Transfiguratio-transsubstantiatio. Uwagi o programie krakowskiego kościoła oo. Pijarów pw. Przemienienia Pańskiego

English Title: Transfiguratio-transsubstantiatio. Observations on the iconographical programme of the church of Piarists in Cracow

In: Mazurczak, Małgorzata Urszula ; Patyra, Jowita (Hrsgg.): Obraz i kult. Image and Cult [Materiały z konferencji „Obraz i Kult”, KUL – Lublin , 6-8 października 1999]. Lublin 2002, pp. 65-110

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Translation of abstract (English)

The perfectly preserved programme of the church of the Transfiguration belonging to the order of Piarists in Cracow has never been studied. The church was erected between 1724 and 1728 on the site of a chapel with the same dedication (consecrated in 1685). Its programme consists of four principal elements: the high altar, the tabernacle, the monstrance and the pulpit. The high altar of the church executed "alfresco" by Franciszek Eckstein includes the scene of the Transfiguration being a version of the famous painting by Raphael presently housed in the Vatican Pinacoteca. The theophany is placed in a sort of a niche and ilIuminated by a hidden source of light. Above this scene there are represented God the Father with a triangle nimbus and two flying angels holdinding an inscription with the words uttered by Him during the Transfiguration: HIC EST FILIUS MEUS DILECTUS. The carved tabernacle is topped with the Lamb of God; it also serves as the throne for the monstrance. The latter, which is placed on it only during major feasts, and particularly during the Feast of the Transfiguration (6 August), belongs to the type of radial monstrance with arms. It depicts the teophany on Mount Tabor in a pars pro toto-like marmer as it lacks images of Moses and Elijah while all three apostles – St Peter, St John and St James are placed on a kind of arms benath the glory. The images of God the Father and the Dove of the Holy Spirit are placed over the octogonal "reservaculum" for consecrated Host. The fourth, and at the same time the last element of the programme of the church is the pulpit whose summit is adorned with another representation of the Transfiguration carved again in a pars pro toto-like manner; this time Christ is seen only with Moses and Elijah. The paper presents the Cracow programme on the backdrop of earlier and contemporary representations of the Transfiguration.