Chapterhouse wall decorations

The walls of the chapter house above the stalls are filled with painted images of the Passion of Christ. Their author was the Cracow Baroque artist Jan Koym. The passion scenes are painted exceptionally evocatively, and the colors of the paintings are rich and fresh. The themes of the cycle are closely related to the Stations of the Cross, which are delineated along the stalls. The cycle begins with a painting in the central part of the vault; it is Jesus in the Garden of Olives, to whom an angel hands the cup of martyrdom. Further episodes of the Stations of the Cross are shown below.

The most interesting painting of the cycle is “Jesus at the Sanhedrin” painted above the entrance in the form of a semicircle. It is a visualization of the judgment on Christ. The efendant is surrounded by Caiaphas, Pilate and members of the Jewish High Council, each of them carrying a tablet with the written text of the accusation against Jesus.