Interpretacja jako inspiracja? Dekoracja drzwi do kruchty katedry poznańskiej

Abstract

In the southern porch of the Poznań cathedral there is a swinging door etched in

bronze and brass, made in 1972. Together with a bronze bas-relief placed above, it

was the most important element of the decoration of the passage from the residence

of Poznań archbishops to the cathedral. Both artworks were made by Ireneusz Daczko

and Bogdan Fijałkowski – graduates of the Poznań Academy of Fine Arts. Their

project was inspired by Rev. Stefan Tomaszkiewicz, who supervised construction

work in the cathedral, and Rev. Bolesław Dzierwa, involved in the restoration of the

cathedral in Gniezno. Both priests developed an original iconographic program of 

the porch decoration, based upon angelistic, christological, and mariological symbolism

and texts in Polish, Latin, and Greek.

The figures of archangels Gabriel and Michael in the door panels have a border

with inscriptions, monograms, angels, and zoomorphic motifs, and objects intertwined

with climbing plants. The decoration of the door and the bas relief showing

the Assumption of Mary includes many references to the liturgy of the breviary,

and points to the clergy as the recipients of the ideas represented in the porch iconography.

The main argument of the paper is that the iconography of the Poznań door derives

from the texts by Lech Kalinowski and, above all, Zdzisław Kępiński, who in his

article, “The Symbolism of the Gniezno Door,” was the first to emphasize the significance

of the border and the connection of its decoration with the correspondent figural

panels of the bronze Gniezno door.