Page:Cracow - Lepszy.djvu/159

 ART FROM THE RENASCENCE completed by John Trevano. In its ground-plan, the church has the shape of a cross, with a grand cupola over its centre; the nave is broad, the concentric side aisles extremely narrow. Excellent in its proportions and in the pictorial aspect of the whole, the church impresses us as a perfect work of art.

The splendour of the edifice is best exemplified by the façade, rich in architectural moulding, and adorned with statues and marble wainscoting. Its conception in its organic entirety is still dominated by the spirit of the Renascence. The enclosure in front of the entrance is formed by statues of the twelve Apostles, all in pathetic attitudes, done by Hieronymus Canavesi. To the same period belongs the sepulchral chapel of St. Stanislas in the cathedral (illustration 60). Another sample of baroque style is the Church of St. Francis of Sales, built by the Jesuit friar, Stanislas Solski, with the probable collaboration of the architect Solari. The architectural moulding consists of strongly projecting cornices, and rich plastic ornamentation of festoons, statues, and obelisks. In the aspect of its façade, this church is evidently closely allied to that described above, but it has one aisle only. The University Church of St. Anne follows next (illustration 61); it was built by Maderna, some time after 1594, on the model of St. Andrea della Valle in Rome, after a project of Peter Paul Olivieri. The structure strictly follows the Roman type, with the cupola over the crossing; the front, flanked by two towers, is richly moulded by columns, pilasters, and niches. The interior of the church is full of exuberant baroque decoration, with its stuccoes, figure paintings, and gildings. There is a row of chapels annexed to the nave, and organically connected with each other by means of a side-passage. The stucco-work and the wall-paintings closely associated with it, were done by the plasterer Balthasar Fontana, called to Poland in 1695, and the painter Charles Dankwart-Fontana, an Italian of Como, came to Cracow after staying for some time in the Court of the Prince-bishop Lichtenstein of Olmütz. Dankwart was a Swede by birth; he came to Cracow from Neisse in Silesia.