page_title: Chapel of Saint Casimir
section_title: Sculptures of rulers
hierarchical_section_title: Chapel of Saint Casimir / Sculptures of rulers
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Kaplica św. Kazimierza w Katedrze Wileńskiej English: Chapel of St. Casimir in Vilnius Cathedral Lietuvių: Šv. Kazimiero koplyčia
context_page_description: The Chapel of Saint Casimir is a chapel dedicated to Saint Casimir in Vilnius Cathedral. The chapel was built in 1623–36 after Prince Casimir was canonized as saint. It was built and decorated in the Baroque style by Italian sculptors and architects commissioned by Sigismund III Vasa, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. The centerpiece of the chapel is a faux marble altar which holds the silver sarcophagus with Casimir's remains and the painting Three-Handed St. Casimir.
context_section_description: The chapel has eight sculptures of rulers that stand in marble niches in the four corners. At about 2.2 m (7 ft 3 in) in height, the sculptures are taller than life size. They are carved from wood and plated in silver. They were carved with particular attention to individualized details: attributes of power, clothes, facial details, hand gestures, and poses (they are turned a bit to the left or the right so they face the main altar better). The author, date of creation, and identity of the figures are unknown and are subject to speculation by art historians.
  The chapel originally had eight pure silver sculptures that measured about 1 m (3 ft 3 in) in height and that were melted during the Deluge (1655–1660), but they stood in the main altar. The marble niches were probably created in 1620s or 1630s but there is no mention that they had any sculptures in them until 1737 when an inventory listed eight wooden sculptures of kings and emperors. According to Marija Matušakaitė, the sculptures are of late Baroque style and should be dated the second quarter of the 18th century. The first claims that the sculptures depict Polish kings were recorded in a 1828 report of canonical visitation and in a 1835 book on the history of Vilnius by Michał Baliński. This theory of the Jagiellonian kings gained popularity and in 1878 the names were written in gilded letters on the postaments: Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila) (reigned 1386–1434), Władysław of Varna (1434–1444), Casimir IV Jagiellon (1447–1492), Saint Casimir, John I Albert (1492–1501), Alexander Jagiellon (1501–1506), Sigismund I the Old (1507–1548), and Sigismund II Augustus (1548–1572). At some point, Lithuanian historiography replaced Władysław of Varna with Władysław IV Vasa (1632–1648). The writings since has disappeared, but these names are often cited.
  Not all researchers agree with the traditional identification. Already in 1840 Józef Ignacy Kraszewski proposed that the sculptures depict royal saints but the sculptures have no symbols or attributes of sainthood. The sculptures are too detailed and personalized to depict abstract royals or saints. Matušakaitė suggested that one of the sculptures depicts Vytautas, Grand Duke of Lithuania (1392–1430), and not Władysław of Varna or Władysław Vasa. Mindaugas Paknys noted that two sculptures wear imperial crowns (other researchers considered them grand ducal caps as they are visually very similar) and suggested that they depict Camimir's grandfather Albert II of Germany, elected but not crowned King of the Romans, and Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, who raised orphaned Casimir's mother. According to Paknys, the other six sculptures depict Casimir's immediate family: grandfather Władysław Jagiełło, father Casimir, and brothers Vladislaus, John Albert, Alexander, and Sigismund.
caption: One of the eight sculptures of rulers traditionally identified as John I Albert
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