13 June – 29 October 2023
Fot. Wojciech Rogowicz
Curators of the exhibition: Piotr Oszczanowski, Barbara Andruszkiewicz
The exhibition showcases two impressive works by the sculptor Johann Georg Urbansky, who was educated in Prague and worked in Wrocław in the first three decades of the 18th century.
These sculptures were created almost at the same time for the places of worship belonging to the two main religions in the capital city of Silesia – the Catholic Cathedral of St John the Baptist, and the Lutheran church of St Mary Magdalene in Wrocław.
The first, a group of life-size figures originally placed on the baluster of the presbytery in Wrocław Cathedral, represent four Church Fathers – St Ambrose, St Augustine, St Gregory and St Jerome – are works of world class, highly expressive as well as elegant and refined. The entire set successfully survived the Second World War, however nowadays is divided between Wrocław and Stężyca (in the Lubelskie voivodeship).
The other work is (or rather was) an organ screen, once adorning the Church of St Mary Magdalene, dismantled at the end of the 19th century, and whose sculpted decorative elements were transferred to the old Museum of Artistic Crafts and Antiquities in Wrocław. Although only its mere remainders have survived, it still gives us some idea about the scale of the work of the artist.
* Every hour on the hour there is a short concert performed by angels at the exhibition!
Realiz. A. Kowalów, A. Ziemlanska
Realiz. Sabin Kluszczyński