Stanisław Samostrzelnik

Stanisław Samostrzelnik (also: Stanisław z Krakowa ( Stanisław from Krakow ), Stanisław z Mogiły ( Stanisław from Mogiły )) ( * 1485 in Krakow, † 1541 in Mogiła (now Kraków ) ) was a Polish Renaissance artists and Cistercian monk of the masterpieces of painting, miniature painting and decorative painting created.

He was the first Polish painter who painted in Renaissance style. Many frescoes in churches in southern Poland come from him. The most characteristic fresco by Samostrzelnik located in Mogila monastery. He also the portrait of Bishop Piotr Tomicki is attributed, which is located in the portrait gallery of Krakow's Franciscan church.

Life

Stanisław Samostrzelnik was the son of Piotr and Anna Samostrzelnik who lived in Krakow in the house of the abbot of the Cistercian Koprzywnica. His father introduced her well crossbows and bows, as the old Polish family name derives from the Latin Samostrzelnik sagittator what crossbow manufacturer means.

After he had passed all the necessary tests, Stanisław Samostrzelnik entered the Cistercian monastery in Mogiła, which was a separate city then and now is part of the working class district of Kraków's Nowa Huta. Thanks to the support of the abbot he was in the monastery hierarchy quickly ascend and soon made ​​illuminated manuscripts to. The first documented chronological information about him is from 1506, when he painted the Klostergewöble. He is mentioned as pictor de Mogiła (painter of Mogiła ). From then on, he used the new name Claratumbensis Stanislaus ( Stanisław of Mogiła ) - derived from the Latin name of the monastery Mogila Clara Tumba ( holy tomb ).

Around 1510 it was awarded the right to live outside the monastery. He moved to Szydłowiec and worked for the city Mr. Krzysztof Szydłowiecki, the castellan of Sandomierz, who was a well-known patron of the arts. Stanisław Samostrzelnik is particularly known for its ornate illuminations in the Book of Szydłowiecki Ancestry Family ( Liber genesos illustris Familiae Shidlovicae ). In the course of his work as a court painter, he carried out numerous small orders for Szydłowiecki family and painted the local church and castle. He served from 1510 to 1530 as chaplain of the castellan. From his patron he received in 1513 the rectory in Grocholice near Ćmielów. In 1514 he moved with Szydłowiecki after Opatów and after his death in 1532 he went back to Mogiła.

After his return, he founded his own workshop in Krakow Świdniecka street where he took orders from the local patricians, the clergy and the royal court - including the Prayer Book of Queen Bona Sforza. For Bishop Piotr Tomicki he decorated the list of bishops of Gniezno by Jan Dlugosz ( Catalogus archiepiscoporum Gnesnensium ) and the Chapel in Wawel Cathedral. 1534 the bishop gave the decoration of wax figures in his order, which were meant as votive offerings for the most important shrines of the Kingdom. Samostrzelnik decorated the prayer book of the Princess Hedwig Jagiellonica (1535 ), a document of the peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire ( 1533) and the banner for Albrecht Hohenzollern. He also painted religious scenes in the church of Mogiła and painted the ceiling of the adjacent library. Stanisław Samostrzelnik died in Mogila monastery in the year 1541st

Art and style

The main works of Stanisław Samostrzelnik include book of paintings and decorations for prayer books of Sigismund I. (1524, London, British Library ), Queen Bona Sforza (1527, Oxford, Bodleian Library), Krzysztof Szydłowiecki (1527, now divided between the Archivio Storico Civico and the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan) and Vaitiekus Goštautas (1528, Munich University Library ) together with miniatures for Liber genesos illustris Familiae Shidlovicae ( 1531-1532, Kórnik Kórnik library of the Polish Academy of Sciences), Catalogus archiepiscoporum Gnesnensium ( 1530-1535, Warsaw, National Library of Poland " Biblioteka Narodowa " ) and the Gospel for Piotr Tomicki ( 1534, Krakow, Archbishop's archive).

Characteristic features for Samostrzelniks miniatures are a lively, often contrasting color scheme and a Renaissance style, which refers to Gothic traditions. From about 1520 overt influences German masters such as Albrecht Altdorfer, Lucas Cranach the Elder and Albrecht Dürer be found in his works, as well as influences of the Danube school, which he during his stay in Vienna ( 1515) appropriated as chaplain of Szydłowiecki. In addition to these influences have led to his work but also by Dutch pattern and embellishments as well as, indirectly, the Italian painting by ornamental and heraldic motifs, which he learned during his stay in Hungary in 1514.

Samostrzelniks ornamental paintings combine figurative scenes with ornaments. All these figures do not take up an excessive idealization but are characterized by their high degree of individuality. Usually, they are dressed in period costume and follow thereby depict the tendency of artists to reality.