Autorstwo architektury kościoła św. Anny w Krakowie a problem twórczości architektonicznej Baltazara Fontany
Authorship of the Architecture of St Anne’s Church in Kraków versus Architectural Activity of Baltazar Fontana

Summary/Abstract: Authorship of the Architecture of St Anne’s Church in Kraków versus Architectural Activity of Baltazar Fontana The hypothesis associating the authorship of the architecture of St Anne’s Church in Kraków with Baltazar Fontana is based on source records that were erroneously copied, wrongly translated, and therefore improperly interpreted. The mention in Andrzej Buchowski’s study of Fontana as the architect of the church’s dome, in compliance with a correct copy cannot be transposed onto the whole building. Furthermore, the word architectus used there does not necessarily mean the design author, since it is known from other sources that the design as such was prepared by Franciszek Solari and completed with additional measurements of the dome of SS Peter and Paul’s Church, which St Anne’s Church quite faithfully imitates. The mentions in the workshop book as related to the import of the designs of stucco decoration, which according to Karpowicz confirmed Fontana’s authorship, were also incorrectly interpreted. In fact, they do not relate to the import of designs from Fontana in Olomouc, but to them being imported from Warsaw, to be later sent to Moravia (though not to Olomouc but to Kromieriz). The drawings, most likely executed in Warsaw (possibly by the painter Jerzy Eleuter Szymonowicz-Siemiginowski), were later dispatched to the stuccoist so that he could become acquainted with them prior to launching the work. Moreover, the attribution of the model of the towers’ cupolas of St Anne’s Church to Fontana should be rejected, since both its form and written sources point to it having been created possibly shortly before the execution in 1775.It has to be emphasized that there are no premises allowing to suppose that Fontana had been involved in creating St Anne’s Church prior to beginning decoration works. The issue of the architecture authorship of the church in question is particularly pressing since it has become an essential argument in attributing other works of large and small architecture to the stuccoist. Therefore Fontana’s authorship of the works attributed to him without any proof in the sources, merely on the grounds of a general resemblance, has to be questioned. This, however, does not exclude the likelihood that Fontana independently designed stucco decorations and even arranged whole church interiors.

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