DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.23631#0036
so not all objects depicted need necessarily have had their counterparts in real life. Some objects in art
have always been simply figments of the artists' imagination.
As regards the period in question, some of the iconographic material available is absolutely genuine and
trustworthy, and provides an authentic picture of historical reality. The quality of the artist's vision is
unsurpassed. Although objects depicted only appear to exist in three dimensions, they are shown in relation
to man, his attitude, movement and gesture, they fulfil a specific function, are mutually interrelated, in
a word they are represented as products and elements of a living, colourful, changing human culture.
Such relationships cannot be reproduced in museums, despite the fact that in this case we are dealing
with authentic relics of the past; in the theatre, film and television on the other hand, where we can revive
past events at will, authenticity is lost through the use of models and costumes, which never attain the
quality of original items. Thus, despite all scholarly and artistic efforts, we are always left with an
incomplete, distorted, or entirely false picture of the past. For the past is unique, unrepeatable,
irretrievable, and can never be reproduced faithfully and exactly.
Three paintings from the period in question are particularly noteworthy for their fidelity, accuracy and
synthesizing approach to the subjects presented. These deal respectively with the following historic events:
the entry of Sigismund III into Cracow, Augustus II inspecting military manoeuvres, and the election
of King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski.
The first of these, known as the Stockholm Roll, is a gift made by the Swedish government to the
reconstructed Royal Castle in Warsaw in 1974. The Stockholm Roll is a frieze, 1,528 cm in length and
27 cm in width, painted in gouache and water-colours on paper. It shows King Sigismund III and his
spouse to be, the Archduchess Constance of Austria, entering Cracow for their wedding ceremony on
4 December 1605. Originally the frieze probably helped the Master of Ceremonies to array the wedding
retinue of several thousand persons. Such drawings are known to have been used on similar occasions.
In its present form, executed probably by the court painter Balthazar Gebhard, the frieze was a memento
serving political propaganda. Judging by the German inscriptions over the different groups of the wedding
procession, it may be assumed that the Roll was shown at the Imperial Court. That the frieze provides
an authentic picture of the ceremony is confirmed by chroniclers who described this event of international
political significance. After the death of his first wife, the Archduchess Anne of Austria, King Sigismund III
married her sister, Constance, to reaffirm the closeness of his ties with the Habsburgs. The wedding was
attended by the bride's mother, the Archduchess Maria, and her brother, Maximilian. The king was
accompanied by the Crown Prince Ladislaus of Poland, and the highest secular and church dignitaries,
including Cardinal Bernard Maciejowski, marshals and hetmans (military commanders). Among foreign
guests there were the Papal Nuncio Rangoni, the Tsar Dmitri's envoy, Athanasius Vlasev, who had just
acted as a proxy in the marriage of the False Dmitri and Maryna Mniszech, and the Persian envoy, Mahdi
Kuli Beg, who had come to negotiate an alliance with Poland against Turkey.
Like the Behem Codex produced a century earlier, the Stockholm Roll conveys a faithful picture of
contemporary society and material culture. In addition to representations of individual guilds, military
retinues and groups of townfolk, it shows various objects of artistic craftsmanship. The succession of sce-
nes we see today differs from the original which, torn and otherwise damaged, was arbitrarily glued
together. Thus the procession opens with a troop of unmounted horses painted dark red, a detachment
of infantry bearing heavy shields, a unit of hussars with the regimental band, and a troop of Hungarian
foot soldiers of the Voivode of Poznah, Hieronim Gostomski. Next come in succession unmounted
horses with Polish saddles and caparisons emblazoned with armorial bearings, hussar officers and riders
in Turkish costumes, the royal standard bearer and the king's hussar regiment, senior officers in hussar
armour, retinues of Persian and Muscovy envoys, the clergy and the papal nuncio, the two marshals of
the Commonwealth bearing their staffs of office, courtiers on foot and on horseback, His Royal Majesty
on a magnificent steed, the Archduke Maximilian and Crown Prince Ladislaus, both on horseback, more
courtiers and then the coach carrying the Archduchess Constance and her mother, followed by coaches
carrying ladies-in-waiting, the crown princess of Sweden and a bearded female dwarf. The procession
ends with detachments of guards of the city guilds with their banners.
This is how it is shown in the picture as it has come down to us. However, it appears from trustworthy
accounts that the wedding procession was opened by representatives of guilds from the Cracow districts
of Kazimierz, Kleparz and Stradom. In the Behem Code, the images, though representing a high artistic
standard, are undoubtedly idealized and largely based on foreign models. In the case of the Stockholm
have always been simply figments of the artists' imagination.
