DOI issue:
Nr. 2-3
DOI article:Dobrzeniecki, Tadeusz: A Gdańsk panel of the Pitié-de-Nostre-Seigneur: notes on the iconography
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18817#0046
Pietas Christi, which may be traced first of all in the Soteriology of St Paul. His doctrine,
carefully studied and commented upon by Patristic and mediaeval writers,14 is in ecraal degree
theocentric and Cbristocentric one.15 In the work of Redemption the initiative belonged mainly
to God the Father. Actuated by love He established the eternal plan of Salvation, which was
to be fulfilled through the sacrificial death of Jesus. The work of Christ, in which He performs
simultaneously the function of Priest and Victim was, as a matter of fact, a gift of God the
Father, sińce it was He, Who sent His only Son to redeem man and to reconcile mankind with
its Creator through this sacrifice.16 Thus, God the Father exposed before the eyes of the whole
world His Son as a sign of reconcilliation (=propitiatorium), sprinkled with Christ's own blood
and in this way revealed His saving justice (iustitia sahifica).11
Already Orygenes in his commentary upon the sentence of St Paul,18 mcntioned above, en-
closed three basical Christological elements: Invenies igitur ąuoniam in ipso (=Christo) com-
placuit habitare omnem plenitudinem divinitatis corporaliter, esse ipsum et propitiatorium et
pontificem et hostiam, quae offertur pro populo.1®
To the essence of Jesus' Priesthood belongs the mediatorship between God and man, the
ordination Him Priest in the very moment of Incarnation, and the offering by Him the real
sacrifice through His voluntary death on the cross.20 To give these elements pictorial shape
was one of the main tasks of mediaeval art. The artists visualized this connection juxtaposing
two representations — the Incarnated Child, held by the Virgin Mary, and Christ in the moment
of the offering of the sacrifice. It seems worthwhile to recall here two diptychs — the one,
painted by the Master of Flemalle,21 the second — by the Master of the Darmstadt Passion.22
According to the Epistle to the Hebrews Jesus when descending on earth addresses His
Father, Who sent Him, with the words of the Psalmist: Ecce venio in capite libri scriptum est
de me ut faciam Deus voluntatem tuam.23 We come here — beyond any doubt — across an
explanation of the meaning of an iconographical motif known from certain mediaeval Annuncia-
tions: the Child bearing the cross on His arm flows down toward the Virgin as if just let out
by God the Father emcrging from the clouds (Fig. 8).24
14. A. Souter, The Earliest Latin Commentaries on the Epislles of St Paul, Oxford, 1927; W. Affeldt, Yerzeiclmis der Rom er-
briefkommenlare der laleinischen Kirche bis zu Nikolaus von Lyra [in:] Traditio, XIII, 1957, p. 369 — 406; F. Stegmuller,
Repertorium Biblicum Medii Aevi. Commentaria. Auctores, II—V, