Prace warsztatu Thomasa Weissfeldta wykonane do kościoła pw. Narodzenia NMP w Psarach pod Oławą. Przyczynek do badań nad rzeźbą wrocławską początku XVIII wieku
Works of Thomas Weissfeldt's workshop made for the church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Psary near Oława. Contribution to the research on Wrocław sculpture from the beginning of the 18th century

Summary/Abstract: The perennial studies on the work of Thomas Weissfeldt, an outstanding representative of Baroque sculpture in Silesia, have brought about reconstruction of the major part of his oeuvre. Nonetheless, yet another execution may be related with his workshop, namely part of the outfit, completed in 1713, designed for a church in Psary near Oława (main altar, pulpit, two figures attached to the wall and sculpture in the portal). The temple’s donator was Johann Adrian von Plencken, imperial secret counsellor of the Royal Chamber, also engaged in financial support for the furnishings of the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God Church in Wrocław. His donation financed also the commission of the church main altar from Weissfeldt. Most probably thanks to these connections the Wrocław master was also commissioned for execution of elements of furnishing in the church in Psary – von Plencken’s main estate.Despite the lack of surviving contract agreement the authorship of the sculptures from Psary can be confirmed by a comparative analysis. The discussed figures bear a distinctive formal resemblance with Weissfeldt’s works from Our Lady’s Assumption Church in Kamieniec Ząbkowicki and St. Erasmus and St. Pancras Church in Jelenia Góra. The analogies may be found not only in compiling compositional concepts, but also in characteristic elaboration of a detail. Ornamental decoration serves as an additional attributive argument as they are relevant to the decoration set applied by Weissfeldt. Lower level of the very execution of some sculptures suggests that the figures from Psary are works of the workshop with the master’s minimal participation.The sculptures from Psary appear to be an interesting output which allows us to look at Weissfeldt’s oeuvre regarding not only his most outstanding executions, but also his workshop’s production. These latter have not received enough scholarly attention so far, and this is why the Wrocław workshop’s description is incomplete. Moreover, the Ecce Homo figure sculpted in stone, indicaes that Weissfeldt – in contrast to current suggestions known from the reference literature – did not limit himself to carve in wood. It is an important remark in view of attempts at defining the sources of the original style of the Wrocław master’s output, which sources still remain at the stage of hypotheses.

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