In Central Europe, churches’ furniture dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries may often be a source of very interesting curiosities. For example, let’s take a look at pulpits: they sometimes had extremely weird shapes, as well as complex theological meaning. Some time ago I wrote about whale-shaped pulpits…
One of the most surprising ancient sculptures in the collection of Louvre in Paris is probably Sleeping Hermaphroditus – it is a Roman marble statue, and a copy after lost bronze Hellenistic Greek sculpture (dating back to mid-second century B.C., mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his “Natural History”). It…
On January 20th, 1320, the coronation of Ladislaus I the Short took place in the Cracow cathedral (or, to be more specific, in its ruins after a huge fire). From this day, subsequent kings of Poland were crowned in that particular place, the only exceptions being Stanisław Leszczyński (king of Poland…
Cracow Cathedral on Wawel hill is one of the most important churches in Poland; it is a great gothic building, created (in present form) in the 14th century. Unfortunately, even in case of such a high-profile investment (also in political terms), and in spite of spreading its completion for several…
In case of some artworks something just went wrong, in spite of the artist’s good intentions. There are some artworks that may just be summed up with one sentence: “what have been seen cannot be un-seen”. I believe that this is exactly the case: a sculpture from the Holy Spirit…