St. Wolfgang

Description: Full-figure, almost full, cut-back and hollow representation of a standing St. Wolfgang set on a console suspended on a pillar. A prominent console, decorated from the front with a massive, volute cartouche preceded from the bottom with a kind of suspended grooved “shell”. Side cartouche decorated with leaves; in its center an oval plaque with a golden inscription on a red background: “In honorem | S. WOLFGANGS | epic.” Above the cartouche, the upper part of the console, polygonal, profiled in the form of a cornice, covered with brown marbling. On the upper surface of the console there is an additional base for the figure in the form of a thick plate. The saint’s entire figure is turned very slightly to the left (heraldically) side, with the right leg strongly advanced and slightly bent at the knee (a massive shoe on the bishop’s foot is visible), with the left one moved back; arms slightly to the side of the body (right palm lower and closer to the hip). The head is turned slightly to the left (heraldically) and slightly raised upwards; the face of an elderly man is framed by long hair and stubble with a long beard partially covering his neck. Wolfgang is dressed in a pontifical bishop’s outfit: a cassock fastened with buttons at the front, a surplice, a stole, a humeral (under the neck), a cope fastened on the chest and a miter on the head; the saint has bishop’s gloves and rings on his hands. Wolfgang has a bishop’s cross hanging on his chest, in his left hand he holds a crosier with a diagonal cane, and in his right hand an axe. Robes with small folds, the left side of the cope, formed as if blown by the wind, covers the front of the figure, adhering to the body. A sculpture in a white color of polished primer with small golden elements: on a console with the edges of volute forms of a cartouche and some small leaves; on the robes of the saint with borders and ornaments; moreover, the crook of the crosier and the handle of the axe are gold (the staff of the crosier and the blade of the axe are silver).

History: The figure is one of nine sculptures of saints placed on the initiative of the Jesuits in 1710 on the consoles hung on the pillars of the nave. Each of the sculptures was funded by a different person – with the exception of the presented figure of St. Wolfgang, for which no information about the foundation has survived, so it should be assumed that it was financed by the Jesuits themselves.

Characteristics: To refer to the Catholic, medieval past of Świdnica, the Jesuits decided that each figure would represent the patron of one of the chapels located at the gates leading to the city. The described statue refers to the chapel of St. Wolfgang at the Franciscan Gate. The patron saint of this chapel (around 934-994), coming from an aristocratic family, was one of the most outstanding holy hierarchs in the history of Germany: he was the bishop of Regensburg, he was associated with the imperial court, but as a Benedictine monk he was also keenly interested in monastic life. For Central and Eastern Europe, he was important not only because of his mission to Hungary but also because he agreed to separate a large area from his diocese and make it the Diocese of Prague. At the end of his life, he lived in a hermitage in Upper Austria and died there – by no means a martyr’s death, as the axe in his hand might suggest. It became an attribute of the saint as a reminder of an event from his life: Arriving at the place of his retreat, Wolfgang, after praying, threw an axe into the nearby thickets and marked the place where he built his cell.