Restoration of the Gothic Tomb of Ernest of Pardubice in Klodzko, Poland

Abstract

The tomb of Arnošt of Pardubice is found in the parish church of the Assumption of the Most Holy Virgin Mary in Kłodzko, Poland. Arnošt of Pardubice († 1364) was the first Archbishop of Prague as well as the leading adviser and diplomat to Charles IV. He spent his childhood in Kłodzko, where he also wished to be buried. His tomb represents an outstanding example of sculptural art of the 14th century. Most authors associate the tomb with the Prague workshop of Petr Parléř. The condition of the monument before restoration was highly unsatisfactory. The tomb was damaged several times in the past by Hussite raids and fires within the church, leaving it in a misaligned state. Damage and unprofessional repairs disrupted its appearance and threatened its material basis. The tomb effigy was broken into several parts and the fragments were scattered around the tomb chest, which resulted in the loss of many valuable parts of the sculpture. The project to restore the tomb began in 2016, when the Faculty of Restoration at the University of Pardubice carried out research and began dismantling and securing fragments of the effigy. In 2017, the project continued with the restoration of the limestone tomb chest. It was discovered that during the tomb’s transfer at the end of the 19th century, it was shortened and incorrectly reassembled. For this reason, the tomb chest was completely dismantled and reassembled in a new representative site and in its original size. After the effigy was placed on the tomb chest, it became possible to find several of the larger fragments which had been separated from the effigy for several centuries or were considered lost. Thanks to this, the whole composition and sculpting of this magnificent Gothic artwork became much more legible. Modern technologies and restoration techniques (such as laser cleaning and the reversible bonding of fragments using a combination of two gluing methods) were used for the restoration and survey. It was crucial to conduct a discussion on conceptual approaches to the restoration, one which confronted contrasting views on the resulting presentation of the work based on different cultural environments and traditions of monument care. From the restoration point of view, this was a very interesting and complicated task dealing with the incomplete character of the surviving sculpture and preserving the authenticity of this remarkable monument.