Geneza oraz ewolucja ołtarza ramowego na Śląsku i w twórczości artystów związanych z ośrodkiem artystycznym w Bardzie

Abstract

Over 30 years ago, Tadeusz Chrzanowski pointed to numerous frame-type altars in the area around the Silesian city of Bardo, recognising them as typical of the region. Although frame-type retabula were also popular in the rest of Silesia, the number of such works in the Duchy of Ziebice is de facto very high. On many occasions, authors of such reredoses were creators connected with the artistic centre in the city of Bardo, which was somewhat of a peculiarity. It was a small, borderland settlement located next to the main tract connecting Wroclaw and Klodzko, and concentrated around a pilgrimaging church which belonged to the Cistercians from Kamieniec Ząbkowicki. Throughout the 18th century, it was home to numerous artists, mainly sculptors, but also carpenters, stonemasons and staffage painters, whose exceptionally intense activity allowed the Bardo workshops to dominate the artistic market in the Duchy of Ziebice, following a simultaneous weakening of the nearby sculpturing centres in Wroclaw, Świdnica and Klodzko. What is more, the workshops in Bardo clearly marked their presence in the ecclesiastical Duchy of Nysa, the County of Klodzko and in the Wroclaw area, sporadically operating also in Broumovsko, and Upper and Opavskie Silesia. The most predominant role in the Bardocentre was played by Andreas Ludwig Jaschke, who remained professionally active for over 50 years, and by the representatives of the artistic Hartmann dynasty: Johann Heinrich (who also enjoyed a long and professionally active life) and his sons Johann Nepomucene and Joseph. The peak of their artistic output can approximately be dated to the period between 1740 and 1790. The Bardo-based artists worked for such locally prominent patrons of the arts as the abbots of the Cistercian convents from Kamieniec Ząbkowicki and Henrykow, the Jesuits from Klodzko and Nysa, the canons from Wroclaw,and the Benedictines from Broumovsko. For a long time, the central altar in the pilgrimaging church in Silesian Bardo (1715) or the retabulum in the post-Jesuit church in Nysa (1691) were perceived as the archetype of the frame-type reredos in Silesia. It was Ryszard Holownia who revolutionised the status of the research, pointing to the non-existent high altar of the Church of St. Jacob in Nysa (1677-1679), erected thanks to the endeavours of Cardinal Friedrich von Hessen-Darmstadt. This mysterious work was so innovative that similar forms and designs would not be seen in Silesia and the whole of Central Europe until a few decades later. Equally surprising was the lack of imitation of the Nysa retabulum in the art of the region. Silesian frame-type altars began to appear in greater numbers after 1700, combining the experience of the transalpine art (acanthus epitaphs and retabula) with dramatizing motifs derived from Italy (angels carrying the altar painting). Initially, their appearance varied and depended on individual artistic conceptions. It was the artists gathered around the monastic workshop in Lubiąz who contributed to the development of a full-scale programme of a frame-type retabulum. At first, under the guidance of Matthias Steinl, they introduced acanthus altars in the region. And then, they popularised the motif of angelic statues carrying the painting, possibly under the guidance of Michael Lichtner, as mentioned in the archives. An early example of a frame-type altar in Silesia is the reredos within the Church of Corpus Christi in Wroclaw (1699), authored by Sulpicius Gode. In the Duchy of Ziebice, frame-type reredoses were present in the works by artists directly preceding the heyday of the Bardo centre: Leopold Strauss, Anton Jorg and Georg Schenck. Archival materials indicate that Strauss made the high altar of the pilgrimaging church in Bardo(1714-1715 and 1720-1721). After his death and the emigration of the others, the leading role in the region was taken by artists working in Bardo, who eagerly applied the frame-typealtar. They already used more standardised and unified forms, inspired by the art of the Archduchy of Austria in the first half of the 18th century (and, above all, the works by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt and Antonio Beduzzi). Another common practice they applied was the expansion of altar pedestal areas by adding gates. One may even venture to state that the increased popularity of frame-type reredoses in the region of Kamieniec Ząbkowickistemmed from the high status of the altar in Bardo, which constituted a frame for the venerated statue of Mother of God.