Fotografie szat liturgicznych w zbiorach Muzeum Krakowa jako źródło do odtworzenia historii zabytku – wybrane przykłady

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PHOTOGRAPHS OF LITURGICAL VESTMENTS IN THE HOLDINGS OF THE MUSEUM OF KRAKÓW AS A SOURCE FOR RECONSTRUCTING THE HISTORY OF AN ARTEFACT – SELECTED EXAMPLES

In the process of documenting old liturgical vestments, we are dealing with artefacts which have seldom maintained their original shapes. e changes in their appearance resulted from the reforms implemented by Charles Borromeo following the Council of Trent, which entailed the considerable reduction in the length and width of chasubles. Other signicant factors that had an impact on the appearance of the paraments included the wear and tear of their materials and the consequent repairs and alterations, as well as the stripping down of the vestments of their original expensive ornaments (e.g. golden threads, gems, valuable embroidery) in order to reuse them. In the holdings of the Museum of Kraków we can nd a number of photographs dating from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries in which the liturgical vestments from Kraków’s churches and monasteries were immortalized. Two 15th-century embroidered orphreys (removed from the chasubles) have been preserved at the Corpus Christi Church. In the photographs we can see them stitched onto modern chasubles which they had probably adorned for over three centuries. Chasubles from the Dominican monastery underwent a number of signicant changes: the photographs have revealed that a valuable 16th-century orphrey decorated with gural embroidery which was transferred in the 20th century onto an older, 15th-century chasuble made of red and green velvet originally had adorned a black chasuble (the latter vestment also survives to this day). Other plates show the degree of damage in some 18th-century tapestry dalmatics which underwent thorough conservation in the interwar period. The paper presents the value of photographs as an important iconographic source that enables us to reconstruct the changes in the appearance of liturgical vestments which have been preserved until our times. e condition of the vestment at the moment the photograph was taken is recorded in the image; thus, upon comparison with the surviving parament, we are also able to notice certain details that are normally not included in inventory descriptions. Among such details we should mention the replacement of galloons and orphreys, the transfer of fragments of embroidery onto new base, or the degree of damage prior to conservation.