The Romanesque sculpture from Nowy Targ Square in Wrocław (Lower Silesia, Poland) in the light of interdisciplinary studies

Abstract

The article discusses the results of interdisciplinary studies of a Romanesque stone head of high-quality artistry. It was discovered in 2017 during excavations at Nowy Targ (New Market) Square in the city of Wrocław (Lower Silesia, Poland). The sculpture originally came from one of the Romanesque sacred buildings of Wrocław, none of which have survived to this day. Although it had been made in the mid-12th century, it was found in the remains of a wooden residential building burnt down in the 14th century. The results of petrographic analyses indicate that the stone head was made of fine-grained sandstone classified as lithic wacke. The raw material was most likely a Devonian-Carboniferous sandstone from the Opava Mountains. However, similar sandstones also occurred in several medieval mines located in Upper Silesia. According to a popular belief, medieval aesthetics required such sculptures to be polychromed. The non-destructive analyses conducted with the microscopic XRF , XRD , and FTIR methods demonstrated that a clean stone surface was also acceptable.