Fundacje pobożne i mecenat artystyczny króla Zygmunta I. Źródła – inspiracje – idee

Abstract

Sigismund I grew up in an atmosphere of pietas Jagiellonica, the sources of which should be sought in the attitude of his mother Queen Elizabeth and his father Casimir IV, who was said to be “the most pious monarch of his time”. The royal couple raised their sons in the cult of their grandfather Władysław Jagiełło – the Apostle of Lithuania, and their uncle Władysław Warneńczyk, who gave his life in defense of Christianity. First, Jan Długosz, and then another royal teacher from Italy, the eminent humanist Filip Kallimach, had an important influence on his spiritual and intellectual formation. Traces of the then sublime educational atmosphere, maintained in the spirit of humanism, are still visible today in the form of Latin inscriptions on the entrance gates and walls of the Wawel Castle. They prove that the Renaissance ideas spreading over the Vistula in the first half of the 16th century were closely associated with the Christian-Catholic tradition. Before taking over the government in Poland, Prince Sigismund became known as the founder and generous protector of church institutions – especially in the Duchy of Głogów, which he managed in the years 1499-1506. However, he turned out to be a true patron of the arts and a patron of artists only as the ruler of the Polish-Lithuanian state. The greatest merit of this monarch was the introduction of Renaissance art to Poland, in which his second wife, Bona Sforza, from Italy, played an extremely important role. For her arrival in Krakow, the Wawel Royal Castle was rebuilt, and the Sigismund Chapel at the Wawel Cathedral, founded by him, is considered one of the most important “pearls of the Renaissance north of the Alps”. King Sigismund I the Old also renovated and decorated the confession of St. Stanisław, supplying it with paintings and presentations in the field of goldsmithing. On his initiative, on July 9, 1521, the Sigismund Bell, made in the Krakow bell foundry by Hans Beham of Nuremberg, was hung on the tower in the northern part of the Wawel cathedral.