Chrystus Pantokrator na gemmie bizantyńskiej z kościoła pw. NMP Królowej Polski w Kruszynie

Abstrakt

The Byzantine gem with Christ Pantocrator as a small object was set secondarily in the late‑Gothic ostulatory dated to the 1st half of the 16th century, preserved in the Church of Virgin Mary Queen of Poland in Kruszyn and now deposited in the Diocesan Museum in Włocławek, Northern Poland. Its material was identified as amethyst and its dating varied from the late 11th c. to the early 13th c. The gem constitutes a valuable addition to the large collection of similar works linked generally with Constantinople workshops, which are now dispersed throughout entire Europe. It is also an evidence of the attachment to one of the most important representation types in Christian art that was recalled in the disputes regarding the legitimization of creating God’s images carried from the dawn of Christianity.

Some similar works of art are preserved inter alia in the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade, in the Great Lavra Monastery on Mount Athos, and in the Moscow Kremlin. What needs to be remembered is the fact that such works were plundered during the 4th Crusade, while their masses translocated to Venice where they became objects of imitations. Finally, the gems from the Middle Byzantine period were commonly used secondarily and, like in the case of ancient gems, they were embedded in new frames for their „second life”. Being tiny objects easy to translocate, they rarely boast credible certificates. The gem indicated in the title of this paper constitutes a valuable addition to the large collection of similar works linked generally with Constantinople workshops, now to be found all over Europe.