DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.23631#0073
notions of the period: persisting love of antiquity, nostalgic sadness at the old world drawing to an end
and the relentless passage of time.
In the old Commonwealth of Poland vast regions of spiritual culture were related to religion, the service
of God and devotion. The Roman Catholic faith was always dominant in Poland, and included the Uniate
and Greek Catholic Churches. Other major religions were the Orthodox Church, Judaism, Karaites
and Mohammedanism. The Polish nation was proud of its tolerance and non-Catholic religions were
never persecuted. Cases of violence directed against members of non-Roman-Catholic religions were
rare. Though Protestantism spread fairly rapidly in the 16th century, it never finally took root. Poland
remained faithful to Rome and was proud of this. The pope was viewed as a friend and champion of
Poland. Peter's pence was paid regularly up to the middle of the 16th century. Catholicism was also seen
as inseparable from Poland's raison d'etat and Poland was considered to be the bulwark of Christendom
defending western culture against pagans. It should be noted, however, that Sarmatian piety was rather
superficial, inclined to ostentation and pomp. It was rhetorical rather than mystical and tinged with
superstition. The Counter-Reformation launched by the Council of Trent found receptive soil in Poland.
The Baroque style it propagated became a truly national style which in the Sarmatian aura flourished
not so much in the ideological sphere but rather in the growing splendour of churches and religious
rites. The Church in Poland had always enjoyed important privileges and possessed considerable financial
assets. When the towns declined and the royal treasury became empty, the gentry disapproved of the
prosperity of guilds and craftsmanship. But the Church continued to surround them with care and protection
and place expensive orders with them. Thus religious art never ceased developing and churches and
monasteries virtually turned into museums. Therefore today every branch of art and craftsmanship is
represented at its best in religious art where architecture, painting, sculpture and crafts can all blend perfectly
into one, uniform whole. An additional incentive for artists working for the Church was the desire to
please God and his saints, gain remission of sins and salvation. It is not surprising therefore that in addition
to professional artists, amateur artists also worked for the Church, for example embroiderers.
Church embroidery flourished during the Counter-Reformation period and the Baroque style left its
lasting mark on it. Beautifully embroidered church vestments were often bequeathed to churches and
monasteries as votive offerings. The treasuries of all major churches in Poland abound in embroidered
chasubles, copes and dalmatics dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. Some of the most precious
examples have been placed for safekeeping in diocesan and national museums. Gold embroidery in high
relief, reminiscent of the 16th century technique, predominated in the 17th century. The motifs used
were both figural (Christ, the Virgin Mary and saints) and strictly ornamental, mostly flowers in bloom.
Bishops chasubles were adorned as a rule with their armorial bearings. A fixed pattern of composition
was observed in which the main element was the central orphrey. The flat type of embroidery, occa-
sionally used already in the 17th century, spread generally in the 18th and the former division into the
central orphrey and the sides was less strictly observed. Alongside embroidered chasubles, gobelin-type
chasubles appeared. The same artistic rules applied to copes, stoles, maniples, mitres, gloves and slippers,
as well as altar-cloths and antependia.
Crosiers, episcopal crosses, chains and rings were made by goldsmiths who also supplied liturgical
vessels, chalices first and foremost. Many 17th and 18th century chalices have survived in Polish churches;
as a rule they have no stamp or marking and thus their makers remain unknown. Their shape and ornaments
are similar, whether they were made in Cracow, Poznan, Toruri, Gdansk or any other Polish town.
A typical 17th century chalice had a deep cup, usually resting in an open-work receptacle, a cylindrical
stem with a large egg-shaped nodule, and circular flattish foot, undivided into sections. During the first
decades of the 17th century, chalices had often so-called Beschlag ornaments originating in the previous
century as well as bunches and garlands of fruit and winged heads of angels. These were as a rule wrought,
not engraved. Later, in accordance with the evolution of ornamental styles, scroll cartouches, sh ell and
fishbone motifs and acanthus twigs appeared, to give way in the first quarter of the 1 8th century to
ornaments in French Regency style, usually ribbons or fillets (straight, arched or broken), bluebells,
shells and chequered patterns with rose buds. With the ascension of Augustus 111 to the Polish throne
in 1733, rococo ornaments, introduced in France by Juste Aurele Meissonier — flame-shaped, comb-
shaped, shell-like, always asymmetric — came into fashion. The monstrance preserved its general Gothic-
style, but since the middle of the 17th century its principal, upper part, the glory, was fashioned in the
shape of a radiating sun. The most magnificent monstrance of this type, preserved in the Monastery of
and the relentless passage of time.
