Jan Polack. Master of the late Gothic period

Jan Polack, whose name is also recorded in other versions, as well as in the Latin form, “Polonus”,[1] is first mentioned in 1482 in the tax ledger of the City of Munich, where he is listed as a taxpayer. The tax ledgers from earlier years have been lost. During this time, Polack lived in the “innere Stadt Petri” (a district in Munich – translator’s note) where he ran his studio. The first work attributed to him, the poorly preserved Passion frescoes in the choir of St. Wolfgang in Munich-Pipping, dates back to 1479. If one calculates the number of years he spent before as an apprentice, as a youth and as a child, he is likely to have been born in around 1450. He probably married a daughter of the Munich glassmaker Martin before 1484; he supplied Martin with designs until 1515. The Munich guild regulations required members to be married before they were awarded the title of “master” and granted civic rights. In 1485, he became a “Vierer”, the leader or chairman of the Munich painter’s guild, a position to which he was elected fourteen times for two, three or five-yearly periods until the year of his death in 1519. This also testifies to the important role he played in Munich painting during the late Gothic period around 1500. 

From 1485 onwards, Jan Polack completed numerous commissions for the City of Munich, such as the painting of the city gates (including Neuhausertor, Sendlingertor, Angertor and Schiffertor gates), as well as the city hall and fortress towers. Some of these paintings showed scenes from the crucifixion. He carried out gilding work, created decorations for festivals and painted coats of arms, flags and signs. After the altarpieces – the high altarpiece (Figs. 2–7 . ) and the Achatius altarpiece, now lost – were completed for the Benedictine abbey at Weihenstephan between 1483 and 1489, Albert IV of Wittelsbach (1447–1508), Duke of Bavaria-Munich, commissioned him with the production of the high altar retables for the Munich city parish church of St. Peter (Fig. 9 . ), the Franciscan abbey church of St. Anthony (Figs. 20–24 . ) and possibly also for the parish church of St. Arsatius in Ilmmünster (Fig. 26 . ). Albert’s brother, Duke Sigismund (1439–1501), commissioned Polack with the paintings for the chapel at Blutenburg palace. Polack’s studio created three altar retables, as well as other decorative elements (Figs. 16–19 . ). Only a small number of works can be attributed to Polack in the years following 1500. Evidently, he was focused on his work as head of the Lucas painters’ guild, as well as the running of his studio. The year of his death is recorded in an accounts ledger of the city finance department, in which payments are registered to “Jon Poleckenns säligen erben” (“Jon Poleckenn’s blessed heirs”).[2]

The name “Jan Polack” was first discovered in 1908 by the art historian and theologian Michael Hartig (1878–1960) in the Main Bavarian State Archive (Bayerischer Hauptstaatsarchiv) in the accounts ledger of Weihenstephan Abbey. The following year, the Bavarian National Museum (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum) in Munich showed an exhibition of “Old Munich Panel Paintings from the XV Century”. In the catalogue, Hans Buchheit made a first attempt at piecing together a catalogue of possible works by Polack.[3] Since then, nearly all the preserved paintings and frescoes from the period between 1480 and 1519 have been attributed to the newly discovered painter, including over two hundred panel paintings, some of which are double-sided, and 30 frescoes.[4] In 1921, Ernst Buchner (1892–1962) wrote his doctoral thesis on Polack, the “City painter of Munich” under the supervision of the famous Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölfflin (1864–1945) at the University of Munich. His thesis included the first ever presentation of a complete catalogue of the painter’s works, but remained unpublished.[5] Nevertheless, in 1933, Buchner, who was by then Director General of the Bavarian State Painting Collections (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen), published a long article about Polack for the current volume of the Thieme-Becker art encyclopaedia, along with a full catalogue of his works. Since then – not least due to the high regard in which the author is held – this article has unequivocally remained the most important written work on Polack.[6]

Buchner saw a “stylistic relationship” between Polack’s Munich works and important sacred works in Kraków, specifically the “wing panels of the high altarpiece from the former Dominican church in Kraków and other altarpiece panels in the city (the cathedral, the church of St. Catherine)”, and concluded that Polack must therefore have come from Poland: “Comes from Kraków.” In his view, “Polack” was not the artist’s surname (“P’s surname is not known”), but rather a reference to his family history and origins.[7] Buchner included the eleven wing panels of the Passion of Christ and the life of Mary from the Dominican church, which at that time were already housed in the Kraków National Museum (Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie), in his catalogue of works by the artist. He added, however, that there was: “a close stylistic relationship to Polack, but almost no direct involvement by the artist himself”.[8] Today, all these assumptions are being called into question. For many years now, Polish art historians have attributed the panels in Kraków to an unknown artist from the period around 1465.[9] In 2017, Matthias Weniger, who is head of the relevant department at the Bavarian National Museum, and who is responsible for sculpture and painting up to 1550, wrote in the new edition of the “Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon” (General Encyclopaedia of Artists), that to date, there is no evidence that links Polack’s painting to art from Lesser Poland. In his view, it is more likely that the painter followed the tradition of earlier Munich painting and that he referenced art from the Netherlands for his image formulae. There was furthermore no evidence to prove whether his name indicated his country of origin, or whether it had already become a family surname.[10]