Malowidła Łukasze Raedtke, freskanta 1. połowy XVIII wieku w pocysterskim kościele w Lądzie nad Wartą

Łukasz Raedtke, a convert from the Cistercian abbey at Przemęt would have been one of the first painters to work on commission for the abbey pa-tron, Mikołaj Antoni Łukomski, to decorate the abbey church dedicated to the Virgin Mary at Ląd. Born in or around 1685, he would have entered the Cistercian monastery in 1703 or 1704, while his death is recorded as being 4th March, 1722. Two known self-portraits of Raedtke, preserved in his own frescos at Ląd and Przemęt, depict the painter’s appearance at about 10 and 20 years of age Up until this point, the artist has remained completely absent from Polish art history, while his name has been associated exclusively with the mural paintings at Ląd. It is clear that he was author of the monumental decorative painting carried out around 1720 for the church of St. John the Baptist at Przemęt, in which his frescos decorate the presbytery walls, transept vaulting and canopies of the illusory cupolas. As a result of meagre archival information, Raedtke remains an artist whose biography is hidden beneath the surfaces of his executed works.