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Killing of a Franciscan Friar

Szymon Czechowicz

Basic information

ID: Ж-6141
Author: Szymon Czechowicz
Name: Killing of a Franciscan Friar
Date of creation: mid-18th c.
Country: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions: 170 x 101 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: religious
Plot: Life of Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen
Provenance: Lviv Historical Museum
Exposition: Zhovkva Castle

Information about author

Author: Szymon Czechowicz
Author in the original: Szymon Czechowicz
Artist's lifetime: 1689–1775
Country: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Biography: Szymon Czechowicz was born in an impoverished noble family in Krakow on July 28, 1689. He became an orphan at a young age. Thanks to the support of his patron and philanthropist Franciszek Ossolinski, the artist went to Rome, where he studied painting at the Academy of St. Luke under the guidance of Carlo Maratti. The first professional works of the artist were copies after famous painters, such as Rubens, Van Dyck and others; the artist drew upon their iconographic compositions. In 1765, at the invitation of Waclaw Rzewuski, he arrived at Pidhirtsi Castle in the Lviv region; by 1767, Czechowicz created 107 works that became part of the castle interior and a kind of the first museum of the artist. During the last period of his life, Szymon Czechowicz worked in Lithuania and Warsaw, where he opened his own art studio. The painter died on July 21, 1775. He was considered to be one of the best artists of the Baroque era in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Among the master's creative legacy, there are portraits and monumental paintings on sacred themes.

Object description

This is a multi-figure dynamic composition, in the center of which there is a kneeling monk; he is dressed in a brown robe girded with a thick cord with a hanging prayer rope on it. The monk's hands are raised up and to the sides. The monk is surrounded by five armed men with raised swords and daggers. One of the attackers on the left, who is dressed in white shorts and trousers, as well as a camisole and a wig, strikes the monk in the chest with a short spear. Some of the characters are dressed in traditional Swiss clothes with specific large white collars. Elements of architecture (it may be a temple) serve as a background of the painting.

Portrayed person