As regards the period in question, some of the iconographic material available is absolutely genuine and
trustworthy, and provides an authentic picture of historical reality. The quality of the artist's vision is
unsurpassed. Although objects depicted only appear to exist in three dimensions, they are shown in relation
to man, his attitude, movement and gesture, they fulfil a specific function, are mutually interrelated, in
a word they are represented as products and elements of a living, colourful, changing human culture.
Such relationships cannot be reproduced in museums, despite the fact that in this case we are dealing
with authentic relics of the past; in the theatre, film and television on the other hand, where we can revive
past events at will, authenticity is lost through the use of models and costumes, which never attain the
quality of original items. Thus, despite all scholarly and artistic efforts, we are always left with an
incomplete, distorted, or entirely false picture of the past. For the past is unique, unrepeatable,
irretrievable, and can never be reproduced faithfully and exactly.
Three paintings from the period in question are particularly noteworthy for their fidelity, accuracy and
synthesizing approach to the subjects presented. These deal respectively with the following historic events:
the entry of Sigismund III into Cracow, Augustus II inspecting military manoeuvres, and the election
of King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski.
The first of these, known as the Stockholm Roll, is a gift made by the Swedish government to the
reconstructed Royal Castle in Warsaw in 1974. The Stockholm Roll is a frieze, 1,528 cm in length and
27 cm in width, painted in gouache and water-colours on paper. It shows King Sigismund III and his
spouse to be, the Archduchess Constance of Austria, entering Cracow for their wedding ceremony on
4 December 1605. Originally the frieze probably helped the Master of Ceremonies to array the wedding
retinue of several thousand persons. Such drawings are known to have been used on similar occasions.
In its present form, executed probably by the court painter Balthazar Gebhard, the frieze was a memento
serving political propaganda. Judging by the German inscriptions over the different groups of the wedding
procession, it may be assumed that the Roll was shown at the Imperial Court. That the frieze provides
an authentic picture of the ceremony is confirmed by chroniclers who described this event of international
political significance. After the death of his first wife, the Archduchess Anne of Austria, King Sigismund III
married her sister, Constance, to reaffirm the closeness of his ties with the Habsburgs. The wedding was
attended by the bride's mother, the Archduchess Maria, and her brother, Maximilian. The king was
accompanied by the Crown Prince Ladislaus of Poland, and the highest secular and church dignitaries,
including Cardinal Bernard Maciejowski, marshals and hetmans (military commanders). Among foreign
guests there were the Papal Nuncio Rangoni, the Tsar Dmitri's envoy, Athanasius Vlasev, who had just
acted as a proxy in the marriage of the False Dmitri and Maryna Mniszech, and the Persian envoy, Mahdi
Kuli Beg, who had come to negotiate an alliance with Poland against Turkey.
Like the Behem Codex produced a century earlier, the Stockholm Roll conveys a faithful picture of
contemporary society and material culture. In addition to representations of individual guilds, military
retinues and groups of townfolk, it shows various objects of artistic craftsmanship. The succession of sce-
nes we see today differs from the original which, torn and otherwise damaged, was arbitrarily glued
together. Thus the procession opens with a troop of unmounted horses painted dark red, a detachment
of infantry bearing heavy shields, a unit of hussars with the regimental band, and a troop of Hungarian
foot soldiers of the Voivode of Poznah, Hieronim Gostomski. Next come in succession unmounted
horses with Polish saddles and caparisons emblazoned with armorial bearings, hussar officers and riders
in Turkish costumes, the royal standard bearer and the king's hussar regiment, senior officers in hussar
armour, retinues of Persian and Muscovy envoys, the clergy and the papal nuncio, the two marshals of
the Commonwealth bearing their staffs of office, courtiers on foot and on horseback, His Royal Majesty
on a magnificent steed, the Archduke Maximilian and Crown Prince Ladislaus, both on horseback, more
courtiers and then the coach carrying the Archduchess Constance and her mother, followed by coaches
carrying ladies-in-waiting, the crown princess of Sweden and a bearded female dwarf. The procession
ends with detachments of guards of the city guilds with their banners.
This is how it is shown in the picture as it has come down to us. However, it appears from trustworthy
accounts that the wedding procession was opened by representatives of guilds from the Cracow districts
of Kazimierz, Kleparz and Stradom. In the Behem Code, the images, though representing a high artistic
standard, are undoubtedly idealized and largely based on foreign models. In the case of the Stockholm