The Restoration of the Wall Paintings in the Holy Cross Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków

View of painted ceiling vaults in the Holy Cross Chapel in Wawel, Kraków. Originally painted in 1471, restored several times. Photograph Marek Gardulski.

50 https://doi.org/10.1162/grey_a_00303

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 The Restoration of the Wall Paintings in the Holy Cross Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków

ALOIS RIEGL TRANSLATED BY LUCIA ALLAIS AND ANDREI POP

It is hardly by chance that, at the close of the extensive program for the restoration of Kraków’s cathedral, the chapel of the Holy Cross, significant above all for its wall paintings, was left for last. There must have been a feeling that in this chapel, on the one hand, questions of building conservation that otherwise dominate restoration projects recede behind that of the handling of the paintings; on the other hand, that if such treatment aimed to satisfy all legitimate demands, it would face wholly unusual difficulties. Well, now this space is next in line, after everything else in the cathedral stands as good as remade. In order to really understand the manner in which this last great task in the restoration of Kraków Cathedral has been undertaken, one must know just what judgment the competent public has passed on the work hitherto completed. The restoration of such an extensive complex, of at times exceptional artworks and historical monuments, in a multi- national city possessing other rich treasures of the past and thus exhibiting its age values [Altertumswerten] to a large circle of interested parties— this could hardly go unnoticed. In point of fact, its various phases have been followed very attentively by “public opinion” in Kraków. That an enterprise of this kind, taking place at the end of the century, in very eventful times, would meet with a very conflicted and occasionally even hostile assessment seems self-evident today. For it began in a time when the goal of all restoration was still seen as the return of the work to be restored to its original and, above all consistent, style [Stilzustand]. But since then, a new movement has grown powerful, that asks less for the formal qualities of the original style and longs instead for the imponder- able effects of mood, called forth mainly through pure optic becoming and enjoyment [Ausleben]. Naturally, the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków had to become the bone of contention between the two parties, like St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna and, most recently, Heidelberg Castle.

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 As it stands today almost completed, the work will not be able to please everyone. But an impartial spectator will have to admit that through the reconstruction—especially thanks to the intentions of the client, the Cardinal-Prince-Bishop of Kraków, Kniaz Puzyna—a truly monumental whole was created, one that matches up very well to the building’s over- whelming historical fate and traditions, even if in detail the intimate effect of its mood has been forfeited along with the all-too-carefully scrubbed-out signs of age. Now finally it is the turn of the paintings. Here it is less a question of returning them to their former tangible form than of preserving a specific optical impression. For their restoration, the principle that had reigned over the rest of the project—that of a maximally complete and perfect renewal—must have seemed questionable from the start. It is under- standable that in this respect the circles that had regarded the whole Wawel restoration critically were overcome by a particular nervousness. The responsible organs of the Imperial Central Commission [k. k. Zentralkommission] believe they are answerable to this tendency, which daily gains ground and prestige especially in the treatment of old paintings. At their urging, the Imperial Ministry of Cult and Education [k. k. Ministerium für Kultus und Unterricht] recommended to the client, first, that before preparing the definitive restoration program, they should investigate, most carefully and taking into account all relevant factors, to what degree the extant paintings can be preserved unchanged in the condition in which they came to us. Second, they recommended that any additions deemed necessary should be confined to their absolute minimum, perhaps out of considerations of religious observance [Kultus]. His Eminence the Prince-Bishop, filled with the desire to see this last work of restoration completed in the best way possible, readily complied with the wishes of the Ministry and the Central Commission. The painter Julius Makarewicz from Lemberg [modern Lviv, Ukraine], who for years has been conducting research on Byzantine painting in the Slavic lands, with regard to both their technique and their iconographic character, was entrusted with executing the restoration. Makarewicz conducted an especially thorough technical study of the wall paintings. On the basis of those results, he proposed a restoration plan that was just presented for approval to the organs of the central authority during a meeting of a local commission. Professor Maryan Sokołowski, a reliable advocate of art historical interests, has proven, alongside Canon [Czesław] Wa˛dolny a particularly trusted confidant of His Eminence the Prince-Bishop, lending valuable assistance. The case is unusually complicated, and innumerable obstacles stand in the way of making a decision along reasonable principles. But for just

