Renaissance ornamental decoration of the wall around the former organ and choir in the main nave of the church

Description: The paintings are located on the side wall of the bay of the main nave of the temple. Fragments of the painting fill not very numerous parts of the surface in the upper part of the wall, above the arch of the arcade between the naves, up to the height of the base of the arch crowning the side field on the bay wall. The paintings decorated the choir of music, from which there are traces of mounting construction beams supporting the balcony on the wall. The ornament from the bottom of the choir had the form of a horizontal frieze. The organ instrument was placed against the wall above the balcony, on which perhaps only a desk was placed. The field occupied by the organ prospectus has the shape of two rectangles with a common vertical axis, placed one above the other, the lower rectangle being much smaller than the upper one, and also a trapezoid expanding upwards (with a height corresponding to the lower rectangle), connecting both fields. On the left side (from the viewer) of the lower field, there were asymmetrically located entrance doors leading to the gallery: rectangular, closed from the top with a shallow segmental arch. On the outside of the opening, a simple decoration was painted imitating a frame made of blocks protruding outside, contemporary with the main decoration adorning the wall under the choir and around the organ prospectus. The latter decoration runs vertically on both sides along the organ chest, then downwards along the slants of the intermediate field in the form of a trapezoid, and finally lowest on the sides, outside the door, and on the other side, at the right edge – probably – of the instrument’s desktop. This decoration is in the form of two symmetrical friezes (as if “ears”) of variable width and an irregular external line determined by the course of ornamental forms. The decoration of the wall on the sides of the organ case does not have clear architectural shapes, but certain forms at the bottom make up the shape of massive consoles, and at the very top there are visible extreme elements of the cornice crowning the whole. All decorative motifs were built of illusionistically painted, three-dimensional, mostly massive elements of the ferrule and wraparound ornament. The frieze below the balcony, only partially preserved, gives the impression of being flatter, with two medallions complementing the broken slats, with visible masks (preserved in the upper half) on the fields made of ribbon. In the upper parts, apart from very spatial elements, there are also motifs of much smaller thickness. Here, on the sides of the ornaments flanking the field in the form of a trapezoid, two profile leaf masks are visible. Among the elements that do not belong to the strict canon of forms listed below, which make up the ferrule-wrapped ornament, there are lambrequin scarves wound through holes in the tapes and hanging down in the form of festoons, and two pyramidal ends of “ears” hanging down on the sides of the trapezoid-shaped field. The three-dimensional effect of the whole was achieved by precise shading extracted by combining two monochromatic shades of blue-gray. On the archivolt of the arch of the inter-nave arcade visible below this decoration, there is a black inscription on the plaster, placed on the sides of the top of the arcade: “CIRIACVS. 1586″ [in the middle of the date there is a mark – a circle intertwined with an arrow] “BEUCHEL” [and then a fragment of a plant twig with a Gothic stylization]. On the ribs of the vault above the surface of the side wall of the bay, on the right side, two more names painted in black paint (the second with the date): “ANTREAS BREISNEIDER” and “ANNO 1586 | GEORGIVS SCHOLTS. On the rib on the left side of the wall, there is a black shield with a red field (emblem?) in the middle repeating the outline of the main shield.

History: The painting decoration discovered in 2020, originally supplementing the organ, which has not existed in this place since 1682, is an extremely important monument of art, probably the most important one revealed during the recent conservation works carried out in the Świdnica Cathedral. To properly interpret the circumstances of the creation of this decoration, its original shape, and the entire cultural context, it is necessary to outline at least a cursory history of the organ in the Świdnica church. This history is known thanks to a detailed source study by the historian Stanisław Nowotny. The oldest organ in the Świdnica parish church existed as early as 1442 and was located in the Burghers’ Choir located in the southern aisle of the present cathedral. In the years 1466-1468, probably in connection with the reconstruction of this Choir, the organ was moved to the newly arranged gallery on the northern wall of the central nave, in the place where the paintings were discovered. Such a location of the instrument made it possible to give a particularly solemn setting to the Adoration of the Cross service (the altar of this invocation stood near the organ, in the middle of the central nave). At the end of the 15th century, two new instruments were built: the older one was made by Anton Kysener (Kysener), a master mentioned in Świdnica for the first time in 1491. second, the organ was constructed in the years 1496-1499 by an outstanding specialist in this field, from Wrocław but active in southern Germany, including Nuremberg, Stephan Kaschendorff, who settled in Świdnica and died here in 1499 (perhaps he was involved many years earlier in the works on the previously mentioned organs moved from the Burghers’ Choir to the matroneum). The seemingly difficult explanation of why it was decided to commission two instruments almost simultaneously in Świdnica lies in the hypothesis (which has been confirmed by recent discoveries) that two instruments were placed one above the other on the gallery. But unfortunately, both burned down during a huge church fire in 1532. We do not know any details about the author and appearance of the new instrument, made after the reconstruction and lowering of the vault in 1535. It is only known that in 1582 the organ was renovated by Adam Kunisch. The horseman record from 1586 confirms the fact known to us from the discovered inscription, that at that time the Świdnica painter Cyriacus Beuchel decorated the organ front and the surrounding walls with polychrome. The instrument was renewed again in 1618 and later in 1682, already in Jesuit times, which was accompanied by the transfer of the organ after two hundred years back to the Bourgeois Choir. This decision was certainly connected with the plans of the Jesuits, who wanted to give the music in the church a special artistic setting and intended for this purpose the western gallery in the nave (originally used by the choir of students of the local school). This new large organ was built in the years 1704-1708 by Gotfried Sieber from Brno, and the richly decorated front was designed by the Jesuit Johann Riedel, the figural sculptures were made by the master from Świdnica, Georg Leonhard Weber. Despite this fundamental change, the paintings decorating the wall of the former choir in the central nave were not destroyed. The remaining fragments allow you to form an opinion on the original appearance of the whole. This decoration was whitewashed and then covered when one of the monumental rectangular paintings from the series illustrating the life of the patrons of the temple was hung here, installed in this place around 1720 at the latest (it is a painting of St. Stanislaus casting a curse on King Boleslaw the Bold, painted around 1710 by Jeremias Joseph Knechtl, a painter from Legnica). The memory of the hidden decoration was completely lost, and only conservation works, accompanied by the disassembly of the easel painting and examination of the plaster behind it, revealed the existence of this very interesting decoration. Currently, it is covered again and well secured – it was not possible to uncover it permanently, because the large painting by Knechtl had to be returned to its original place.

