Zprávy památkové péče 2019, 79(4):441-457 | DOI: 10.56112/zpp.2019.4.05

Gilded plastic decors in the Church of the Virgin Mary, in the Chapel of St. Catherine, and in the connecting corridor at Karlštejn Castle

Jan Klípa¹, Markéta Pavlíková², Adam Pokorný²

¹ ÚDU AV ČR

² AVU

Asking questions about the concept of the interior of Karlštejn Castle, its function, and the related interpretation of its decorations are among the constitutive themes of Czech art-historical medievistics. The question has been, and will continue to be, addressed from many different perspectives and from various methodological positions. This article attempts to at least partially answer questions on the basis of material and technological analyses of the decoration procedures used. Its main results include evidence of the uniform character of the plastic decoration of the Church of the Virgin Mary and the Chapel of St. Catherine, a relativizing idea of significantly earlier origins of the Relic Scenes compared to other decorations of the Church of the Virgin Mary. In both the Chapel of St. Catherine and the Church of the Virgin Mary, many motifs are also repeated, even though some procedures remain specific. For example, the use of decors applied and brushed directly on the decorated area with a modelled brush appears exclusively in the Chapel of St. Catherine. The second key contribution of the article is mapping the individual stages of decoration in the Chapel of St. Catherine. The oldest element is the pictures in the altar niche. In the second phase, the inlay of the lower strip of walls and the inlaid framing of the portal, windows, and altar niche emerged. At the same time, a number of half-figures of Czech earthly saints and apostles in the arcade on the north wall were created. The inlay of the corridor also emerged in this phase, of which only the fragmentary traces at the edges of the secondary plastered walls have survived. Only in the last phase were the walls inlaid to the height of the vaulting, while this modification avoided the strip of the saintly heads. It is only with this last phase that the scene Exaltatio crucis above the chapel portal, which was nevertheless applied to an older painting, is related. Three phases of painting decoration of the vault are also related to the described three phases. In the Chapel of St. Catherine we are therefore following the process that led to the emergence of luxuriously decorated spaces, where the main visual impression was made by generous applications of cut and polished gemstones framed by gold decorative ribbons, stretching from the floor to the gleaming, fully gilded, and embossed relief of the decorated vaulting. The altar wall was dominated by a painting of the Virgin Mary adored by the imperial couple, complemented by the gilded and highly plastic relief elements adorning the picture of the Elevation of the Holy Cross on the opposite wall. The splendor of the room was given the final touch by precious studs and stained-glass windows. Such a supremely decorated chapel would surely constitute a dignified depository for the magnificent relic cross, as was supposed by František Fišer. The question of whether it is possible to assume this gradual transformation took place in the short period between the Roman imperial coronation of Charles and Anna in April 1355 and the consecration of the two chapels at Karlštejn in March 1357, or whether it is rather necessary to expect a gradual process already taking place when, according to everything else, the chapel fulfilled the role of the most important area of the entire castle (i.e. between 1357 and 1365), must remain unanswered for the time being.

Keywords: Karlštejn, murals, technological research, pastiglia, Chapel of St. Catherine

Published: December 1, 2019  Show citation