|
The majority of the collection of Medieval Art is exhibited in the Gallery of National Museum in Warsaw. The less valuable objects, made in local, sometimes provincial workshops are kept in the store. There richly represented are panel paintings, sculptures from the late Gothic period, mainly from XV/XVI century. This category includes pieces deriving from the churches’ interiors: crucifixes mounted on the mensa, monumental figures of Crucified Christ primarily placed on the rood-beam of the church, representations of the Pieta or Christ in Distress intended for individual cult, votive paintings originally placed in naves and chapels but most of all the retabulas, among of which most are preserved only partially or in fragments like wing panels or predellas. The most objects that have survived to present times are Figures of Virgin and the Child or saints, which were intended for retabulas. Sculptures placed in retabulas reviled the scene of Sacra Conversazione symbolising existence in heaven. The objects although incomplete give us the idea of many different artistic interpretations of local masters and workshops.
|