Late Gothic Triptych

The Master of the Gościszowice Altar established a large workshop active in Silesia around Żagań and Szprotawa. The workshop primarily produced altarpieces, typically consisting of sculpted central parts, wing fronts, and predellas, along with painted wing fronts. Altarpieces associated with the workshop of the Master of the Gościszowice Altar include retables from Sulechów (1499), Wichów (circa 1500, in the parish church in Mirocin Średni); Gościszowice and Dzikowice (circa 1505), Konin Żagański and Kościan (1507); Chichy (1512, in the parish church in Bukowina Bobrzańska; Konin Żagański (1514); Chichy (1516) and Mycielin (circa 1520).

The influence of the workshop extended not only to northwestern Silesia but also to Greater Poland and the vicinity of Dresden (the retable in Lomnitz). Several retables in Brandenburg show stylistic connections with the painted works of the workshop (retables in Lindenau, Oppelheim, Priessen, Riedebeck, Schoenborn, Trebitz).

In the central part of most retables, there is a depiction in the type of Sacra Conversazione, which is a three-person group consisting of Mary with the Child and two saints. Single figures of saints often also fill the wing fronts of the altarpieces (Polyptych from Gościszowice). The preference for such a composition of the main opening of the retable indicates the workshop’s firm traditionalism. Narrative scenes appear mainly in the painted panels of the reverse wings, and sometimes also in the main panels (The Dormition of Mary in the Retable from Chichy from 1516, The Last Supper in the Triptych from Mycielin), on the wing fronts (Triptych from Chichy from 1512), and more often in the predellas (The Adoration of the Magi in the Triptych from Chichy from 1516, the so-called Great Holy Family in the Triptych from Gościszowice and the Triptych from Chichy from 1512).

The traditionalism of the Master of the Gościszowice Altar’s workshop is also revealed in stylistic analysis. The master essentially repeats one female and one male physiognomic type, devoid of psychological expression, differentiated only by headgear and, in the case of men, beard and hairstyle. The proportions of the figures in the main panels are correct, while on the wings, they are somewhat too squat. In narrative scenes, there is a lack of developed spatial depth, with figures set on a single plane, and in multi-figure scenes, they are stacked. The folds of the drapery are sharply broken, sometimes forming decorative, picturesque arrangements. In the sculpted parts, influences of South German and Silesian sculpture, especially the Wrocław circle of Jakob Beinhart, have been noted. The linear character of the paintings suggests, according to researchers, that they were executed by a sculptor. The painted parts show the influence of the work of Nuremberg painters (Michael Wolgemut, the Wrocław works of Hans Pleydenwurff) and an anonymous Wrocław painter known as the Master of the Years 1486-87.

Author: Grażyna Jurkowlaniec, Institute of Art History, University of Warsaw, March 2002