Magdalena Ludera (Szyndlarewicz)

"Gabriel Sławiński - a late-baroque painter in the service of the Church and the Orthodox Church".
Z recenzji dr. hab. Krzysztofa Gombina:

"Gabriel Sławiński to artysta, którego twórczość zasługuje niewątpliwie na całościowe opracowanie. (…) Zadanie to (…) nie łatwe, gdyż nie dysponujemy praktycznie żadnymi informacjami dotyczącymi biografii malarza, który na dodatek pracował zarówno dla katolików, jak i unitów, a tradycyjnie sztukę obu tych kręgów kulturowych starano się badać w oparciu o odmienne założenia metodologiczne. (…) Jak zastrzega Autorka (…) nie jest to klasyczna monografia. (…) Sporo miejsca poświęcono (…) zagadnieniom teoretycznym, przede wszystkim metodologii badań nad malarstwem ikonowym (…) oraz inspirowanych, w znacznej mierze badaniami nad nowoczesnymi zjawiskami artystycznymi, rozważaniami na temat relacji centrum – prowincja – peryferie w sztuce.

Rozprawa o Sławińskim napisana została w oparciu zarówno o dobrze dobraną i wyselekcjonowaną literaturę przedmiotu, jak i starannie opracowane, a co najważniejsze prawidłowo zinterpretowane archiwalia, przede wszystkim kościelne wizytacje. (…)

Fakt, iż Sławiński pracował jednocześnie dla kościoła unickiego i katolickiego jest sprawą zasadniczą i kluczem do formalnej analizy jego twórczości. Odrzucenie ahistorycznych metod badania osiemnastowiecznych zjawisk artystycznych, w kręgu kościoła unickiego pozwoliło odmalować zupełnie inny obraz ówczesnej kultury, a to uważam za jedno z dwóch najważniejszych osiągnięć Autorki. Jej stanowisko w tej materii najlepiej oddają słowa: «(…) wnętrza cerkiewne nie muszą jednak oznaczać utraty wschodniej tożsamości religijnej przez wiernych Cerkwi unickiej w Rzeczypospolitej, jeśli tylko ową tożsamość rozumieć się będzie historycznie, a nie przez pryzmat chyba zbyt rozbudowanej symboliki cerkiewnego dziedzictwa właściwej XIX– i XX wiecznemu prawosławiu rosyjskiemu». (…)

Drugą zaletą książki o Sławińskim jest dobre usytuowanie jego twórczości w relacjach centrum-peryferie (oczywiście peryferie, a nie prowincja!!!), odrzucenie łańcuchowego modelu w poszukiwaniu artystycznej genealogii malarza. W pełni zgadzam się z Autorką, że przy bardzo złożonych mechanizmach inspiracji w malarstwie środkowoeuropejskim ostatniej ćwierci XVIII w. z jednej strony, a braku źródeł pisanych z drugiej, należy wykazać daleko idącą powściągliwość wobec próby wskazania nauczyciela Sławińskiego. (…)

Pracę można uznać za (…) wypełniającą sporą lukę w badaniach nad osiemnastowiecznym malarstwem polskim."

KSIĄŻKĘ MOŻNA KUPIĆ TU: http://mnk.pl/sklep/produkt/gabriel-slawinski-poznobarokowy-malarz-w-sluzbie-kosciolowi-i-cerkwi

"The problem of „icon-painting tradition” in late icons from the Ruthenian parts of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (2nd half of the 17th – 18th century). In search of new research paradigms"

