Co wspólnego ma Wniebowzięcie Marii z Ostatnią Wieczerzą, czyli o genezie formy i ikonografii późnośredniowiecznego obrazu ze zbiorów Muzeum Narodowego w Poznaniu,(...)

Abstract

The late medieval panel painting of the Assumption of Virgin Mary from the Collection of the National Museum in Poznań was most likely created in Greater Poland (Wielkopolska), probably in Poznań, in the early 16th century. Scholars have pointed out the connection of its iconography with several other art pieces from the area of Greater Poland. In the light of these findings, our painting seemed to be traditional in the terms of form, as well as of content. This paper shows that some formal solutions and motifs used in the painting from Poznań differ from a typical iconographic practice, and it has only partial coverage in literary sources. The Apostles’ behaviour not fully corresponding to the subject and the chair in which an unidentified Apostle is sitting in a strangely complicated pose by the sarcophagus are the exceptional traits of the Poznań painting. The reason for their presence is the fact that the painter quoted a large part of the copperplate engraving of the Netherlandish Master IAM of Zwolle on a completely different subject: the Last Supper. The painter repeated selected elements quite accurately, without trying too much to adopt them to the new context. The Poznań painting is one of the countless examples of the use of prints as a pattern in the late medieval workshop practice. But at the same time, it belongs to the smaller in number works that were created in a more sophisticated way, through a compilation of motifs taken from various sources, combined with iconographic transformations. The paintings of Jörg Stoker, active in Ulm, and the prominent Antwerp artist Joos van Cleve analysed in the paper, are the examples of the application of a similar creative procedure. The last part of the text is devoted to the reception of the copperplate engraving by Master IAM of Zwolle, which determined so markedly the form and iconography of the painting at the National Museum in Poznań. The range of impact of this pattern, including Northern France, Greater Poland, Austria, Southern Germany (?), Northern Italy, Sardinia and Castilla, illustrates how universal, despite all the regional differences, the visual culture of Latin Europe was at the time.