Art in the Service of Post-Tridentine Religious Confraternities in the Collegiate Church of St. John the Baptist in Skalbmierz in the Diocese of Kraków

Abstract

Until the 18th century, Skalbmierz, now a small, provincial town, was one of the important cities in Lesser Poland. Since the 13th century, there has been a collegiate church dedicated to John the Baptist (today the parish church) in the city center. In the 17th and 18th centuries, six confraternities were documented there: Litteratorum seu Beatae Virginis Mariae, Compassionis, St. Anne, two Rosary Confraternities, and the Holy Trinity. This essay examines the form, iconography, and function of the preserved and documented furnishings and liturgical paraments that were commissioned by these confraternities for their devotional practices. These images, altarpieces, and objects of refined metalwork will be discussed in the context of similar items commissioned by confraternities in the Diocese of Kraków. The essay then analyzes the influence of Kraków’s confraternities in establishing the confraternities in Skalbmierz and their patronage of the arts.