The empty cartouche confirms the utilitarian character of
the work—a modello at a scalę of 1:1 for either a painting on glass or the central
part of a work in gold (the well of a dish, a ceremoniał tazzd). The analysis of the
drawing offers a pretext to spotlight Gundelachs oeuvre, and to recall the Alber-
tinas founder, Duke Albert Casimir of Saxe-Teschen (1738-1822), as well as, or
rather chiefly, to outline the propaganda of the Vasa kings and the meanders of
the historical imagination of their time.
Hybridity, a liberał compilation of numerous models, naive historicism, and fi-
nally the use of anachronism, led the draughtsman to depict Jagiełło taking his
coronation vows as a seventeenth-century Sarmatian (Polish nobleman) with a
topknot dressed in coronation robes completely unrelated to those that would
have been used in the fourteenth century. A peculiar disinvolture characterizes
the robes worn by the consecrators, which allude to those of early-seventeenth
century cardinals, except that instead of mozzettas over their rochets they are
shown wearing ermine capes somewhat in the style of electoral robes. Queen Jad-
wiga, a very important element of Vasa propaganda, is depicted surrounded by a
host of noblemen dressed in the latest Polish fashions from about 1630, while the
queen herself is shown in archaic robes, but not of her period—perhaps modeled
on Hedwig Jagiellon, Duchess of Bavaria (1457-1502) or Hedwig Jagiellon, Elec-
tress of Brandenburg (1513-1573).
Royal Castle in Warsaw - Museum
The Baptism and Coronation of Ladislaus II Jagiełło:
A Drawing by Matthaus Gundelach in the Albertina in Vienna
The subject of this study is a drawing in the collection of the Albertina Museum,
which refers to the Wawel coronation of Ladislaus II Jagiełło (1386). The work
signed by Matthaus Gundelach was probably executed in 1640, most probably at
the behest of Ladislaus IV. He commissioned the commemoration of the event
that lay at the foundation of Vasa dynastie propaganda, as the Vasas held that
“their” dynasty was founded by Jagiełło, despite the fact that Sigismund III was
a Jagiellon only through the female linę. The scene of the Wawel coronation,
depicted under the aegis of two putti holding torches of Hymen (an evocation
of the marriage of the Lithuanian grand duke and Queen Jadwiga), is accom-
panied by two smaller scenes: an image of Jagiełło s baptism (with Archbishop
Bodzanta and Duke Vytautas/Witold, his brothers and nephews, and finally his
godfather and godmother, Jadwiga), and an abbreviated view of a battle in the
name of the Cross. The empty cartouche confirms the utilitarian character of
the work—a modello at a scalę of 1:1 for either a painting on glass or the central
part of a work in gold (the well of a dish, a ceremoniał tazzd). The analysis of the
drawing offers a pretext to spotlight Gundelachs oeuvre, and to recall the Alber-
tinas founder, Duke Albert Casimir of Saxe-Teschen (1738-1822), as well as, or
rather chiefly, to outline the propaganda of the Vasa kings and the meanders of
the historical imagination of their time.
Hybridity, a liberał compilation of numerous models, naive historicism, and fi-
nally the use of anachronism, led the draughtsman to depict Jagiełło taking his
coronation vows as a seventeenth-century Sarmatian (Polish nobleman) with a
topknot dressed in coronation robes completely unrelated to those that would
have been used in the fourteenth century. A peculiar disinvolture characterizes
the robes worn by the consecrators, which allude to those of early-seventeenth
century cardinals, except that instead of mozzettas over their rochets they are
shown wearing ermine capes somewhat in the style of electoral robes. Queen Jad-
wiga, a very important element of Vasa propaganda, is depicted surrounded by a
host of noblemen dressed in the latest Polish fashions from about 1630, while the
queen herself is shown in archaic robes, but not of her period—perhaps modeled
on Hedwig Jagiellon, Duchess of Bavaria (1457-1502) or Hedwig Jagiellon, Elec-
tress of Brandenburg (1513-1573).