The Main Altar

The main altar comes from the years 1766-1770. The sculptural parts were made by Maciej Polejowski with Jan Obrocki, the gilding by Maciej Miller and Jozef Lukaszewicz. It was restored twice, in 1988 and in 1999-2001; it was completely conserved by Jan Wilkojec and his team in 2008.

The altar was built on a projection adapted to the polygonal form of the chancel closure, single-axial, on a high doubled base, single-storey, with a finial. Built with a line of composite pilasters broken at the sides towards the front and columns set against them, with clearances at the sides of the central field, opening onto windows in the diagonal walls of the chancel closure. Supported by a prominent, strongly broken beam.

The finial was built with pillars and volutes, closed with a profiled arcade, with an openwork field opening onto the central window of the closure, filled in the upper part with a radial gloria with the hierogram MARYA. The main field was made in the form of a niche closed with a basket arch, in which a small retable of silver plate was set, composed of columns supporting the sections of the beam, forming the so-called “Domus Sapientiae”. In the retable there is a painting of Our Lady with Child (Our Lady of Grace, also known as Our Lady of Domagalicz) by Jozef Szoltz-Wolfowicz, tempera on board, 1598, with the painter’s signature: JOZEF WOL\FOWIC | PINXIT (originally an epitaph painting of Catherine Domagaliczowna). The painting was conserved by Stanisław Kaczor-Batowski in 1904, Jozef Nykl in 1978-1983 and Anna Kostecka in 1996. The painting is set in a silver canted frame of complex design, dating from the third quarter of the 18th century, with associated cloth and crowns, made by Piotr Chalier, 1773-1775, gold set with precious stones. On the veil, a painting of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, by painter Antonio Tavellio, oil on canvas, 1778, conserved by Ewa Wilkojc and Justyna Wyszkowska-Bascik in 2005.

On the sides, on consoles between the columns, are sculptures of St Augustine, St Gregory the Great, St Ambrose and St Jerome. On the beam, on the volutes, sculptures of kneeling angels. Also, in the upper part of the retable, sculptures of angels. Ornament rocaille. The antependium dates from the end of the 19th or beginning of the 20th century, restored in 2009 by Marianna Kwiatkowska of Lviv under the direction of Jan Wilkojec, textile, embroidered with beads, with hierogram M on the axis and rosettes on the sides.

Source: Latin Cathedral in Lviv, Collective work edited by Prof. Jan Ostrowski, Krakow 2013.

Gigapixels

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