In the old Commonwealth of Poland vast regions of spiritual culture were related to religion, the service
of God and devotion. The Roman Catholic faith was always dominant in Poland, and included the Uniate
and Greek Catholic Churches. Other major religions were the Orthodox Church, Judaism, Karaites
and Mohammedanism. The Polish nation was proud of its tolerance and non-Catholic religions were
never persecuted. Cases of violence directed against members of non-Roman-Catholic religions were
rare. Though Protestantism spread fairly rapidly in the 16th century, it never finally took root. Poland
remained faithful to Rome and was proud of this. The pope was viewed as a friend and champion of
Poland. Peter's pence was paid regularly up to the middle of the 16th century. Catholicism was also seen
as inseparable from Poland's raison d'etat and Poland was considered to be the bulwark of Christendom
defending western culture against pagans. It should be noted, however, that Sarmatian piety was rather
superficial, inclined to ostentation and pomp. It was rhetorical rather than mystical and tinged with
superstition. The Counter-Reformation launched by the Council of Trent found receptive soil in Poland.
The Baroque style it propagated became a truly national style which in the Sarmatian aura flourished
not so much in the ideological sphere but rather in the growing splendour of churches and religious
rites. The Church in Poland had always enjoyed important privileges and possessed considerable financial
assets. When the towns declined and the royal treasury became empty, the gentry disapproved of the
prosperity of guilds and craftsmanship. But the Church continued to surround them with care and protection
and place expensive orders with them. Thus religious art never ceased developing and churches and
monasteries virtually turned into museums. Therefore today every branch of art and craftsmanship is
represented at its best in religious art where architecture, painting, sculpture and crafts can all blend perfectly
into one, uniform whole. An additional incentive for artists working for the Church was the desire to
please God and his saints, gain remission of sins and salvation. It is not surprising therefore that in addition
to professional artists, amateur artists also worked for the Church, for example embroiderers.
Church embroidery flourished during the Counter-Reformation period and the Baroque style left its
lasting mark on it. Beautifully embroidered church vestments were often bequeathed to churches and
monasteries as votive offerings. The treasuries of all major churches in Poland abound in embroidered
chasubles, copes and dalmatics dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. Some of the most precious
examples have been placed for safekeeping in diocesan and national museums. Gold embroidery in high
relief, reminiscent of the 16th century technique, predominated in the 17th century. The motifs used
were both figural (Christ, the Virgin Mary and saints) and strictly ornamental, mostly flowers in bloom.
Bishops chasubles were adorned as a rule with their armorial bearings. A fixed pattern of composition
was observed in which the main element was the central orphrey. The flat type of embroidery, occa-
sionally used already in the 17th century, spread generally in the 18th and the former division into the
central orphrey and the sides was less strictly observed. Alongside embroidered chasubles, gobelin-type
chasubles appeared. The same artistic rules applied to copes, stoles, maniples, mitres, gloves and slippers,
as well as altar-cloths and antependia.
Crosiers, episcopal crosses, chains and rings were made by goldsmiths who also supplied liturgical
vessels, chalices first and foremost. Many 17th and 18th century chalices have survived in Polish churches;
as a rule they have no stamp or marking and thus their makers remain unknown. Their shape and ornaments
are similar, whether they were made in Cracow, Poznan, Toruri, Gdansk or any other Polish town.
A typical 17th century chalice had a deep cup, usually resting in an open-work receptacle, a cylindrical
stem with a large egg-shaped nodule, and circular flattish foot, undivided into sections. During the first
decades of the 17th century, chalices had often so-called Beschlag ornaments originating in the previous
century as well as bunches and garlands of fruit and winged heads of angels. These were as a rule wrought,
not engraved. Later, in accordance with the evolution of ornamental styles, scroll cartouches, sh ell and
fishbone motifs and acanthus twigs appeared, to give way in the first quarter of the 1 8th century to
ornaments in French Regency style, usually ribbons or fillets (straight, arched or broken), bluebells,
shells and chequered patterns with rose buds. With the ascension of Augustus 111 to the Polish throne
in 1733, rococo ornaments, introduced in France by Juste Aurele Meissonier — flame-shaped, comb-
shaped, shell-like, always asymmetric — came into fashion. The monstrance preserved its general Gothic-
style, but since the middle of the 17th century its principal, upper part, the glory, was fashioned in the
shape of a radiating sun. The most magnificent monstrance of this type, preserved in the Monastery of