Page:Cracow - Lepszy.djvu/111

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GOTHIC STYLE IN CRACOW ART
91

are distinguished by subtle intuition of nature and eloquent expression of character; both they and those in the windows of St. Mary's Church prove an intimate knowledge of medieval symbolism on the artist's part, and his close contact with Western art. In the apse of the church just mentioned, we see on the top of the windows such plastic scenes as the head of Christ surrounded by angels, the Holy Mother with the Child, the victory of the Church over the synagogue and heathendom, St. Christopher, Hell, then a scene from the story of Phyllis fettering Aristotle. All these works exhibit much resemblance to the sculptures of Prague in the reign of Charles IV, when a dominating position in Prague art was taken by the second architect of St. Vitus's Cathedral, Peter Parler, who created the famous plastic portraits adorning the tri-foria. His brother—or perhaps nephew—Henry Parler, we meet at Cracow in 1392; in 1394 considerable sums were paid to him by the town for stone-cutter's work in St. Mary's Church, and it has been supposed that this refers to the sculptures described above, and that they are his work. To the same cycle belongs the portal of the Dominican Church with its sculptured ornaments, of which the forms are partly plants and animals, partly human figures. Of carvings in this period, the hermae of St. Stanislas and St. Ursula, of 1382-1384, must be mentioned: they formerly belonged to All Saints' Church, but now they stand in the archeological cabinet of the University, Other pieces of carved work are the crucifix of Queen Hedwig in the left-hand aisle of the Cathedral, and the Madonna of Kruzlowa, now in the National Museum; also the interesting little figures of the Virgin and St. Joseph at the cradle of Our Lord in St. Andrew's Church. They are a gift of Queen Elizabeth of Hungary, sister of King Casimir the Great and wife to Robert, King of Hungary. They are probably the earliest fourteenth-century cradle figures known in Europe. The statue of Our Lady from St. Nicholas's Church at Cracow, now in the National Museum, must also be mentioned here. Although dating from the first years of the fifteenth century, it possesses many of the characteristics detailed above. In all these sculptures we notice a lack of anatomical knowledge,