Ostrogski Monument, Tarnów Cathedral

The impressive wall-mounted Tarnowski monument commemorates Hetman Jan Tarnowski and his son Jan Krzysztof. Its author was Jan Maria il Mosca, known in Poland as il Padovano. It is made of sandstone while the sarcophagi are made of Hungarian red marble. The monument is two-storied with the upper part dedicated to the Hetman given the appearance of a Greek temple pediment with columns on the sides. Both parts contain rectangular niches for figures of the deceased. They are depicted as sleeping, arranged on the sarcophagi in the so-called Sansovino poses. The wings of the central level contain two allegorical women figures standing: Justice (Iustitia) and Prudence (Prudentia), symbolising the hetman’s virtues. Alabaster reliefs depict his military triumphs. On top is the victorious march from Obertyn after the 1531 victory over a Moldavian voivode Petru Rareş. On the left is a scene of the siege and capture of Starodub in 1535 during the war with Moscow, while on the right is the Battle of Chocim of 1538 with Petru Rareş of Moldavia. The entrance to the Tarnowski burial crypt is at the foot of the monument. The marble monument to Zofia Tarnowska, the wife of hetman Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski, is structurally connected to the Tarnowski monument.

Dedicated to Janusz Ostrogski and his first wife Zuzanna, the Ostrogski monument of 1612–1620 commemorates owners of the city who came after the Tarnowski family. It is made of black and red marble and of alabaster. The Renaissance architecture of the monument is calm and massive. The figural representations refer to the Counter-Reformation, with the central place occupied by the Crucifixion group and the figures of the princely couple kneeling in front of it on the sarcophagus, immersed in prayer as if in perpetual adoration. The personifications of the virtues Faith and Hope stand below them. Above them is a relief depicting the Risen Christ. Prophets occupy an important place: there is Moses with Commandment tablets, John the Baptist calling to repentance as well as David and Daniel with texts of the funeral liturgy; there are also the winged heads of weeping angels and accessories of death: skulls, tibias, extinguished torches and a whole human skeleton with an hourglass and a scythe in bony hands. The authorship is attributed to Jan Pfister of Wrocław or a Netherland artist Willem van den Blocke. The entrance to the Ostrogski crypt is in the southern nave, close to the altar of Our Lady of Sorrows.


 
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