52 Grey Room 80

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 this reason, it is especially instructive and deserves to be brought to the attention of those interested in public monument preservation [Denkmalpflege], as is done below. The basis for the following presentation consists of: first, a detailed and illuminating report sent to the Central Commission by the tireless Dr. Stanislaus v. Tomkowicz, the accom- plished conservator who is responsible for the restoration of the cathedral; second, existing oral reports from the restorer about the results of his examination of the originals; finally, the firsthand perceptions of the undersigned author. First, we must report what was already known about the paintings of the Holy Cross Chapel. We have records not only of the time of the chapel’s construction in late-Gothic style during the years 1461–1470, but also of the year when the interior was first painted, 1471, which is visible on an inscription that is still preserved today, though it has been repainted. But it did not escape observers around the middle of the last century (cf. Josef v. Łepkowski, “Die Heiligengeist- und Heiligkreuzkapelle der Krakauer Domkirche,” in the Mitt. der Z.K., 1860, p. 294) that the upper parts of the chapel, at least on the exterior, must have undergone a redesign in the course of the sixteenth century.1 Furthermore, it had been obvious for even longer that the paintings, in their iconographic character as well as in their drawing, composition, and coloration, dif- fered entirely from the Western artistic mode that was otherwise domi- nant in Kraków, betraying much more of a pronounced Byzantine style, of the kind practiced especially in the neighboring Russian Empire, with its capital in Kiev. This impression was reinforced by the great number of inscriptions explaining individual pictures in the Russian language, to the point that the chapel has been known for ages simply as the “Russian” (Łepkowski, op. cit.). No contemporary report about the painting of the chapel or its authors has been preserved, apparently; but already in the sixteenth century, chronicle writers tended to say that Russian painters from Wilna [Vilnius] had been called up from their Lithuanian hometown by the Jagiellonian dynasty to carry out the work. This later report might, in fact, be merely the result of idea association, but it corresponds splendidly with the otherwise documented predilec- tion of the older Jagiellonians for an East European style [Wesen, literally “essence”], which contrasts with the Western—and especially German— art that was then constantly gaining ground in Poland. However, an observer of the year 1860 (the aforementioned J. v. Łepkowski) already had the impression that the chapel’s paintings could not all have been started at one and the same time. To him it seemed especially that, while the ceiling paintings with the choirs of saints may indeed have gone back to the time of the original painting (1471), by con-

Riegl | The Restoration of the Wall Paintings in the Holy Cross Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków 53

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 trast the paintings on the side walls, with scenes of Christ’s life, must Above: “Wall painting from have belonged to a later time—indeed, to the sixteenth century, during the Holy Cross Chapel in Wawel, Kraków, state after which the upper parts of the exterior were redesigned. These observa- being repainted in the tions of Łepkowski are of great value to us because they were made at a nineteenth century.” time when the paintings could still be seen in a state that no longer meets Figure 81 of Alois Riegl, “Die Restaurierung der our eyes, and whose reconstruction would suffice to make us happy, Wandmalereien in der were such a thing possible. Heiligkreuzkapelle des And so, what one sees in the chapel today in terms of paint are not the Domes auf dem Wawel zu Krakau” (The Restoration of paintings of the Greco-Russian masters of 1471 but those of the half- the Wall Paintings in the Holy modern painter [Izydor] Jabłon´ski [1865–1905]. Admittedly, the Byzantine Cross Chapel of the Wawel character shines through triumphantly everywhere, since Jabłon´ski gen- Cathedral in Kraków). erally kept to the drawing and composition that he found before him. But Opposite: “Wall painting from the Holy Cross Chapel in the subtleties of the original craft, which for us moderns constitute the Wawel, Kraków, state after real aesthetic value of these paintings, were alas completely destroyed an older restoration.” by Jabłon´ski, as any comparison with the rediscovered remains of the old Figure 82 of Alois Riegl, “Die Restaurierung der figures (about which, more in a moment) convincingly teaches us at a Wandmalereien in der glance. Looking at the heads in figure 81, one can see that they were Heiligkreuzkapelle des robbed by overpainting of their distinctive contours: the new gold leaf of Domes auf dem Wawel zu Krakau” (The Restoration of the nimbuses was laid around the heads, disfiguring them into some- the Wall Paintings in the Holy thing like hard, cutout silhouettes, instead of painting the flesh-colored Cross Chapel of the Wawel heads over the already laid gold ground, as was always done in older art. Cathedral in Kraków). Similarly, the modeling of the heads through harsh highlights, broadly laid on, and the fall of the drapery in bland, rounded folds forfeit the original unity and fineness. Numerous details—for instance, the cupola resting on four columns over Christ in figure 81—were renewed by the overpainter in misapprehended form, while furthermore the Russian inscriptions were reproduced in modernized letters unknown in the original period. Finally, a blue ground of unpleasantly lurid coloration

