Author: admin

This pietà is in the collections of the National Museum in Wrocław and it was made in the area, likely in around 1420. It’s a depiction of dead Jesus following the crucifixion, designed to have emotional intensity and evidently from the Gothic tradition. It’s a medieval polychrome wooden statue, although the colours have rather faded away over the centuries. I am fascinated by these depictions, not because they’re particularly cheerful, but because I can try and imagine the thousands of people in the medieval period who would have looked at them and maybe inspired by them.

It was originally located in St. James’s Church which was founded in around 1240 as a Romanesque church, although it underwent significant Gothic reconstruction in the 14th and 15th centuries. In 1530, after the displaced Premonstratensians took the church over when the Franciscans were kicked out, it was rededicated to St. Vincent of Saragossa which was their patron saint of the monastery that they’d been thrown out of. The building was badly damaged during the Second World War, including the Hochberg Chapel where this statue had been located. The chapel has now been reconstructed and they’ve placed a copy of this statue in there, with the main Cathedral (as it now is) being the home of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. I’m not sure whether this statue was recovered after the war from the damaged church, or whether it was moved earlier on to protect it, but it’s something of a survivor.

I also rather like that when this statue was originally placed here, the church was in Poland state (the Piast dynasty), although it then came under the control of the Kingdom of Bohemia, then the Habsburg Monarchy, then the Prussian Empire, then the German Empire, then the Weimar Republic, then Nazi Germany and only in 1945 did it return to Poland again.

This artwork is located at the National Museum in Wrocław and this imposing chap is Stephen Báthory (1533-1586, also known as István Báthory in Hungarian, Stefan Batory in Polish), a significant historical figure who was Prince of Transylvania, Voivode of Transylvania (1571–1576), and later King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1576–1586). The text at the top reads “By the grace of God, Stephen, King in Poland, Grand Duke in Lithuania”. Báthory was a skilled military leader who led successful campaigns against Ivan the Terrible of Russia, recovering territories lost in the Livonian War, much to the annoyance of the Russians. He also strengthened the Polish-Lithuanian army and reformed its organisation, whilst also implementing reforms in the administration and judiciary of the Commonwealth, aiming to strengthen the central government and improve the efficiency of the state.

He was also a skilled dancer, which I’m not entirely sure that I expected from the portrait, but it’s best not to judge. It is also said that he kept a pet bear at his court, which is certainly brave and at least it wasn’t a polar bear. On top of that, he was a master swordsman and he apparently kept on fencing into his later years. Before the Second World War and also since the fall of communism, he has become something of a hero in Poland. The Russians didn’t like him though and his historical role was downplayed during the communist years, it wasn’t really the done thing to celebrate someone who had fought successfully against the Russians.

As for the artwork, it was painted by Andrea Riehl (1551-1613) in about 1600, so after Stephen’s death. He was a German painter, but there’s not much known about his life and this is one of his most important works.