Members of the Orthodox Church and of the Greek Orthodox Church on the Ruthenian lands of the Polish Commonwealth were adopting the artistic solutions of the West to the icon painting. However, there still existed a need to make reference to the most important theological thoughts associated with icons and to „the icon painting tradition”. As a matter of fact, in the historical reception „the icon painting tradition” was a variously defined in time and space set of values, although members of Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Churches not always were aware of it. Paweł Miliukow and Barbara Dąb-Kalinowska, accusing the 18th century’s orthodox circles of ruining the old tradition by creating a new one, have failed to notice that it is in the need of having a tradition where the affection to the Byzantine culture is being manifested. Only the comprehensive attempts to the late icon painting, without „filtering” it with respect to the style, allow to assess its condition, ideological contents and the degree of adherence to „the tradition of icon painting” defined adequately to a given era. Starting from the second half of the 17th century, the icons require an analysis in terms of the presence of motives or artistic solutions which constitute the understanding of „the tradition of icon painting” in a given time. Helpful in the analysis is comparing the works of artists cooperating with both the Church and the Orthodox Church.

"The copy of the Chełm icon of Mother of God in the Orthodox Church in Klesztów. Dating, direct inspiration, cult".
The article is a synthetic monograph of the, so far only mentioned, copy of the Chełm icon of Mother of God, which was located in the former Orthodox Church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary in Klesztów near Chełm. Controversies concerning the dating of the preserved paint layers of the icon were considered, which was not facilitated by the ambiguous results of the last conservation studies (1993). In this context, a detailed comparative analysis of the Klesztów icon was conducted, including with two poorly-known copies of the Chełm icon of Mother of God – namely the oil painting of Podhorce collection of Wacław Rzewuski (1746) and the devotional engraving (1765), now in a private collection. Whilst reconstructing the cult of the copy of Klesztów, the relationship between Węgleńscy from Klesztów and Wacław Rzewuski, the personal attitude of the latter toward the Chełm and Klesztów icons, as
well as the apotropaic function attributed in the Commonwealth of Poland not only to the original, but also to its copies, worshiped by both the faithful of the Orthodox Church and the Latins, were analysed.

"Several remarks concerning the style of Dobrzeniewscy brothers and their frescoes
in the sanctuary of the Pauline church in Włodawa"
The article has been developed as a side note of a doctoral thesis regarding an 18th-century painter Gabriel Sławiński – author of most of the frescoes in the St. Louis the
King church in Włodawa. During conservation in the years 1989–1991, from beneath
the layers of 19th- and 20th-century repaints, the original frescoes of painters and Paulines, born brothers Antoni (Marceli) and Wojciech (Jeremiasz) Dobrzeniewscy,
have been discovered on the vault and walls of the said temple’s sanctuary. The
discovery is little known and the aim of the article is to change that. It proposes a
different than the repeated in the literature division of works between the brothers.
Within the comparative analysis, not only the signed works of Dobrzeniewscy (including the frescoes in the Pauline complexes: the western wing of the Jasna Góra
monastery and in the church and chapel in Łęczeszyce, carried out in collaboration
with the mysterious Antoni Bartosiewicz), but also the work of Stanisław Stroiński,
his students and co-workers as well as Augsburg engravings have been evoked.
Emphasis has been put to the compilatory character of the brothers-Paulines’
creation, while pondering the consequences thereof on the methodological plain.
An attempt has also been made at attributing to Dobrzeniewscy two scenes, merely
mentioned in the literature, made al fresco in one of the annexes to the sanctuary of
the Włodawa church. The text may be treated as a contribution to an analysis of
Dobrzeniewscy’s creation, which is still waiting for a monographic study.

