Angel Orchestra

Description: The composition fills a large part of the side wall of the last bay of the nave going from the east. This bay is adjacent to the choir from the west, which is separated from the central nave by a sharp arch of the arcade built between the bays. The northern narrow wall described here has its counterpart from the south. Both are not covered with large-format rectangular paintings that hang in the next bay going east. In the lower parts of the described wall, a certain part of the painting decoration is covered with the frame of an oval painting hung on the axis of the pillar adjacent to the wall from the east. On the west side, a part of the organ prospectus and its decorations are superimposed on the surface of the side wall. Going upwards, the side wing of the casement occupies less and less space on the wall, and finally, in the part of the arches depicted in the paintings of the arcades, it gives way entirely to painted motifs. The whole gives the impression that the side part of the prospectus hides the painted decoration, which is part of the illusionistic effect because the paintings were created after the prospectus was made (to avoid significant complexity of the text, the architectural divisions and the decoration depicted on the wall will be treated as if they were located on both sides of the wall surface, i.e. also under the decoration of the brochure). The painting decoration on the north side covers the bottom of the profiled edge of the ogival arcade between the naves, the element visible on the lowest wall. These 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 element is the pilaster with a simplified flat head, visible from the east on the side of the field. The decorative motifs on the surface of the shaft and the head of this pilaster are painted in an illusionist way – this applies to the motifs of the fluting on the shaft and the ornamental decoration of the composite capital. At the bottom, the pilaster is supported based on a figure placed on the wall of the nave. 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 is not included here, as it belongs to the part of the vault. 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. Above the arch of the arcade, and below the balcony, there is a wall divided by panels; in the middle, above the arch of the arcade, there is a decorative motif of a shell flanked symmetrically by types of fruit and leaf festoons. The baluster balustrade of the balcony above is set back slightly into the wall with panels and is bent forward on the projection of a shallow segmental arch, flanked on the sides by two low pillars. 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). On the sides of the matroneum, there are rectangular pillars located on a closer plan than the window, decorated with rectangular, concave panels from the front. The pillars are crowned with a cornice, and the profiled semi-circular arch of the arcade is supported on it. Above it on the axis is a two-part shell with a pearl, flanked by volutes and festoons of fruit. The window is rectangular, quite slender, bipartite, nine-panel, glazed, and closed from the top with a very shallow segmental arch. The overall color scheme is quite limited. Monochromatic combinations of pink with a shade of lilac of various intensities prevail, some not very numerous surfaces are more whitened. Ornamental elements on the axis of the entire decoration are yellowish-brown as if referring to gold. The gray-blue sky is visible behind the window glazing; fragments of the sky are also visible in the gaps between the clouds in the field limited by the arch closing the arcade from above. The figural decoration is quite abundant, partially filling the surface above the window, and the field in the arch of the arcade is almost completely visible above. The subject of the figural decoration is angel heads as well as cherubs and large angels shown among the clouds, some of them playing musical instruments. The composition of these motifs is free and asymmetrical time. Poses of angelic figures full of movement. Three angels in this group play instruments. Two small ones at the bottom for pan flutes and a triangle, a large angel at the top on a Baroque lute, the so-called long-neck. Clouds among which white and gray angels are depicted, some details in shades of yellow and brown, some blue and red draperies. The decoration of the opposite, on the southern wall of the sixth bay of the nave, is arranged analogously (in a mirror inversion as far as some architectural motifs are concerned), with slight differences in the parts of angels playing music. Two little angels hold a marching lyre (a baton in the other hand) and a harp (next to the mouth), and a large angel at the top strikes a tambourine held above his head.

History: The painting decoration of the presbytery and the main nave of the present 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 other cases, decorative motifs dominate, the selection of which is to help optically enlarge and illuminate the interior. In the central nave, on most of the side walls of the bays, this last function of the paintings was the focus, and only the images of the vision of heaven with the figures of floating angels, placed at the top of the fields, constituted a modest iconographic motif. On the other hand, in the case of the last, western bay of the nave, apart from the motif of an illusionistically rendered gallery illuminated by an imaginary window, an important role is played by the motif of concerting angels. Etgens consciously referred here to the large-sized organ prospectus located in the immediate vicinity (1704-1708: organ – Gotfried Sieber from Brno, prospectus – designed by Johann Riedel, the realization of figural sculptures by Georg Leonhard Weber). The brochure is decorated with depicting an angelic orchestra. So Etgens added painted representations to these figures, enriching this theme. Also in the Etgens decoration covering the side walls of the choir, angels with instruments are depicted in the upper fields. The Moravian painter, aware of the holistic nature of the interior decoration of the church, deliberately contributed here to strengthen the effect of blurring the boundaries between carved and painted decoration, as well as illusion and reality.