Black “Marble”: The Characteristic Material in the Baroque Architecture of Cracow (Poland)

Abstract

The oldest examples of architectural use of Polish black limestone date back to the late 16th century. The rock was commonly applied starting from the beginning of the 17th century, both as a structural and decorative stone used above all in tombstones and epitaph tablets, but also in fragments of altars, inner and outer portals, railings, floor slabs, baptisteries, even whole chapel interiors, etc. The rock became so popular because it is very suitable for being polished, resulting in glassy, mirror- like surfaces. The black, solemn colour was thus a perfect choice in the Counter Reformation period. The sculptors working in Dębnik, where the quarries were situated, and in Cracow, the then capital of Poland located nearby, produced countless works of small-scale architecture that spread all over the Commonwealth of Two Nations, as Poland was called. In terms of its territorial range, Poland was then the largest country in Europe, reaching the Dnieper and the Dvina to the east; and it consisted of two united parts, i.e., the Crown lands of proper Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. As a result, examples of the use of the Dębnik limestone are so numerous that in the Polish history of art the 17th and 18th centuries have been given the name “the period of the black marble”. It should be added that artifacts made of the Dębnik limestone were widely exported to the neighbouring countries. Today they can be found, e.g., in Germany (Frankfurt am Main) and Austria (Vienna, Graz, Salzburg) (Rajchel 2004 ; Niemcewicz 2005 ).