"The painting of St. Martin against the battle of Chocim in the church in
Bejsce. Style, iconography and the problem of origin from Lviv".
The article constitutes a small monograph of a painting of "St. Martin against the battle of Chocim" in the parish church in Bejsce. The problems of form and content of the picture, as well as its possible origin from Lviv were considered. The anonymous painter's practice was based on skilful compilation and on formal and iconographic adaptation of motifs taken from several patterns, among which the artistic solutions of Claude Callot's circle as well as Flemish of Romeyn de Hooghe extend to the fore. We can also consider whether our painter could know the yet still unidentified engravings based on several famous paintings of Karel Škréta, Antoon van Dyck or Rubens. Naturally, direct inspirations are out of the question. An interesting motif of compositional echo, created by the monumental and unprecedentedly dynamic posture of Martin in the foreground and the equestrian portrait of hetman John Sobieski in the background, has made the future king a holy leader. Only further archive query may bring confirmation of Edward Rastawiecki's suggestion about the Lviv origin of the painting. The known sources do not record any painting of St. Martin in the Lviv convents of the Discalced Carmelites, of both male and female branches, whereas the one mentioned in the main altar of the Calced Carmelites church of St. Martin is not the same as the Bejsce one and probably was created later. Endorsing the conviction, well established in the literature, about the foundation of the painting in Bejsce by John Sobieski for the female branch of the Discalced Carmelites' church of Virgin Mary of Loreto may mean that the picture had been executed in Wilanów, then transported to Jaworów, from where, in 1691, it got to Lviv. Arguing in favour of the Discalced Carmelites' church of Archangel Michael does not preclude royal foundation of the painting, as it is known that John III Sobieski's artists worked at the reconstruction of the said convent in the final quarter of the XVIIth century. In turn, accepting the hypothesis that our painting was destined for the Calced Carmelites means that initially, around 1700, the picture had been located in a wooden church and only later was transferred to a stone one. CZASOPISMO MOŻNA KUPIĆ TU: http://mnk.pl/sklep/produkt/rozprawy-mnk-tom-ix

"Łukasz Węgleński with spouse – founders of the former Orthodox church in Klesztów. About relations in the religious borderlands of the Commonwealth of Poland in the 18th century"

As a starting point for my considerations, I used an unknown image of the foundational couple, painted al fresco in 1772 by Gabriel Sławiński in the porch of the former Orthodox church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Klesztów near Chełm. In light of the sources, the founder of the church and its furnishings was the then pantler and standard-bearer of Chełm, Łukasz Węgleński, who was portrayed together with the hitherto mysterious spouse, presumably coming from the Rulikowski family. Reconstructing Łukasz’s life, I studied the biographies of his father, Franciszek, and cousin, Wojciech Józef Longin. I analysed their two portraits preserved in Tarnów and Chełm, heretofore identified mistakenly or dated too generally. When following the connections between the three members of the Węgleński family, I accentuated the character of their religiousness as symptomatic of the religious borderland of the Commonwealth of Poland in the 18th century on the one hand, and on the other hand, their relations with Wacław Rzewuski, including the time of the coronation of the Chełm icon of Mother of God (1765).

"The history of the Pauline convent in Włodawa with particular focus on the furnishings of the unpreserved chapel adjoining the cloister and the church of St. Louis the King".
In spite of comprehensive literature, studies on the history of the Pauline convent in Włodawa, and in particular on the XVIII-century-furnishings of the two, for some time coexisting, sacral buildings which were adjusted or were being adjusted to performing liturgical functions – required supplementing. The existence of a chapel adjoining the cloister is a fact that remains almost unknown to the subject’s researchers. The conducted analysis of its furnishings has confirmed: the cult of the Jasna Góra painting of Our Lady of Częstochowa was being practised in Włodawa long before the erection of the Paulo Antonio Fontana church, i.e. at least since 1711, and thereafter continuously throughout the following decades; the cult of the Five Wounds of Christ – developed at least since 1745, in particular thanks to the prayer confraternity operating by the church; the cult of the Holy Trinity – potent around 1755 (foundation of the Włodawa confraternity of the Most Holy Trinity), and possibly performed in the following decades, as well as a local cult of St. Joseph. Anticipating a publication about the Włodawa painting of Gabriel Sławiński, let us notice that all the four phenomena are reflected in the frescos and paintings’ programme in the church designed by Fontana.