54 Grey Room 80

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 was laid down around the figures in the same manner that I have noted of the golden nimbuses, as if cut out. In general, then, we are justified in saying that the overpainting by Jabłon´ski, though it may have seemed necessary at the time due to the partial fading and chipping of the original paintings, represents from the point of view of modern monument preservation the severest crime—excepting full destruction through knocking them off the wall—that could have been committed against the wall paintings of the Holy Cross Chapel. No sooner had this insight been formulated than the wish immediately arose to bring the old painting back to the light of day by removing Jabłon´ski’s overpainting. But past experiences in monument preservation counseled caution, for earlier generations did not restore without any motive. Is the sought-after old painting really still present everywhere beneath the overpainting? And, if present, is it in a state that would profit from being exposed? Does one in uncovering it not run the risk of losing even a very distorted copy without gaining the original? These are questions that must be resolved first, through persistent scrutiny of what is present, and the restorer Makarewicz has just completed such an investigation. Its results can be summarized briefly. Under the last overpainting, the figural representations proved to contain (with few exceptions to be discussed below) the remains of the previous paintings, painted in tempera on plaster. They have a very definite Russian-Byzantine character, which Jabłon´ski generally followed. The kneeling saint in figure 82 may attest to this: parts of the body do indeed show traces of overpainting, but the handling of the drapery folds, with its stylistic confidence, reveals a decisive difference when compared to the superficial, bland ones in figure 81. At first sight one might then think the traces of the original chapel decoration of 1471

Riegl | The Restoration of the Wall Paintings in the Holy Cross Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków 55

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 have been recovered; but one is struck by the fact that some individual heads on the walls are distin- guished from the rest, which have also been overpainted by Jabłon´ski, through a particularly noble formation. Such differences in aesthetic value between individual figures could indeed be simply explained by assuming that multiple hands of unequal artistic skill took part in the works of 1471. But Makarewicz found, where the great angel figures fill the pendentive of the niche on the north wall, that the removal of Jabłon´ski’s overpainting did not just bring to light the figure immediately below it—the one just described, with the characteristic triangular folds. Indeed, under this painting’s plaster support, another painting lay hidden: also done in tempera, on a flat stucco ground mixed with wool threads, it had been carefully covered with black tempera paint, with the Above: Wall painting, exception of some sections set aside for body parts. And on this lower Holy Cross Chapel, Wawel Cathedral, Kraków. Originally layer, the heads of these angel figures in turn reveal the same exquisitely painted in 1471, restored noble and soulful formation as those found elsewhere in the chapel, several times. Detail. which I have already mentioned. This extraordinarily important obser- Opposite: Two details of vation led to the first certain result: that genuine remnants of the original wall painting, Holy Cross 1471 painting are present, but that these paintings underwent a restora- Chapel, Wawel Cathedral, Kraków. Originally painted tion long before the overpainting of the nineteenth century. Before this in 1471, restored several earlier restoration, the majority of that oldest painting program must times. Drawn by Josef have been destroyed. v. Łepkowski, in “Die Heiligengeist- und With this, however, the sequence of recent discoveries is not at an Heiligkreuzkapelle der end. During the investigation of the vault ribbing, it was discovered that Krakauer Domkirche,” here, too, there is an older layer of paint below Jabłon´ski’s overpainting, Mitteilungen der k. k. Zentral-Kommission für which he imitated in pattern and colors, though roughly and without Erforschung und Erhaltung approaching in the slightest the perfection of its drawing and the har- der Kunst- und historischen mony of its coloration. The ornamentation of living tendrils is reminis- Denkmale 5, no. 10 (October 1860). cent of the Western Renaissance style, while its many scattered arabesque flower motifs, composed of long-tailed spadices, establish here, too, a connection with the Eastern mode of art [Kunstweise]. Most

