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THE OLDEST WEB-VAULTINGS IN POLAND Su rnmary

The oidest iweb-vaultings preserved in Poland are to be fouind dtn Silesia: in, the nave of the ohan-cel and the body of St. St. Peter and Paul's Church in Legnica 1380—1390, ill. 1, 2), and, also, in the chan-cel of the church of St. Andrew, (Środa Śląska ca 1390, ill. 3, 4). About a dozen yeąrs later a vault of the saunę type was oooistruicted in the chanoel -of the Daminioam Church in Oraeow (ca 1400—1408, ill. 5—7). The first two wenie the work of Klaius iBrymner, an arohiiteot uesddent in (Legnica. The latter and Klaus Brynner, employed iin the staneHoutterte yard in Pra-gue, 1374, were probably one and the same person. It iseems justafied to assome the vaiult in the said Church in Gracow wais ooustructed under the influence of the web-yaułt&ngs in Silesia.

The design of /the rób-tnetwonk is, in fa-ct, identi-cal dn the sacral buildings menftioned albove. It is oam-posed of tfwio cross-ribs in each bay posdtioned trans-versely to the aoeiis of the church. The vaiulting of fhat in Środa (Śląsika is the ondy one distingudshed by lack of the iriib divićLLng the bays. (Morę proniounced differences are to be noted in the construction of each waulting. The bays of the one in Legnica are thiose characteristic of domical vaults, the remaining two bedingf the podnted foairrel vaiults.

The 'Uniform web-vaulting to (be found in the edifioes idisoussed was not ajpgpiied at any (Langer scalę un/tiil 11440 and differs disitandtly from the ones built by Peter Parler in Prague dn the chaocel of the cathedra! and the torwer of the O Id (Bridge. The th-ree Po-lish web-vaiuitiings are liniked with the wonks of that Prague architect and, especiaUy, with the foliowing of them: the vaiu)liing of the Gathedral of Prague (befare 1(300), the desdgln of the camopy of the sepulehre (ca 1370^11380, 1‘KŁ. 13) lanid with the non-preserved vaul-ting of Ali Saints¹ Chapel in the Castle of Prague (1070—113187, ill. 14), repently recontftructed by V. Kot/r-ba. It dis the latter work that •seams to be the direct model of Klaius Brynner^ we/b-vaulitiings in Silesia.

The uniform wefo-vaiultings were creabed about 1(2/50 in France and (England, probably independently in each of the two counItiri.es. In the west of France it developed within the reach of the so-caMed Ange-vine architecture as a result of enrichment of eight--celled vault. The first web-vaulttngs in France had a domical iconstaidtion, typical of the said architecture. {As early as 1*250 that combination was trans-ferred from France to Bohemia as testified to by the church in Trebić, ill. 15). Nevertheless, they were also designed as pointed^barrel vaults, to mention but the Toussaint Church in Angers (ca 1250, ill. 8, 9). In England they were connected from the very begin-ning (the south-west chapel of the cathedral in Lincoln, 1250), with barrel construction and quite fre-ąuently built in the second half of the 13 th and in the 14th century), the cathedrals of Bristol, Wells, Tewkesbury, York, Peterborough). It seems justified to assume that the impact exerted by English architecture upon Peter Parler’s creative work — as indkated by N. (Pevsner and H. Bock — also embraced vaultings of the type herewith discussed. From 1440 onwards, the uniform web-vaultings were morę freąuently con-structed in Southern Poland and Silesia as welł as in Bolhemia, the south of Germany and in Austria.

Translated by Teresa Swięcka