Crucifix

Jan Obrocki

Basic information

ID: С-I-1948
Author: Jan Obrocki
Name: Crucifix
Country: Ukraine
Technique: carving polychrome
Material: wood
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 258 x 174

Additionally

Type: sculpture
Genre: religious
Plot: Crucifixion
Provenance: Busk town, Busk district, Lviv region, St. Stanislaus Church

Information about author

Author: Jan Obrocki
Artist's lifetime: c. 1730 – c. 1800
Country: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, now Ukraine
Biography: Jan Obrocki (c. 1730 – c. 1800) was a Lviv sculptor of the second half of the 18th century. He executed his works in wood and stone, and worked in the technique of stucco. The works of the master are characterized by the style of Rococo and early Classicism. Between 1756 and 1757, he was first mentioned in a document about craftsmen who did not belong to the city guilds. In 1764, like some Lviv sculptors, Jan Obrocki was granted the right to wear a sword. It symbolically gave him the same status as the gentry of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and exempted him from the jurisdiction of city guilds. Jan Obrocki decorated three fireplaces with stucco in the palace of Lubomirski princes in Lviv, and made a volumetric sculpture for Castrum doloris for the funeral of Anna Sanguszko Jablonska, which was displayed in the Bernardine monastery in Zaslav. Between 1769 and 1780, the sculptor worked on the interior design of the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Lviv, making sculptures for the altar of St. Trinity and the Transfiguration of the Lord. He carved wooden figures of saints for the church in Busk.

Object description

Around 1779, Jan Obrocki and Ignat Buraczynski made a three-dimensional sculpture of the high altar and pulpit for the Church of St. Stanislaus in Busk. The size of the crucifix from the altar composition was impressive. In all Byzantine monuments, Christ is nailed to the cross with four nails; this iconography remained unchanged in the Latin Church. The Gothic style made changes – Jesus was depicted as nailed with three nails, the majestic and serene state of the saint acquired a naturalistic expression, and the Baroque style added emphatic expression and dynamism to the image. The crucifix from Busk Church shows the exhausted figure of the crucified Jesus on the cross. The body's structure is detailed: thin, muscular arms and legs, a chest with protruding ribs and a spear mark. The main attention is focused on Christ's face: his head is lowered to his chest, his eyebrows are drawn together, his eyes are closed, his nose is elongated and straight, and black strands of hair and beard fall on his chest. The sculpture is characterised by a high degree of emotionality and realism.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Crucifix

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