Cytaty strukturalne i zapis współczesności. Rzeźba sakralna Elżbiety Szczodrowskiej-Peplińskiej w kontekście posoborowej aranżacji wnętrz zabytkowych kościołów Trójmiasta

Abstrakt

Elżbieta Szczodrowska-Peplinska (1921-2009) was an interesting artistic personality in the Gdańsk environment of the last fifty years. A significant place in the sculptor s output is occupied by sacred works, mainly in the historical church interiors in Tricity: the Church of St Francis of Assisi (1965-1975, 1968), the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1971), the Church of St Andrew Bobola (1972), the Church of St Bridget (1974, 1976-78, 1986), the Church of St James in Oliwa. The last large set of works by this artist is found in the modern Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St Peter the Fisherman in Gdynia (1990). It must be emphasized that most of her interior design projects were created in the years immediately following the Second Vatican Council, in the initial period of the implementation of the new concepts of the Catholic church interior design.

In the works created by Szczodrowska, largely distanced from modern trends in the development of sculpture and preserving her stylistic individuality, one may indicate inspirations in the form of structural quotations, which relate her to old, mainly Gothic and Renaissance, art. Szczodrowska’s works excellently match the framework of the historical architecture of Pomeranian churches (Gothic, neo-Gothic, neo-Baroque), thus constituting a model example of a harmonious stylistic coexistence.

From the 1980s onwards, Elżbieta Szczodrowska-Peplińska worked outside the official circulation of art; and by the end of her life she almost completely gave up creative work due to a family tragedy. Perhaps for that reason, during just a few years since her death the artist has been forgotten, her lay output (most of which has never been recorded) has been dispersed, most often hidden in private collections, while the sculptural arrangements in sacred interiors have gradually become incomplete and replaced with works found more suitable by the following parish administrators.

The objective of the present paper is to bring back the memory of this interesting sculptor and to attempt an analysis of her output in the context of the historical form of church architecture and the need to adapt the church interior to the requirements of the reformed liturgy.