56 Grey Room 80

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 surprising, the technical investigation revealed that this ribbing decoration was made with oil paint, distinguishing it as determinately as possible from both older layers of figurative painting hitherto described. Even Jabłon´ski must have recognized this state of affairs, for he painted all the ribs, at least all those investigated thus far, with lime paint [Kalkfarbe], probably aware that distemper [Leimfarbe] does not hold well on an oil underlayer. The simplest way to reconcile this discovery of oil painting with the prior observations would be that, during the pre- sumed early restoration, the figural parts were executed as they had been before in tempera, while the decorative parts, under which older original fragments have not yet been found, were carried out as entirely new ele- ments in oil. But then, it turned out that even in a few of the figures restored at that time, if only in a few, the draperies are painted in oil. This forced the recognition that we have to deal with two distinct older restoration projects, and thus in all probability with two older conserva- tors, one of whom painted in oil, the other in tempera, and that the former attended mainly to the decoration, the latter to the figures. It has already been mentioned that an earlier observer [Łepkowski], who had before his eyes the state of the wall paintings before Jabłon´ski’s overpainting, thought he could distinguish two distinct hands: an earlier one on the vaults and a later one on the walls, and indeed he thought he could place the latter in the sixteenth century. The discrimination of distinct hands is no doubt justified, as the most recent investigation has confirmed; but the distribution of the hands attempted by Łepkowski, one on the ceiling and the other on the walls, can no longer be sustained. However much the picture confronting us is very muddied by Jabłon´ski’s intervening work, we can say with all confidence that the remains of the original painting can be found not just on the ceiling but also on the walls. Perhaps we can justifiably hope that removing the distemper overpainting on the ceiling will bring to light more of the oldest painting program, as Łepkowski thought. Other considerations, which we will bring up shortly, lead one to suspect, however, that it is precisely on the ceiling that the oldest paintings have been destroyed most thoroughly. It therefore seems to me more likely that the ceiling paintings made such a

Riegl | The Restoration of the Wall Paintings in the Holy Cross Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków 57

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 favorable impression in Łepkowski’s era primarily because they may have been better preserved, at least in their drawing, than those on the walls, which are more vulnerable to destruction by human hand, to say nothing of the unfavorable conditions caused by the continued installa- tion of funerary monuments in the chapel. Makarewicz’s hypothesis that the ceiling paintings made an impression of being older because they were browned by the inevitable ceiling soot might also explain Łepkowski’s mistake. The historian will naturally want to ask when the restorations we have just demonstrated were carried out. Judging by the character of the ornamental motifs, Makarewicz thinks the decorative oil painting, which as we saw also includes some parts of figures, must have origi- nated in the sixteenth century. And he would like to think that the older Byzantine restoration of the figures belongs to that century too. But the two do not seem to him simply simultaneous; rather he feels the need to date the beginning of the oil paintings earlier. In the absence of any reports, we can speculate only about the circumstances that motivated these older restorations. Recall that, as Łepkowski already observed, the external upper parts of the Holy Cross Chapel show certain redesigns from the period of Sigismund (meaning Sigismund [I] the Old). Since hardly a half century passed since the chapel had been built, one is tempted to think of a violent event, perhaps a roof fire, that might have forced a renovation so soon, though the chronicles contain no hint of such an event. Such a mishap would likely have damaged the paintings, especially those on the ceiling, so that they required repair. What remains striking is that in that instance, the damaged paintings in the foreign [landfremden] Byzantine style were not simply knocked down, as might be expected of that epoch, but rather, as the results of the most recent investigations lead us to believe, the extant paintings, indeed only a very small fraction of those originally there, were carefully spared, and the half-destroyed or thoroughly destroyed remainder were carried out again in the same foreign [nicht landesüblichen] style, evidently with rigorous reference to the still-present traces of the original, and again by Russian hands. This unusual occurrence makes it more probable that the older restoration took place in a period during which whatever had originally induced the choice of Russian-Byzantine masters in 1471 still exerted a powerful effect. This precondition seems missing in the era of King Sigismund the Old and Queen Bona, who were committed patrons of the Italian Renaissance and of Western culture in general. Thus the otherwise plausible parallel between the architectural restoration and the renewal of the paintings in the sixteenth century is again put in question, and another possibility opens up: that the restoration took place in

