„Rychtrady” Grzegorza i Katarzyny Przybyłów z 1534 r. w Muzeum Historycznym m. Krakowa

Abstrakt

THE RYCHTRADY OF GRZEGORZ AND KATARZYNA PRZYBYŁO, 1534, IN THE CRACOW HISTORICAL MUSEUM

Rychtrady is a name used for burghers’ portraits, carved in boxwood. The rychtrady of Katarzyna and Grzegorz Przybyło, dating from 1534, are exhibited in a room dedicated to guild mementos at the Cracow Historical Museum. These reliefs are among the eraliest burghers’ portraits in Poland. It is difficult to tell what their purpose was. They may have been models for silver portraits, or designs for the sarcophagus of the Przybyłos. No matter what their purpose was, the portraits of Katarzyna and Grzegorz Przybyło are outstanding works of art of great historical and artistic values.
Cracow rychtrady drew attention as early as the middle of the 19th century. Leonard Lepszy, an outstanding expert on goldsmithery, suggested that their author was Maciej Stwosz.
In 1927, in his work on artistic output of medallist Maciej Schilling, Maciej Gumowski attributed both carved portraits of the Przybyłos to this artist. He based this assumption on the monograms on them. However, neither M. Gumowski nor Leonard Lepszy provided firm evidence to support their views. In many publications from later times, various scholars shared the view Gumowski presented.
Plaques with portraits of the Przybyłos are rectangular, 91 x 73 mm, and 13 mm thick; they are in a diptych from. The figures are represented including their hands. Three quarters of the bodies are shown, with the faces en profile. The artist did not neglect costly details of Renaissance burghers’ costume, though he focussed on the faces of the husband and his wife, featured as noble and couragous.
To acquaint the viewer with the figures on the portraits, some more detailed interest should be drawn to the Przybyło family itself. It is belived that they came to Cracow from the Oświęcim or Łagów areas. The Przybyło’s high status is confirmed by many important functions he held in the guild. In 1534 he was a second senior of the guild, and in 1537-38, 1541 and 1542 he was the senior of the guild. He trained many apprentices in his workshop, also from abroad. He was also a benchman and a member of the Cracow City Council. His property status was very good. He bequeathed a house in Bracka Street to the Goldsmithers’ Guild.
As to the suggested author of the portraits, Maciej Schilling, he probably came from Cracow. Medals with portraits of the Boners (1532-33), and with portraits of King Sigismund the Old and Prince Sigismund Augustus (1533) are also attributed to this Master. In 1529-35 he was the manager of a mint in Toruń, and in 1540 he worked in a Gdańsk mint.
This artist has an important place in the history of Polish art of medal engraving, as he was probably the first native artist active in this field.
In the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw there is a portrait of Grzegorz and Katarzyna Przybyło, which, when compared with Cracow reliefs, suggests that the paiting was probably modelled after them.
It is difficlut to set the date of the portrait. There are no examples of Polish paintings on canvas, know to be from the first and the second third of the 16th century. Perhaps the portrait was painted as late as the 17th century.
Burghers’ portraits is present in several domains of Polish art — in painting, scelpture, print art, or even in goldsmithery. Most of burghers’ portraits can be found in epitaphs and sarcophaguses. There was even a special type of epitaphs, called burghers’ epitaphs. Characteristic features of such sarcophaguses are portraits of the deceased, in the from of a bust or a medallion, with the head en profile or three quarters.
Sevsral dozens of such epitaphs have survived in Cracow. The highest achievement in this field are busts of the statues of the Montelupi family (before 1613) and the Cellari family (before 1616) in St. Mary’s Church in Cracow.
Epitaphs with busts and medallion burghers’ portraits were popular up to the second quarter of the 17th century, when they were replaced by portraits on metal sheet.
To summarise, boxwood reliefs of Grzegorz and Katarzyna Przybyło from 1534 are extremely valuable historic items, one of the most significant burghers’ portraits in Cracow art.