The St. Mary’s Altar – work of Veit Stoss is often considered to be the most important piece of art in Poland. Let’s take a closer look at it.

A few words about Veit Stoss himself.

Master Veit Stoss came to Kraków in 1477 – he was 30 years old then. Work on the main altar piece for the Assumption of Mary church was the beginning of his 20 years long stay in Kraków. Unfortunately not all of his works from that time survived and can be admired today, but what matters is that the greatest one made it. In 1496 Stoss had gone back to Nuremberg, where he continued working until 1503 when he ran into trouble with the law by forging a document in attempt to protect his fortune from a fraud. He was sentenced to death, but Emperor Maximilian intervened and the punishment was reduced to branding both cheeks with hot iron. Stoss died in 1533 when the plague reigned over Nuremberg, likely going blind before that. During his time in Kraków Stoss, together with his large family, lived at Grodzka Street, where his workshop was situated. The townhouse he occupied bears a commemorative tablet to this day.

The Altar

St. Mary’s pentaptych is one of the biggest Gothic altar pieces in Europe. In 1442 the ceiling of the church fell down and the old altar was destroyed. After erecting the new, higher presbytery the townsmen decided to also fund a new altar that would reflect the power and wealth of the patriciate.

Veit Stoss’s work is sculpted in lime wood. It’s a so called pentaptych, which means ‘a construction consisting of five parts’. These are the central altar piece and two pairs of side wings – two of them movable and another two fixed. The figures in the center are fully-sculpted while the wings are decorated with reliefs.

The main scene of the altar depicts the Dormition of Mary, according to medieval tradition depicted as a young girl here, who is gently falling asleep held by St. James the Older surrounded by all 12 of the Apostles. Simultaneously she’s being taken to Heaven as depicted above the main scene. On top of the altar piece coronation of the Mother of God to the Queen of Heaven and Earth is taking place – on the sides of this ceremony we can see patron saints of Poland, St. Stanisław and St. Wojciech. So called predella (the lower part of the altar piece that acts as a kind of base for the main scene) depicts Jesse’s tree – the genealogical tree of Mary from the house of David, whose father was aforementioned Jesse.

The side wings of the opened altar depict Mother of God’s six happy moments. Starting with the top left these are the Annunciation, the birth of Christ, along with the adoration of the shepherds and the Magi. On the right from the top there are the resurrection, the ascension and the Descent of the Holy Spirit. In the old days the opened altar was a rare sight available to the public only on holidays, for the rest of the time it remained closed. In its closed state the altar depicts the meeting of St. Joachim with St. Anna in the Golden Gate, the birth of Mary, the presentation of Mary, the taking of Christ in the Olive Garden, Child Jesus preaching in the temple, the presentation of Christ, the Crucifiction, the descent from the cross, the entombment, the harrowing of hell, the three Marys at the Tomb, Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene as a gardener.