58 Grey Room 80

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 a period before the year 1500, or at most shortly thereafter.2 The character of the ornaments would not contradict dating them near the end of the fifteenth century out of hand; as for the character of the figures produced by the restorer, it cannot be used in dating of any sort given the well-known conservatism of the style. Finally, concerning the relation between the restorer in oil and that in tempera, I should like to think of them as simultaneous. One might have started with the painting of the decorative parts, such as the ribs (it would be interesting to check whether they, too, received a partial restoration in the sixteenth century), using the Western-trained oil painter for this purpose. Once this painter had delivered some samples of his skill in the restoration of the draperies, it is possible that he was judged inadequate (one had after all the remains of the 1471 paintings, which must have made for an unfavorable comparison) and that this task was then entrusted to a Russian “specialist.” This, then, is the intricate condition in which the paintings of the Holy Cross Chapel have come down to our days. Where does their value lie for us moderns? What do we have to protect and to preserve in them? Their value is extraordinarily great in every historical connection. Above all in an art-historical one: these Byzantine-Russian wall paintings constitute an episode in the life of Polish art during the fifteenth century that deserves the greatest regard precisely due to its isolation; no less interesting is the observation that already at such early times as those to which we must assign the older restorations, restorations of paintings were attempted at all, and were conducted in the right style [stilgerecht]. The values that run parallel to this in cultural, national, and religious history can only be mentioned here. From all of these historical standpoints, what interests us most of what is left is, in the first line, what is oldest, in the second line, the older restoration; by comparison we are tempted to regard Jabłon´ski’s overpainting as a weed that acquires value only insofar as it preserves certain passages behind which everything that is older has been destroyed, so that for us the oldest layer that once stood here remains intelligible only through the admittedly murky medium of Jabłon´skian painting. Our modern taste in art also finds its satisfaction in the paintings, which we tend to express by attributing to these paintings a certain “art value.” From this standpoint, however, we do not [prize] that paint layer temporally closest to us moderns (Jabłon´ski’s overpainting), from which we would thus most readily expect an affinity with the modern artistic volition [Kunstwollen], but once again the oldest layer, and after that, the old restoration. It is true that here, too, art-historical antiquarianism [Liebhaberei] has its part to play, and this should not be mixed up with genuine art value. No less influential is modern sentimentality for the

Riegl | The Restoration of the Wall Paintings in the Holy Cross Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków 59

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 old, about which more in a moment: but what pleases us so decisively, for instance, in the angel figures of the niche pendentive on the north wall is rooted essentially in a rather definite tendency of our modern taste in art: in the recently ascendant sense for the delicate line and the serene, soulful expression that we find precisely in the oldest figures, and that is later more and more effaced, until at Jabłon´ski’s hands it is lost entirely. Therefore, we moderns must regard the oldest of the remaining layers as the worthiest of preservation from the point of view of art value [Kunstwert] too. But what makes the old paintings of the Holy Cross Chapel especially precious for us is their age value [Alterswert] in and for itself. Already the consciousness of lingering in a building that is many centuries old, which has lived through so many destinies, is pleasurable for us; we moderns have coined our own expression for the comfortable sensation that streams through us in such cases: it is “mood” [Stimmung]. This intimate feeling of pleasure is nourished by the traces that age has left on the monument: the old-fashioned stiff forms, the unmodern colors, even the faded and half-extinguished, the partly imperfect and fragmentary. From this standpoint we do not aspire, with the historians, to separate the individual layers clearly from one another, nor to grasp the significance of the pictures individually and precisely. We luxuriate solely in the consciousness of having “the old” around us to see—witnesses of the past life and activity of humanity, the effect of thousandfold forces of nature. But if asked instead which among the various remaining antiq- uities we like best, the answer will naturally run thus: the oldest of all; not because it stands at the crown of the chronological sequence of layers, but because it will display, naturally, the most and most poignantly powerful traces of aging, and thus provide the mood we crave with the