In their entirety, the works on the key equipment of the Fontana church were carried out, with varying intensity, in the period of time from approx. 1753 (and most probably already since 1752, discounting the period of storing materials since 1751) until approx. 1785. In the period between 1776–1777 some services celebrated in the chapel adjoining the cloister were transferred to the new church, but the Marian practices were still centred in the chapel. The new datation of the woodcarving elements of the side altars and frescoes of the preserved church has allowed for an ascertainment that the transfer of the miraculous copy of the Our Lady of Częstochowa painting from the chapel adjoining the cloister to the Fontana church could have taken place around 1785, and certainly before 1788. In the similar period of time, also the ceremonies of the Five Wounds of Christ confraternity shifted from the chapel to the new patronal altar in the Fontana church. This does not, however, imply a demolition of the chapel as had been suspected. In the course of the disquisition, I have evoked several dates attesting to the possibility of continuous functioning of the chapel adjoining the cloister, out of which the latest is 1818.

"Ikona inaczej. Stereotypowe wyobrażenie o malarstwie Cerkwi a działania wystawiennicze". Zasadniczym celem indywidualnego projektu badawczego "Ikona inaczej – tegowieczna sztuka Cerkwi", który realizuję w Muzeum Narodowym w Krakowie, jest poszerzenie skojarzeń ze sztuką Cerkwi, w tym z malarstwem ikonowym, które nie musi być rozpatrywane wyłącznie przez pryzmat tzw. kanonu ikony rozumianego jako jednorazowo określony, ponadczasoprzestrzenny zbiór wartości artystyczno-ideowych. Z tego względu sugeruję, aby zwrócić większą uwagę na silnie okcydentalizujące dzieła Cerkwi, nie ograniczając się do ziem Rzeczypospolitej. Zwłaszcza XVIII-wieczne ikony nurtu okcydentalizującego rzadko stają się przedmiotem pogłębionych studiów, a nieraz pozbawiane są właściwego im miana ikon. Czy tak arbitralny pogląd odzwierciedla ich historyczną recepcję?
Akcentując płynność wzorów ikonograficznych i formalnych w różnych środowiskach Europy, proponuję na nowo rozważyć adekwatność nagminnie stosowanej przez historyków sztuki i muzealników metody analizy późnych ikon, bazującej na sztywnym podziale na styl i ikonografię „wschodnią” lub „zachodnią”, na maniera graeca lub latina. Warto zastanowić się, czy aby na pewno w taki sposób Cerkiew odbierała swoją sztukę podlegającą długotrwałemu procesowi okcydentalizacji. Niniejszy komunikat jest wstępem do dalszych badań, identyfikuje wybrane konsekwencje stereotypowego myślenia o ikonach na płaszczyźnie wystawienniczej i w powszechnym odbiorze społecznym.

Kilka uwag na temat malarstwa Łukasza Dolińskiego – artysty w służbie Kościoła i Cerkwi [odczyt na IV Międzynarodowym Kongresie pt. Stan badań nad wielokulturowym dziedzictwem dawnej Rzeczypospolitej, Rzeszów-Jarosław, 3-5 października 2018 r.]

"Modern paintings from Radecznica. Some problems of the cult of Saint Anthony of Padua in the Church and the Orthodox Church".
History of the modern furnishings of the Bernardine convent in Radecznica in the Chełm land is as much dramatic as it is typical of the heritage of the Ruthenian lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Due to strong dispersion and destruction of the decorations of the church and the adjacent four-sided monastery, the few elements of modern furnishings which have been preserved in situ require special care. Undoubtedly, most valuable is the series of eight paintings by Gabriel Sławiński from 1780–1781, dedicated to the monastery, concerning local revelations of Saint Anthony of Padua. This collection is still waiting for reliable conservation examinations. In the context of research on the history of Saint Anthony’s cult on the religious borderline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the numerous inscriptions found on two paintings of Sławiński, as well as on another, earlier Radecznica painting, depicting Catalog of miracles Saint Anthony, deserved more attention. The analysis allowed for determining the range of the cult of Saint Anthony from Radecznica in the 17th and 18th centuries, and for identifying some of the illustrious believers from that time. Moreover, the universal character of worship has been emphasized, which seems to be blurred in our consciousness as a result of subsequent, not tension-free relations between the Church and the Orthodox Church.