Sculpture
The plastic arts of the period consist almost entirely of religious works – even those commissioned by secular patrons. Gothic figure sculptures are primarily made of wood. These are mainly seen in churches and occasionally museums where they were placed to protect them from destruction. The Gothic Art Gallery in the National Musem in Poznań and the exhibitions at the archdiocese museums in Gniezno and Poznań are highly recommended.
Crucifixes are especially noteworthy with prime examples being those in Ołobok, Ostrów Wielkopolski County (made in the Rhineland in the mid-13th century), and the collegiate church in Szamotuły from around 1370. The Poznań figures of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the parish rectory in ul. Klasztorna (early 16th century) and over the portal of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in ul. Żydowska (c. 1500) are exceptional in that they are made of stone (meaning they were designed to be placed outdoors). Both had previously decorated burgher houses.
Gothic wooden sculptures on rood screens have survived in many churches. These are most often crucifixes and passion groups, i.e figures of the Virgin Mary, the holy women and St. John, and occasionally Mary Magdalene and the angels with the instruments of the Lord’s Passion.
A representation of the Virgin Mary with the body of the dead Christ is called a Pietà. The most famous Pietàs are those in Skrzatusz, Piła County (1st half of the 15th century) and Skulsk, Konin County (c. 1420 and long since an object of veneration).
The sculpture Christ the Merciful from Ceradz Kościelny was made according to a woodcut by Albrecht Dürer in the first half of the 16th C.
Altars
Altars are the most striking plastic art relics from this period as they typically combine painting and sculpture. Shrine altarpieces with movable side panels, e.g. triptychs (3 sections) and pentatychs (5 sections), were typically Gothic. Whether the side panels are open or closed, various scenes – perhaps connected with the periods of the liturgical year – can be observed on them. Among the earliest are the triptych in Śmigiel (c. 1506), the high altar in Poznań Cathedral (1512 and transferred from Góra Śląska), the Gothic-renaissance triptychs in Bralin, Kępno County (c. 1520) and Kobylin (c. 1518), and the altars in St. Martin’s Church, Poznań (1498 from Świerzawa, Lower Silesia), and St. John of Jerusalem, Komandoria, Poznań (early 16th C).
The Kościan parish church stands out for the number of altars it has and the artistic virtues they possess. Twelve altars – Gothic, renaissance and rococo – replete with riveting decorations, paintings and sculptures, have survived.
Tomb Sculpture
Regional stone sculptures are exemplified by a few mid-14th century Piast fragments from the tomb of Bolesław Chrobry (Boleslaus the Brave) in Poznań Cathedral (Bolesław was reinterred in the Golden Chapel of Poznań Cathedral 500 years later) and the oldest tombstones in Wielkopolska, viz. those of the clergyman Canon Teodoryk Pradel (d. 1383) in Poznań Cathedral and the layman Jan of Czernina, built after 1423 and situated behind the altar in the church in Rydzyna. The tombstone of Jan of Garbów (d. 1454), son of the famous Black Knight, can be found in the Koło parish church.
Tomb art developed into magnificent creations from these simple forms in a short period. Here we might mention the gravestones of Jakub Zaksiński (d. 1510) in Gniezno Cathedral and Adam Dąbrowski (d.1494) in Poznań Cathedral (sandstone with the figure of the deceased engraved in bronze). The late-Gothic tombs of St. Wojciech (sculpted by Hans Brandt c. 1480) and Abp. Zbigniew Oleśnicki (Wit Stwosz in 1495) in Gniezno Cathedral are especially noteworthy. Several churches still have their stone baptismal fonts and Gothic stoops.
It was most likely thanks to the contacts the Bishop of Poznań, Uriel Górka, made with the German clergy, that tombstones cast in bronze in the Vischers’ Nuremberg workshop between 1475 and 1550 found their way to Wielkopolska. The earliest ones are completely Gothic but early renaissance features can be observed later. Poznań Cathedral has four and Gniezno Cathedral (Canon Jan Groth), the Szamotuły Collegiate Church, the Poznań post-Dominican Church and the Tomice Church (Poznań County) have one each. Additionally, the tombs of Bp. Andrzej of Bnin (d. 1479) in Poznań Cathedral and Abp. Jakub of Sienna (d. 1480) in Gniezno Cathedral were probably both made in Flanders. The Nazis sent seven of these tombs to Germany, from where the Soviet Army took them after WWII. They were accidentally discovered in the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad in 1990 and ceremoniously returned by the Russian authorities.
Other metal artefacts are relatively few. Here we might mention a Gothic trellis from the 2nd half of the 15th century, the Corpus Christi and Abp. Olszowski side chapels in Gniezno Cathedral, and the trellis from the chapel in the St. John of Jerusalem Church, Poznań. Gothic iron fittings can also be seen on wooden doors in some churches.
Painting
Far fewer examples of Gothic painting have survived. The frescoes painted prior to 1375 in the oratory of the monastery in Ląd (Słupca County) and the polychrome decoration in St. John’s Church, Gniezno (2nd half of the 14th century) are the most impressive.
The oldest Gothic paintings are the 1424 Madonna Ab Igne (Madonna of the Fire) in the Kalisz collegiate church and the mid-15th century Madonna with Goldfinch in the Dębe church (Kalisz County).