60 Grey Room 80

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 Izydor Jabłon´ski. Restoration, with modernized lettering, of the wall painting of the Holy Cross Chapel, Wawel Cathedral, Kraków. Originally painted in 1471, restored in the late nineteenth century.

most nourishment. The younger the layer, the less will be our interest, for it comes nearer to the impressions of the modern. Altogether disrup- tive and irritating is the effect of the nineteenth-century overpainting: for its lurid, modern coloration conceals from us the impression of what is older and buried beneath it and deprives us thus of the enjoyment of the desired mood. Only where we know that under Jabłon´ski’s overpainting nothing old is left, which would thus be removed from our sight—only there are we able to forgive even this final mishandling of the painting of the fifteenth century, for in this overpainting, too, we recognize and respect a destiny suffered by the chapel in its long life, even if this last bit happened only forty years ago. We have now become acquainted with three kinds of value that we moderns can appreciate in the paintings of the Holy Cross Chapel. In the interest of all three, the following seems imperative: first, the removal of the nineteenth-century overpainting, wherever an older layer is preserved behind it. Second, the utmost possible rediscovery of what remains of the original painting of 1471, and, where this is no longer present, of the consecutive older restoration, both of the figurative and the decorative parts. If we wished, however, to see Jabłon´ski’s hand perish, we would, to the same extent on the basis of the three value standpoints discussed, have to reject every intervention of a fully modern hand. But this would falsify history in any case and obliterate age value; and even if we could create something amenable to the modern taste in art, this would seem entirely out of place in a work that derives its greatest value from the nonmodern and that would thus only be deprived of value by the intervention. Now it is time to recall, however, that in the case just discussed we are dealing with the painterly decoration of a consecrated chapel, which is supposed to remain continuously dedicated to devotional use. This standpoint, too, has its particular needs, which must be met; and if their statement takes place here at the end, it is not because they are least valued but, on the contrary, because, in the decision that is to follow, the decisive weight should be reserved for them. First, as far as the value of the paintings for modern religious observance [Kultus] is concerned, it is clearly not significant. Today Kraków is inhabited almost exclusively by a Catholic population, which possesses no deeper understanding of the Eastern conception of Christianity that speaks out from the Byzantine-Russian mural cycles. How often we are confronted with the phenomenon that we stand uncomprehendingly even before paintings of Western-Catholic provenance that came into being in the Middle Ages. Since the Counter-Reformation, the manifest artistic means by which faith was to be made convincing have changed

Riegl | The Restoration of the Wall Paintings in the Holy Cross Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków 61

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 Aleksander Gryglewski. Wne˛trze Kaplicy S´wie˛tokrzyskiej w Katedrze na Wawelu’ (Interior of the Holy Cross Chapel in the Wawel Cathedral), 1872.

quite essentially. So the motifs, iconographic character, and basic approach of the Byzantinizing paintings may be ascribed no deeper significance by today’s church and its appointed representative, His Eminence the Prince-Bishop. But since ultimately these paintings, too, serve the glorification of the almighty Christian God, nothing speaks against their preservation, and since they are present they should be preserved according to the will of their ecclesiastical administrators. It is only a question whether modern observance [Kultus] is also interested in the paintings, their condition, and outer appearance from another, more external, point of view. The external function of the paintings of the Holy Cross Chapel is evidently to provide a worthy, uplifting decoration to a chapel that, thanks to the memories attached to it, is the most venerable and significant chapel in the foremost cathedral not only in Galicia but in all of the Polish world. With this, a certain monumentality of appearance is raised to a fundamental postulate: an impression of power and grandeur should shine forth from the paintings. In such a task, everything must aim at the total impression, paying less attention to the detail than to the harmony of the whole. In themselves, figures in the Byzantine style, with their stiff ceremonial posture, are very well suited to bringing forth the impression of ceremonial dignity and confident power. However, if these figures do not face one in full coherence [Geschlossenheit], but are interrupted by large gaps in their coloration, or even in their forms, the resulting imper- fection has a disturbing effect on whoever sees the whole, for it breaks through the harmony without any motivation. The faltering of certain contours, the fading or disappearance of some tones, are then felt as a lack of perfection [Vollkommenheit], because in the space and its decoration we expect precisely such an external, prestigious completeness— much as a hole or stain on the clothing of a man of high position will tend to appear more disturbing than on an obscure dime-a-dozen man. It is true we said earlier that it is precisely the gaps and changes in coloration which, being signs of aging, can become sources of great aesthetic enjoyment; but this is true more in the intimate mode of enjoyment, which refers everything around it to one’s own subject and its psycho- logical mood, rather than for the more external type of artistic satisfaction that is grounded in the consciousness of a triumphant religious and national community. The visitors of Kraków Cathedral do not feel exclusively in the manner of modern mood-people but also as practicing Polish Catholics, who would like to look upon the monument of their great ecclesiastical past in a state of power and grandeur corresponding to its external national and religious dignity. The possibility arises here of a conflict between these two opposite requirements around the signs

