HANNA KOZACZEWSKA - GOLASZ

AGNIESZKA BERNAÅš

Fourteenth century portals demonstrated differentiated composition and decorations. The basis was architectural decorations. Their main element was represented by reveals with small and varied profiling. They were mounted on a pedestal, and the profiling most frequently ran directly to the archivolt. Columns for statues or pinnacles were placed at the sides of the portal. Several portals were embraced by rectangular frames, in two cases filled with tracery blends. Tracery decorations were also adorned with wimpergs and ogival space over the lintel.

Almost half of the portals have sculptured decorations. The smallest ones include rosettes and decorations in the form of animals and people in the keystone of the archivolt. Only 8 portals had small plant capitals in reveals. Reliefs in tympanums form splendid scenes with numerous people. Only a few of the designed figurative sculptures have survived. It was planned to place them at the sides of reveals and the archivolt, in the archivolt, on the wimperg, and some smaller ones in a concave profile of the reveal – one over another, and in the capital.