Coffin portrait

Coffin portrait
Coffin portrait of Jan Gniewosz, c. 1700, oil on tin plate.
Signature: I.[an] G.[niewosz] N.[a] O.[oleksowie] K.[asztelan] C.[zchowski]
English: Jan Gniewosz [lord] of Oleksów, castellan of Czchów[1]

A Coffin portrait (Polish: Portret trumienny) was a realistic portrait of the deceased person put on coffins for the funeral and one of the elements of the castrum doloris, but removed before the burial. It became a tradition to decorate coffins of deceased nobles (szlachta) with such funerary art in the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, particularly in the 17th and 18th centuries, the time of the baroque in Poland and Sarmatism. The tradition was virtually unknown outside the Commonwealth,[citation needed] although the term may also be used for Ancient Egyptian portraits that were buried with the deceased.[citation needed]

Contents

Design

They were commonly painted on sheet metal (copper, tin or lead plates) and fixed on the narrow ends of the coffins at the side where the head of the deceased laid. On the opposite of the coffin there was usually an epitaph, and the sides held a coat of arms. The shape of the upper edges of the portraits was based on the shape of the coffin, and the lower edges were often used to turn the whole into a hexagon or octagon.[2] After the funeral, the coffin portrait would often be hung on the walls of the church that the deceased had contributed to. In time, they increased in size – from 40 x 45 cm in 17th century, to 70 x 72 cm in 18th century.

Coffin portraits on display at Poznań Cathedral, painters unknown.

The portraits were highly realistic, with the intent to create an impression that the deceased is taking part in their own funeral; that impression was reinforced often by the subject of the portrait gazing directly at the viewers. Some of them were painted during the life of the deceased.

Cultural importance

Historian Bernard O'Connor in his memoirs of 1696 wrote: "There is so much pomp and ceremony in Polish funerals that you would sooner take them to be a triumphant event than the burial of the dead". Indeed, for Polish nobles (szlachta), a proper funeral was extremely important. Those who could afford it spent lavishly on the funeral ceremonies, turning them into major events. But even the poor would try to have at least a basic coffin portrait, albeit those, painted by amateur painters, usually have little or no artistic merit.

Until the 20th century, the coffin portraits were ignored by scholars; those painted on silver or tin were stolen from churches and monasteries and then melted down, others were destroyed by treasure hunters and thieves, or simply fell to the ravages of time. Today the surviving coffin portraits provide a wealth of knowledge about culture (clothing, hairstyles and jewellery) of the Commonwealth nobility. Many coffin portraits are still displayed in various churches across Poland; hundreds are held in various museums.

The oldest coffin portrait in Poland is that of the king Stefan Batory from the late 16th century. The most recent one is that of priest Marcin Porczyński from 1809.

See also

References

  1. ^ (Polish) "Oleksów". www.gniewoszow.pl. http://www.gniewoszow.pl/historia.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-19. 
  2. ^ (English) Mariusz Karpowicz (1991). Baroque in Poland. Arkady. p. 68. ISBN 83-21334-12-1. http://books.google.pl/books?id=A3lZAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1. 
  3. ^ (Polish) Piotr Krasny. "Wizerunki zmarłych w sztuce". www.autoportret.pl. p. 2. http://www.autoportret.pl/_files/artykuly/8a7ade2a8455dd13fc096b83edf587cf.pdf. Retrieved 2009-05-19. [dead link]

Sources

External links

Further reading

  • Andrew Ciechanowiecki, Polish Art Treasures at the Royal Academy, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 112, No. 803, Italian Sixteenth-Century Art outside Venice (Feb., 1970), pp. 120-124, JSTOR
  • Review of Smierc w kulturze dawnej Polski od sredniowiecza do konca XVIII wieku: Przerazliwe echo traby zaosnej do wiecznosci wzywajacej [Death in Polish Culture from the Middle Ages until the End of the Eighteenth Century: The Terrifying Sound of the Mourning Trumpet Summoning the Dead to the Other World] by Przemysaw Mrozowski, Krystyna Moisan-Jabonska, Janusz Nowinski. Author of Review: Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius. The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 143, No. 1185 (Dec., 2001), pp. 762–763 JSTOR
  • Mariola Flis, The coffin portrait as a symbol of the rite of passage, “The Polish Sociological Bulletin”, No.2, 1993
  • STUDIA MUZEALNE ZESZYT XIX, Wydawnictwo Muzeum Narodowego w Poznaniu 2000, ISBN 83-85296-76-X (issue dedicated to coffin portraits)

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe — Infobox Film name = The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe caption = Theatrical film release poster director = Jose Mojica Marins producer = Anibal Massaini Neto writer = Jose Mojica Marins Rubens Francisco Luchetti starring = Jose Mojica Marins music …   Wikipedia

  • Robert P. T. Coffin — Infobox Writer name = Robert Peter Tristram Coffin imagesize = caption = pseudonym = birthdate = March 18, 1892 birthplace = Brunswick, Maine deathdate = January 20, 1955 deathplace = Brunswick, Maine occupation = poet nationality = American… …   Wikipedia

  • Funerary art — Tomb of Philippe Pot, governor of Burgundy under Louis XI …   Wikipedia

  • Sarmatism — embodied the dominant lifestyle, culture and ideology of the szlachta (nobility) in the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth from the 16th century to the 19th century. Together with Golden Liberty, it formed the unique aspects of the Commonwealth s… …   Wikipedia

  • Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth — Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania[a] ← …   Wikipedia

  • Daniel Schultz — Self portrait ca. 1635 Born c.1615 Danzig, Polish Prussia Died …   Wikipedia

  • Castrum doloris — (Latin for Castle of grief ) is a name for the structure and decorations sheltering or accompanying the catafalque or bier that signify the prestige or high estate of the deceased. A Castrum doloris might feature an elaborate baldachin and would… …   Wikipedia

  • Baroque in Poland — Polish baroque lasted from the late 16th century to the middle of the 18th century. As with the baroque style elsewhere in Europe, the Polish baroque stressed the richness of the contemporary art forms. In contrast to the previous Renaissance… …   Wikipedia

  • Milovan Glišić — Portrait of Milovan Glisić Milovan Glišić (6 January 1847 – 20 January 1908) was a Serbian writer, dramatist, translator, and literary theorist. He is sometimes referred to as the Serbian Gogol. Biography Glišić was born in the farming community… …   Wikipedia

  • Daniel Cajanus — Portrait of Daniel Cajanus in Haarlem city hall Daniel Mynheer Cajanus (1704 – 27 February 1749) was a Finnish giant. He made his living by exhibiting himself for money; he appeared in many European countries and attracted the interest of… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”