The Artistic Patronage of the Diocesan Clergy in the Zamość Estate in the 17th and 18th Centuries

Abstract

The article is concerned with the patronage of the diocesan clergy in the area of the Zamość estate that was a private magnate dominion with the area of 3.830 km2. The studies were limited to two centuries (17th and 18th), that is the period in which two closely related institutions functioned in that area: the collegiate chapter and the Zamość Academy.

The author understands the idea of patronage very broadly, including in it the whole sphere of the clergy’s founder activity, from small objects (like utensils or canonicals) to great projects, like construction and furnishing churches and chapels.

The present text has been written on the basis of the author’s research into the archives: protocols of the Bishop’s inspections, catalogues, church chronicles that have been confronted with the works of art and other elements of furnishing that have been preserved in various sacred buildings. This allowed identifying many names of clergymen and connecting them to specific works of art and usable objects founded by them. Many of the objects already do not exist today.

In the present study the author distinguishes the following groups of founders: Zamość deans – mitred prelates; prelates of the collegiate chapter; other clergymen (provosts, parish priests, promoters, curates), and he discusses the foundations by particular clergymen within the groups.

The foundations depended on the social-economical situation in the Zamos´c´ estate as well as on the level of particular clergymen’s wealth and education. In the first half of the 17th century rich objects were founded that were on a high artistic level. They were initiated by Zamość mitred prelates and the professors of the Academy who salary was the highest among the clergymen. Because of their high artistic rank most of them survived till now. The period of wars and the destruction they caused in Poland in the second half of the 17th century and at the beginning of the 18th century did not encourage artistic orders. They were revived only in the 1720’s, however, their scale and artistic level were much lower and they did not match the projects of the first half of the 17th century. The cassations of church property done by the invading countries after 1772 considerably limited the clergy’s possibilities to found new objects.