Illusionist architecture with a gallery

Description: The composition fills the surface of the side wall of the central nave bay, including the decoration of the arches of the pointed arcade between the naves visible at the bottom of the wall and the profiles of this arcade. The profiles are covered with a color identical to that which dominates the decoration of the wall above, in its darker shade, with a very slight “marbling” motif. The wall is closed from the top with a sharp arch. Further on, its surface is also referred to in the description as a field: if the description does not specify what field or surface is meant, it always applies to the side wall of the span. All architectural and ornamental elements used to decorate the field are painted in an illusionist way (in the further part of the description, this decoration is treated as a collection of actually existing artistic motifs, sometimes without indicating that these are illusionistic representations, rendered in a painting layer on a flat surface of plaster). The only existing architectural elements are pilasters with simplified, flat capitals visible on the sides of the field. The decorative motifs on the surface of the stems and heads of these pilasters are painted in an illusionistic way – this applies to the motifs of fluting on the stems and the ornamental decoration of the composite capitals. At the bottom, the pilasters rest on the bases of figures placed on the wall of the nave. The described pilasters separate the field from the neighboring ones, whose decoration, very limited (covering only the arches of the arcades and the tops of the fields), is solved differently due to the hanging of large, rectangular paintings in rich frames on the walls of these adjacent bays. Large-format paintings are hung on the side walls of three bays of the nave (so on six walls in total) – these are the first, third, and fifth bays from the east. On the other hand, the decoration similar to the one described below fills the side fields of two bays of the central nave (so it covers four walls in total) – the second bay (its northern wall is described in the presented note) and the fourth bay going from the east. The decoration of the side walls of the last bay, the sixth from the east, narrower than all the others, adjoining the choir of the western bay of the nave, has yet another character (this decoration is described in a separate note). In the upper part, the vertically rising, flat surface of the wall described here gently turns into a triangular projection, a spherically curved upward field of the vault (called a kozuba – here referred to as a “lunette”). The painting decoration of the lunette – apart from the motifs visible on the border with the wall below – has not been included here, as it belongs to the part of the vault. The walls of the lunette from the outside are framed with ribs dividing the vault visible above into smaller fields. These ribs are supported on the inner edge of the heads of the pilasters separating the described field from the fields of the adjacent bays. The surface of the bay wall is covered with illusionistically painted architecture (dominating) as well as figural and ornamental decorations. This decoration imitates the appearance of a gallery balcony located above the side nave of the temple. The matroneum is closed from the back by a wall with a window in its face (rather small to the entire surface of the wall). Architectural elements flanking the window above become a structure that is less and less consistent as far as the interconnection of motifs is concerned (the latter in real architecture follows the logic of traditional connections between parts of architecture and details – here mostly fantastic). This structure is generally in the form of a three-leaf arch, above which there is an impressive cartouche on the axis. Above it, you can see the cornice of the wall closing the whole finial, but this cornice belongs to the part of the painted decoration that is placed on the surface of the lunette. The “structure” of the great three-leaf arcade described in this way is supported by two cuboid pillars visible on the sides, which at the bottom start in the middle of the arch of the actual inter-nave arcade. The balcony balustrade is “added” to these pillars above this arcade, and at its height, the side pillars are interrupted by massive, inverted, volute consoles. The baluster balustrade consists of three sections. The middle one is wider than the lateral ones and curves forward, while the lateral ones are recessed backward along the line of shallow segmental arches; the three segments listed separate the two pillars. At the height of the balcony, behind the balustrade, two rectangular, slender side passages leading to the left and right to further parts of the gallery are visible. The semicircular arcades of these passages from the outside (from the side of the main nave of the church) were supported on the pillars described above, while in the background on pillars embedded in the thickness of the wall containing the window. The vault over the matroneum is sail-like. On its surface, the sky is depicted with clouds and angels floating upwards (only their legs and part of their robes are visible). Window Rectangular below, slightly elongated vertically, bipartite, six-panel, glazed, closed with a trefoil arch, with a frame on the axis enriched with a cartouche at the top. The second, larger cartouche is placed above the great arch closing the entire composition described above, flanked on the sides by two angels supported on clouds. All the listed elements and architectural details are shaped in varied ways and supplemented with exceptionally rich ornamental decoration. Visible: profiled cornices often interrupted on the axes and ending with volute curls, various other types of independent volutes, volute forms resembling cornucopias (without flowers and other additions), panels with forms based on the shapes of rectangles with indentations and protrusions on the line of arches, and circular panels shells ending in volutes, segments of variously shaped, mostly fleshy flagella, sometimes twisting into volutes, flat acanthus leaves, ornamental motifs (pincer, braids) made of ribbon, rosettes, rows of oval sequins, campanulas, cones, garlands of flowers and leaves, rows of very fine S-shaped, geometric motifs (on pilasters). The overall color scheme is quite limited. The foreground is dominated by monochromatic combinations of pink with lilac shades of various intensities. Other parts – mostly in the background – are very white or white and gray in many places, as are some ornamental motifs. Many elements of the decoration seem to have been added to the background, and the filling of some of the panels is kept in shades of yellowish-brown as if referring to gold. Blue sky on the sail vault over the matroneum. In the background of the garlands, behind the figures of angels flanking the upper cartouche, a green background is visible.

History: The painting decoration of the presbytery and the main nave of the cathedral in Świdnica was commissioned by the Jesuits in 1739 to the outstanding Moravian painter Johann Georg Etgens. The then rector of the church, Karl Scholtz, came up with the initiative for this commission. According to the contract signed by the artist, work on painting the walls of the church lasted for a year. The execution of the paintings ended the long process of decorating the Gothic temple with rich Baroque woodcarving, painting, and sculptural decorations.

Characteristics: The decoration of one of the wall fields in the nave of the cathedral, described here, covers only a small fragment of a very rich motifs work by Etgens visible inside the presbytery and nave. A large part of these paintings has its well-thought-out iconographic program, sometimes independent of the neighboring fragments, but usually constituting a component of a larger part of the decorations. In the main nave on the side walls of the bays (their differentiation is detailed in the description), the iconographic program is reduced to a vision of heaven with figures of floating angels, only the motif of concerting angels in the last, western bay is a more extensive theme. But the decoration of the nave wall segments is of great importance for the overall effect of the interior. Masterfully rendered illusionist motifs of monumental, spatial, full of fantasy, but also compact architecture, opening onto actually non-existent, but full of light and air, galleries over the aisles, optically enlarged the central nave. Etgens’s high-class paintings also allowed for the proper display of a series of paintings and sculptures placed on the walls of the central nave.