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Candlestick with a kneeling angel This is a polychrome wooden sculpture depicting a kneeling angel with a candlestick in his left hand. The figure is dressed in a long dark green tunic and a brown coat. The sculpture was found in the destroyed chapel of St. Kunegunda on Boczaniec, on the 1st level of the Wieliczka Salt Mine. |
Did you know that Lorenzo Lotto and adversities Adoration of the Child was shown in Kraków for the first time in 1882. Under the painting, there is a plate with the name of the author — Gaudenzio Ferrari. As it turned out later, the exhibition organised as part of a charity campaign by Katarzyna Potocka contributed not only to increasing the funds of the Charitable Association… |
Torah shield Rectangular, closed with a trifoliate arch, with the figures of Moses (on the left) and Aaron (on the right), and the Decalogue tables (in the middle), with the initial words of the commandments engraved in Hebrew. The figures of Moses and Aaron are flanked by spiral columns. On their plinths are Hebrew inscriptions marking the date: on the right plinth, תקס ("560"), on the left: לפק (“according to the abbreviated calculation”) [=1800]. In the three-leaf top, three openwork crowns with colourful glasses are attached. |
Parochet — curtain that covers the Torah Ark Beautiful curtain that covers the Torah Ark altar in the synagogue, produced in New York shortly before the outbreak of World War II and brought to Poland by Mr. Zvi, son Johoszua Lehr. |
Wall-mounted figure “Pietà” The figurine comes from an Orthodox church in Dubno, a village located near the Slovakian border, to the south-east of Muszyna. It is one of the few examples of folk Orthodox church sculptures in the collection of the Museum in Nowy Sącz. It is worth noting that it was made by a highly skilled folk artist. |
Sculpture “St. John of Nepomuk” The figure of “St. John of Nepomuk” was made from a single piece of wood (it is not hollowed out). It was found in the River Raba. |
Painting “St. Kinga praying in the mountains” by Jan Matejko St. Kinga was presented in art in two ways – as a young person in a rich princess’s costume or as an older nun in the Poor Clare habit. Jan Matejko made a deliberate statement of both conventions and portrayed St. Kinga at the age of around 60, in the princess’s robe and with attributes referring to her life at the Poor Clares Monastery (prayer book, crosier, view of the Monastery in Stary Sącz). The model for the character was Countess Katarzyna Adamowa Potocka, known from another portrait painted by Matejko – this time in a contemporary outfit. |
Salt sculpture “St. Barbara” The sculpture was carved in green salt and represents Saint Barbara. The figure stands on a cubic pedestal. |
Sculpture “St. Anna” from 16th century The Renaissance sculpture depicts a woman standing. Her right hand, which has not survived to this day, pressed a book to her chest; with the left one she holds a coattail. |
Did you know that The wonderworking Images of the Holy Virgin In many Polish Catholic homes, an image depicting the Holy Mary still occupies the most honourable place in the house. The belief in the miraculous power of a Marian image has survived to this day in many communities, especially rural ones. People pray to Mary every day, but also in times of danger, asking for support and protection... |
Did you know that Feretron Feretron (a procession float) derives from the Greek pheretron, meaning “litter” (in Latin feretrum — litter, bier, stretcher). It is an object akin to a stretcher, often with additional rods, formerly used in ancient Greece to carry the statues of deities. Feretron is a term applied to a special type of paintings or sculptures depicting the images of saints, set on special platform, which were once used in processions during ecclesiastical ceremonies and also as a portable altar during pilgrimages. |
Did you know that Wayside crosses and chapels Wayside wooden crosses were usually several metres high. With time, the wood decayed and had to be dug in again; this was usually done after All Souls’ Day. This action was repeated until the cross became quite small. Chapels and crosses, which were an expression of... |
Shrine with the Senju-Kannon Bosatsu figure The portable shrine with the image of Senju-Kannon Bodhisattva (Japanese: Bosatsu) was made with the use of the most valued techniques, and the precision of the fine exposure of details emphasises the high class of the exhibit. |
Retable of the chapel The retable was purchased for the Museum in 1981. For many years, it had been stored in an attic with hay. Originally, the retable came from a chapel in Falkowa near Nowy Sącz. It is an example of provincial woodcarving. |
Torah crown Six-arched, closed, covered with a canopy with a small crown and a bunch of flowers at the top. The profiled rim, decorated with two appliqué, openwork bands. The crown arches, alternated with figures of birds, are in the shape of lions standing on their hind legs with the front legs resting on narrow, flat bands in the form of a twig supporting the canopy with a drapery in the shape of leaves. |
Sculpture “St. Onuphrius” The sculpture originates from a wayside shrine and represents St. Onuphrius the hermit. The massively built saint is kneeling with his hands folded at the chest in prayer. He is naked, with his body covered only with his long hair and a beard with a surface underlined with carved undulating lines. He has a broad face, hair with a parting across the middle of the head, a straight long nose, opened eyes and lips surrounded by facial hair. |
Sculpture “Madonna of Krużlowa” The figure passes as the most perfect sculptural work of art of the so-called Beautiful style epoch (around 1400) within the Małopolska region. A repertoire of forms elaborated previously in stone sculptures was transformed into a wooden sculpture (so-called Beautiful Madonnas); characteristic cascades of folds at the sides, frontal folds running through Mary’s torso at a semicircle, shaping the letter V below, and even lower, on a pedestal spreading widely, as an optical base of the figure. |
Torah mantle (Meil) from the synagogue in Szumsk near Krzemieniec The cover in the form of an elongated rectangle was hand-sewn of a fabric with a tiny geometrical and floral design. On the obverse, in the cartouche, taking on the form of a laurel wreath, there is an embroidered donative inscription which reads: זנ | אשה צנועה | מרת הינדא ז”ל | בת הרב המ הג’ | מ’ שמואל כץ שנ’ | תעג לפק |
Sculpture “St. Stanislaus” (“St. Martin of Tours”?) The sculpture was made of polychrome and gilded lime wood. It presents the Saint in bishop’s robes, in a lively position: his body is slightly turned to the left and bent, his left leg lunged. The bishop is holding the hem of the coat in his right hand. With his left hand, he is picking up a man with a moustache from the ground, dressed in a short hooded coat and trousers, depicted in a reduced scale. |
Hanukkah lamp from Samuel Roth's shtibl This unusual Hanukkah lamp was set on a wooden base, in the middle of which there is a small wall made of two planks, reinforced with another plank and a metal plaque on the back. To the front of the wall, a cast-iron chandelier is fixed. |