62 Grey Room 80

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 of aging. On the one hand, their visible appearance might be regarded as what is most valuable in the chapel, and that also deserves the best possible preservation from the standpoint of history and modern art. But they turn into a hindrance in a work of such monumental significance, because they stand in the way of achieving the full impression of unim- peded greatness and perfection, and, in the interest of this function dic- tated by motives of religious observance [Kultus], they should be removed. The conflict that threatens to arise is, however, immediately pacified by the circumstance that these two contradictory notions struggle within the breast of one and the same person. In other words: the observant Polish Catholic, who, on the one hand, wants to see the chapel decorated by continuous, freshly painted figures, is the same person who, on the other hand, wants to preserve a monument of the great national past, as much as possible unadulterated by modern hands, in order to enjoy the subjective mood-effect of its visibly aged appearance. From this ensues the necessity that the two conceptions tolerate one another and indeed enter into a compromise. And this spirit of conciliation of opposites, and mutual willingness to make reasonable concessions, must obviously dictate the program of restoration that, as already mentioned, has recently found its definitive formulation. The next question, invariably, from whichever standpoint one

Riegl | The Restoration of the Wall Paintings in the Holy Cross Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków 63

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 Photographic documentation of a wall painting from the Ruperti Chapel of the Petersberg tower in Friesach, twelfth century. Photograph taken for the k. k. Zentral- Kommission für Erforschung und Erhaltung der Kunst- und historischen Denkmale (Imperial Central Commission for Monuments) in 1905. Bundesdenkmalamt. approaches the question of restoration, is: How should we handle Jabłon´ski’s overpainting, which is today almost the only thing visible? Advocates of an extreme standpoint could demand that this overpainting simply be allowed to stand. Indeed, they could even turn the requirements of the ecclesiastical interests to their advantage by arguing that, if the fragmentary old art of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is supposed to be completed and freshened up, it would be better to achieve this through the overpainting already carried out in the nineteenth century, which has its own age value, be it only one of forty years, than to carry out a wholly modern overpainting of the twentieth century. Against this we must keep in mind above all that the distemper paints used by Jabłon´ski obviously separate quickly, and in many places have already become detached from the wall or have changed in tone, and that it is above all such stains, in contrast to otherwise lurid passages, that provoke the undignified impression of dilapidation. A simple reten- tion of Jabłon´ski’s overpainting, then, would not serve even the single- minded exponent of ecclesiastical interests. From this standpoint, too, agreement has been reached about the removal of the most recent overpainting; only at relatively few places will this prove impossible to carry out, and in these places the potentially necessary intervention by a modern restorer will not meet with insuperable objections. The real difficulty begins, however, when one tries to determine the handling of the older layers of paint buried beneath the overpainting. Only concerning the decorative painting on the vaulting ribs is the solu- tion relatively simple. Painstaking experiments with cleaning baths to handle the centuries-long darkening, which was arrested partly through Jabłon´ski’s overpainting, have shown that these paintings are relatively well-preserved and, through a simple oil impregnation, can regain the full depth of their original saturated coloration. Jabłon´ski probably overpainted them only in order to bring them into harmony with the figurative sections. On the ribs, then, the old oil painting can be left more or less untouched, insofar as there, after removal of the overpainting, we have to deal with only a layer of exclusively oil-based paints. The blue, which is known to be one of the most sensitive colors on that wall, is indeed partly lost, without, however, perceptibly damaging the overall impression. For this reason, after completed exposure, cleaning, and oil impregnation, there will be little to do on the ribs except for very discreet painting-in of the black edges that accompany each rib on either side and in a sense keep the ornament together, and that are now conspicuously missing. Only in the not very numerous places where the old ornament will prove to have been entirely destroyed will it have to be provided, out of respect for the already discussed ecclesiastical interests, by