Characteristics: The ornamental decoration presented here, arranged on the wall around the non-existent gallery and the non-preserved organ instrument, was undoubtedly originally a continuation of the painting decoration covering the wooden parts of the prospectus, set here in the years 1535-1536. The time of the creation of the paintings – 1586 – is also the time of the greatest flourishing of the mannerist Silesian art, whose works were intended, as in Świdnica, to decorate – at that time, perhaps even in the first place – Protestant temples. There were no richer furnishings in these buildings, so the existence of the organ created a good opportunity to introduce some animation into the interior. The second half of the 16th century is a period of, on the one hand, a flourishing period of impressive “styles” in ornamentation, and on the other hand, artistic contacts with the Netherlands, also in Silesia, were lively. It so happens that these ornaments were codified by Dutch artists and disseminated by local engravers in ephemeral engravings containing both the patterns of the ornamental motifs themselves and the designs of craft objects decorated with them. Artists from other centers either repeated these engravings verbatim or composed new ornaments on their own, each time adapted to individual needs. After all, there were products with unusual shapes, irregular edges, etc., and it was necessary to adapt the ready-made formulas from the engravings to local conditions. Two types of ornaments enjoyed the greatest triumphs in the second half of the 16th century: ferrule and ferrule-wrapped. As the name suggests, they had a “locksmith” genesis. The first one resembled completely smooth tapes of various widths, connected at right angles, but often with curled ends, closely adhering to the surface they decorated, with holes for screws or rivets, sometimes filled with the heads of these, and sometimes empty, with surfaces decorated with convex cabochons and banquets. This ornament was most popular from the 1560s to the early 17th century. The second of the mentioned ornaments was partly similar to a usually very flat ferrule ornament or to similar locksmith forms with holes through which scrolls and other motifs were used, but some of the ornamental elements of this second type of ornament developed spatially, wrapping up at the ends. Because it often happened that such motifs were used to construct cartouche frames, this ornament is also called a cartouche-wrapped ornament. Known since the 1550s, it was still used in the first quarter of the 17th century. Illusionistically painted, perfectly reflecting the spatial effect, the painting decoration of the wall of the organ prospectus uses well-rendered, sophisticated shapes of the ferrule-wrapped ornament – the whole gives the impression of a collection of really existing three-dimensional motifs. Attention is drawn to the conscious use of the monochrome effect and perfect shading. For the time being, we are unable to indicate the exact engraving that was used by the designer of this decoration to design the whole. There is a huge amount of these engravings, among the artists-designers who left a total of hundreds of such graphic works made by specialist engravers, for example, let us mention Virgil Solis, Hans Vredeman de Vries, Lucas van Leyden or Jacob Floris. The search for these detailed patterns will certainly continue. However, it is interesting that although we do not yet know the author or authors of the prototypes of the composition, we know well – which is unique – the main author of the painting implementation, the Świdnica painter Ciriacus Beuchel (his name along with the mark and the date “1586” appears in the top of the inter-nave arcade below former choir. He came from a well-known local painter’s family. Its dates of life are unknown, and the framework for its functioning has so far been determined by the dates of the creation of the oldest and youngest work (1605-1631), although it turns out that it began its activity much earlier. The issue of two names placed on the vault ribs above the gallery is extremely intriguing. These names are Andreas Breisneider and Georgius Scholts (the latter name is also associated with the date “1586”); they are also accompanied by a coat of arms that is difficult to recognize. who were they? At first glance, it seems most logical to assume that they were also painters, although the question remains whether the not-so-great work of decorating the prospectus and the wall next to it required the cooperation of as many as three masters. They could have been assistants, but in that period the names of apprentices were rather not placed in such a very representative context. Unless this inscription referred to the entire decoration of the walls and vault of the church – light rustication made at that time on the ribs and pillars. In addition, we have difficulty finding these two names in contemporary sources and more recent studies on the artists of this region in the late 16th century. The painter Breisneider at that time could not be identified. On the other hand, Georgius Scholts (assuming that we are dealing here with a variant form of the surname Schultz) creates other difficulties: and a name of this kind is extremely popular in modern times. Nevertheless, we have information about a significant Scholtz painting family from Wrocław, recorded in the 17th century, and about other painters of this name not necessarily related to it. Sources mention two of its representatives at that time, named Georg: one was educated in the 1690s, and the other (Gaspar’s son, not necessarily a relative of the former), appears only in the first years of the 17th century. In both cases, the date of creation of the paintings (1586) is too early for these painters to come into play. In that case, could we not consider the possibility that we are dealing here with, for example, the founders of the decorations or at least the names of the town councilors supervising the execution of the paintings or the renovation of the organs? It is worth continuing the search in this area, because the discovery of fragmentary, but at the same time perfectly preserved wall paintings from the end of the 16th century is not so frequent even in Silesia, and in Świdnica these paintings are one of the very few remnants of the Protestant phase in the history of the church, so important for the identity of the city and the temple.