Tuesday, June 9, 2026

Carpathian Gothic exhibition

 In Cracow (where I happen to be quite often) recently there was an exhibition "Gothic in Carpathian Mountains". There were works from Slovakia and Hungary, although most exhibits were from Polish museums. Some had some Gothic writing on them. Actually I have seen some of the pictures earlier in some other museum in Cracow (for example "Dapifer Cracoviensis"). But some I have not seen before and I reproduce them here.

I realise that an exhibition will not be there forever, but still I found it interesting and I decided to publish it here. I am sure when the exibition is not there anymore, you can find those pictures (and the frames, where the wrting is) in other Polish museums, very likely in Cracow. The pictures are:

Epitaph of Jan of Ujazd, painted around 1450

Madonna Konopków, painted in the 15th century,

Triptich from Opatówek, painted around 1460






















Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Christchurch

 In Christchurch (the British one) there is a big mediaeval church with pictures dating from the time when it was not advisable to have pictures in a church (which was much later than the church was built). These are prayers written in Antiqua calligraphy, framed like pictures and some of them hanged at angle. 

Nowadays there are bigger cities – Bournemouth and Poole – next to it, in fact there is no green area between them, so the three cities form just one agglomeration.





Friday, January 9, 2026

Sevenoaks

Anglican churches in England differ very much from their Catholic counterparts on the continent of Europe. Whereas Baroque Catholic churches are full of figures and paintings, Anglican churches are stark, no figures, no paintings, no reredos. In some churches calligraphy appears as decoration, sometimes on walls (like in Cerne Abbas) and sometimes framed as pictures (like in the Temple church in London or Chichester Cathedral). Sevenoaks parish church is one example of the latter. There are main prayers there hanged as pictures on walls. They are written in Antigua script, but some words in the beginning are written in a script I call the English Fraktur. They are initials similar to Ludwig Neudorfer style, but not quite the same.