Ołtarz relikwiarzowy w wileńskiej Kaplicy św. Kazimierza w pierwszej połowie XVII wieku

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Architektūra; Koplyčios; Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); 17 amžius; Relikvijos; Skulptūra; Valdovai; Vazos (Vasa family); Vilniaus katedra, 1624-1655 m.; Šv. Kazimieras; Šv. Kazimiero koplyčia; Architecture; Chapels; Monarchs; Relics; Saint Casimirus; Sculpture; St Casimir's Chapel; The Great Duchy of Lithuania; The Lithuanian XVII c. history; Vasa family; Vilnius cathedral, 1624-1655.

ENWorks on the building of the St. Casimir Chapel, began by King Sigismund III in 1624 and basically concluded in 1632, were continued by almost the whole royal family till the Deluge of 1655-1660. It was one of the most important dynastic-religious propaganda actions of the Polish Vasas. The shift of the political centre of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which resulted from the actions of Sigismund III aimed at the takeover of the thrones of Moscow and Sweden undertook by the end of the sixteenth century increased an importance of multiconfessional Vilnius as a capital and royal residence. One of the surviving material traces of this process is the Royal Chapel of Patron Saint of the Dynasty and Motherland. The Vasas, regarding themselves as heirs of the Jagiellons and proteges of the Saint Prince, erected a monument of their common glory: a beautiful and rich chapel. Directly connected to the royal residence, the Chapel gained a status of the house chapel of the royal family. The Chapel, a form of which was drawn from Papal Rome, certainly could be recognised as the building of the Counter-Reformation period. It was built with the use of the most precious materials imported from the remote parts of Europe.A perfect example of a founder’s generosity of Sigismund III, on the measure of his dynastic ambitions, was the commission in Augsburg goldsmith workshops first for a silver reliquary coffin of St. Casimir (before 1619), and then a great altar of ebony and silver (ca. 1627-1629). A correspondence, which was found years ago, between Hans Jacob Bair II and a representative of Sigismund III Vasa and a representative of the Augsburg craftsmen Hans George Peyerle with the Augsburg city council has been reinterpreted by the author. It allowed to attribute the design and partial realisation of the project of the Vilnius altar from the St. Casimir Chapel to Hans Jacob Bair I, and its conclusion to his son, Hans Jacob Bair II. The quoted archival descriptions, references from the 17th-century prints and establishment of the fate of the elements of the Sigismund’s foundation lost after 1655, made it possible to attempt the reconstruction of this work, nonexistent for over 350 years. The St. Casimir altar made of ebony and silver excellently inscribes into the context of early Baroque art tinged with Counter-Reformation spirituality and provides aprimę example of existence of an Europewide model of foundations of royal and princely courts. [From the publication]

• Menotyra / Arts
• Istorija / History