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Adam Kossowski, „Sąd Ostateczny”, 1963, terakota glazurowana, Leyland, kościół St. Mary’s, photo Andrzej Pieńkos, 2013
Licencja: CC BY-SA 4.0, Źródło: Instytut Polonika, Warunki licencji
Fotografia przedstawiająca Bas-relief \'Last Judgement\' in Leyland
Adam Kossowski, „Sąd Ostateczny”, 1963, terakota glazurowana, Leyland, kościół St. Mary’s, photo Andrzej Pieńkos, 2013
Licencja: CC BY-SA 4.0, Źródło: Instytut Polonika, Warunki licencji
Fotografia przedstawiająca Bas-relief \'Last Judgement\' in Leyland
Adam Kossowski, „Sąd Ostateczny”, 1963, terakota glazurowana, Leyland, kościół St. Mary’s, photo Andrzej Pieńkos, 2013
Licencja: CC BY-SA 4.0, Źródło: Instytut Polonika, Warunki licencji
Fotografia przedstawiająca Bas-relief \'Last Judgement\' in Leyland
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ID: POL-001357-P

Bas-relief 'Last Judgement' in Leyland

ID: POL-001357-P

Bas-relief 'Last Judgement' in Leyland

Variants of the name:
„Sąd Ostateczny” w Leyland

The austere façade of the Benedictine church designed by Jerzy Faczyński is enlivened by a large colourful frieze-tympanon above the main entrance. Kossowski's ceramic work, which is the largest in size, refers very generally to the colossal Romanesque tympanums depicting the Last Judgement (which may not be unrelated to the Benedictine foundation), but represents a naive-grotesque stylisation typical of the artist.

Above the church entrances stretches a long inscription: '+He shall come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead + of his Kingdom there shall be no end'. It is also easy to spot the old-fashioned signature of the maker: "Kossowski Fecit A.D. 1963". The symmetry of the monumental scene is marked by a large figure of Christ on a throne, behind which circles of clouds open up with angels blowing trumpets. On the left are the praying Saviours, accompanied by the flying figures of archangels with trumpets; on the right are the fragmented figures of the damned, behind whom stretches the wall of hell, depicted in a manner close to Cubist painting. In the figures of angels, on the other hand, one can perhaps discern echoes of Jan Szczepkowski's stylisation from his famous Parisian chapel of 1925. Some ideas of the deformation of figures and faces, on the other hand, seem to recall Pablo Picasso's solutions from the period of "Guernica" or the monumental Mexican painting of the 1930s and 1940s. The expressive load - appropriate to the subject matter - and the use of geometric simplifications, as well as rhythmization, together with the clearly distributed (also in terms of colour) composition of the huge scene, make this work unique in Kossowski's oeuvre. Much closer to his usual style is his ceramic crucifix, hanging inside a church in Leyland. Despite its various similarities to phenomena of modern world art, 'The Last Judgement' does not give the impression of being incoherent.

Related persons:
Time of origin:
1963
Creator:
Adam Kossowski (malarz, rzeźbiarz; Polska, Wielka Brytania, USA)(preview)
Bibliography:
  • H. Heinsdorf, Angielski kościół i polscy artyści, „Tydzień Polski”, 1964, nr 22 [przedruk w: Sztuka polska w Wielkiej Brytanii 1940-2000. Antologia, red. M.A. Supruniuk, Toruń 2006, s. 163.
  • Adam Kossowski. Murals and Paintings, London 1990, s. 20, 44-46 (il.), 115.
  • Inwentarz Archiwum Adama Kossowskiego, https://www.bu.umk.pl/Archiwum_Emigracji/Kossowski-inwentarz.pdf.
Keywords:
Publikacja:
19.07.2024
Ostatnia aktualizacja:
22.07.2024
Author:
prof. Andrzej Pieńkos
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