Witraże z Grodźca. Część II.

Abstract

Stained Glass Windows from Grodziec. Part I The group of 14 stained glass windows from Grodziec (Groditzberg, Groditzburg) near Zlotoryja in the Lower Silesia provides an interesting illustration of Polish and Silesian monuments’ intricate fortunes after the end of World War II. In December 1945, one part of the group (8 panels) landed in Krakow. At first, it became the property of the Wawel State Art Collection. Then, it was transferred to the Jagiellonian University Museum, by which it is still owned. In 1966, the other part of the group (6 panels) was made over to the Silesian Museum, later called the National Museum in Wroclaw. The stained glass windows from Grodziec constitute also an example of interesting issues from the fields of art conservation studies, museology and restoration. The panels of stained glass from the beginning of the 15th century, representing Madonna and Child, Man of Sorrows, Virgin Mary and the Angel Gabriel, Apostles and Saints in architectural frames, became part of the decor of the castle in Grodziec, of a baroque palace situated at the feet of the castle hill and of one pavilion in the palace park. Gradually reconstructed from the beginning of the 19th century and then, in the years 1906–1908, rebuilt in the romantic style by B. Ebhard, the castle started being decorated with stained glass windows in the 1830s. Six sections from the group have already been exhibited in the rooms of the Krakow Jagiellonian University Museum for many years. In the course of historical research, it has turned out that presumably also other stained glass windows, currently belonging to the University Museum, come from Grodziec: twelve smaller sections representing the Passion and the scene of Saint Clare’s death, from ca. 1490, made in the Nuremberg workshop of Michael Wolgemut, and two Late Renaissance stained glass windows representing the figures of Saint Peter and Saint James, from a Rhineland workshop. The fourteen medieval stained glass windows of Austrian origins, coming from Grodziec and now belonging to the Krakow and Wroclaw museums’ collections, currently undergo physical and chemical analysis. Historical research is also being conducted thanks to the financial support of the National Science Centre. Three sections from the Wroclaw collection were already preserved and restored in 2013 thanks to a grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, another three underwent conservation in the conservation studio of The Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in the years 2013 and 2014.