64 Grey Room 80

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 extrapolation from contiguous intact areas. Turning next, however, to how the figurative sections of the wall ought to be handled, one is confronted right away by so many questions that it would hardly be possible to formulate fundamental principles applicable for every figure. The highest goal remains indeed the extrac- tion of the oldest layer, and since this will certainly only be accessible to a very limited degree, the main goal will be the exposure of the middle layer painted by the Russian restorer. The precondition to this is the removal of the last overpainting; as I have already suggested, however, such removal will have to be avoided by necessity in a number of places. Thus, for instance, the new gilding of the nineteenth century, whose removal would only be made necessary by a repeated gilding of the twentieth century. In addition, those figures that Jabłon´ski painted with lime paint on new plaster (something that could only have taken place after the knocking down of all the old painting that was there before, allowing us to conclude with certainty that there are no older remains beneath, and which are in any case in a better state of conservation than his distemper figures) will simply have to be left in place, freed of the white mold that afflicts them here and there. As for the additions demanded unconditionally by ecclesiastical interests, these consist prin- cipally of simple fillings-in of fragmentary passages. In addition, in order to prevent as far as possible any undue hastiness in this regard, steps have been taken for a continuous, close cooperation between the acting restorer, on one hand, and the organs of the Central Commission as well as the supervising local commission, on the other. In this way it has already proven possible, through a succession of questions, which have confronted nearly every figure in its individual variation, to strike up a satisfying decision with the utmost possible respect for both sets of

Riegl | The Restoration of the Wall Paintings in the Holy Cross Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków 65

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 interests, that of monument conservation as well as religious observance [des Kultus]. Finally, it need hardly be mentioned that before the work is undertaken, a precise photographic documentation of all images in their 1904 condition has been carried out, in dimensions corresponding to scien- tific needs. From the report just delivered, one will be justified in the conviction that all the parties to this important work of restoration, above all His Eminence the Prince-Bishop of Kraków and the Imperial Ministry of Cult and Education, have sought with the greatest conscientiousness to reconcile conflicting needs and provide the best that could be achieved under the given conditions, unusually difficult as they are. Indeed, it will hardly prove possible to satisfy the proponents of both extreme tendencies, and from these diametrically opposed sides the work will likely be met with criticism, however it turns out in the end. The Central Commission, like the client, would pronounce itself satisfied if the final result found approval at least among the reasonably minded [der Billigdenkenden], who can appreciate how enormously difficult it is to arrive at a compromise between the demands of monumental religious art, on the one hand, and the modern cult of age, on the other.

66 Grey Room 80

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021 Notes This text originally appeared as Alois Riegl, “Die Restaurierung der Wandmalereien in der Heiligkreuzkapelle des Domes auf dem Wawel zu Krakau,” Mitteilungen der k. k. Zentral-Kommission für Erforschung und Erhaltung der Kunst- und historischen Denkmale, 3rd ser., vol. 3, nos. 7–9 (July–September 1904): 272–92. 1. Josef v. Łepkowski, “Die Heiligengeist- und Heiligkreuzkapelle der Krakauer Domkirche” (The Holy Spirit and Holy Cross Chapel of Kraków Cathedral), Mitteilungen der k. k. Zentral-Kommission für Erforschung und Erhaltung der Kunst- und historischen Denkmale 5, no. 10 (October 1860).—Trans. 2. As Makarewicz has shown me, this is supported by the relatively rigorous Byzantine character of the paintings. They reveal practically no Western influence, while certifiably sixteenth-century Little Russian [Ukrainian] paintings, such as that on the iconostasis of the Church of Bohorodczany, which was produced by the Cloister Maniawa, itself linked with Athos, show numerous South German influences; for instance, even in the costumes.

Riegl | The Restoration of the Wall Paintings in the Holy Cross Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków 67

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/grey_a_00303 by guest on 01 October 2021