Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer
Nasza Przeszłość

Vol. 80 (1993): Our Past

Articles

The sculpture of Christ in the Gethsemane from the collection of the Malbork Castle Museum

  • Artur Dobry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52204/np.1993.80.107-130  [Google Scholar]
Published: 1993-12-30

Abstract

The collection of the Castle Museum in Malbork includes a limestone figure of Christ praying on the Mount of Olives, dating from around 1400 - most likely the work of the Master of the Beautiful Madonna of Toruń. The first mention of the presence of the figure in Malbork - in the chapel of St. Wawrzyniec on the outer bailey - dates back to 1700. There are many indications that the sculpture comes from Toruń. The preserved source material provides information about the figure of Christ praying on the Mount of Olives in the former parish church of St John in Toruń. The statue was also used to store the relics of Christ's hair. Because it was a cult object, it must have had a strong impact on the local community: already in the 15th century, a wooden copy was made for the Jacob's church in Toruń (another one in Lidzbark Warmiński in 1938). Of course, the limestone figure that served as a model could not have been located in closed castle areas in the Middle Ages. The statue arrived in Malbork between 1672 and 1700. Perhaps it was given to the local Jesuits by priests (also Jesuits) who have managed the parish church of St John in Toruń. Perhaps it was also brought here by the donor of the renovation of the chapel of St Wawrzyniec, deputy economist from Malbork, Daniel Florian Krawenberg. It should be noted that this figure is not only an important work of art, but also the only preserved such an early combination of a prayer motif with the function of a reliquary.

References

  1. Braun G., Die Reliquiare des christlichen Kultes und ihre , Freiburg 1970. [Google Scholar]
  2. Clasen K. H., Die mittelalterliche Bildhauerkunst Deutschordensland Preussen. Die Bildwerke bis zur Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts, Berlin 1939. [Google Scholar]
  3. Domasłowska W., Dokumentacja z przebiegli prac konserwatorskich rzeźby kamiennej Chrystus w Ogrójca z Muzeum Zamkowego w Malborku, Gdańsk 1964. [Google Scholar]
  4. Fankidejski J., Utracone kościoły i kaplice w dzisiejszej Diecezyi Chełmińskiej, Pelplin 1880. [Google Scholar]
  5. Górski K., Dzieje Malborka, Gdańsk 1973. [Google Scholar]
  6. Schiller G., Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst, t. 2, Gütersloh 1968 s. 58; Lexicon der christlichen Ikonographie, Freiburg 1971. [Google Scholar]
  7. Schmid B, Die bildende Kunst in Preussen zur Zeit der Deutschen Ritterordens, w: Die Provinz Westpreusen in Wort ind Bild, Danzing 1915. [Google Scholar]
  8. Schmid B., Baukunst und bildende Kunst der Ordenszeit, w: Deutsche Staatenbildung und deutsche Kultur in Preussenlande, Königsberg 1931. [Google Scholar]
  9. Strauss G., Freiplastik bis 1450 im Gebiet des heutigen Ostpreussen westlich der Pasarge, Königsberg 1937. [Google Scholar]

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.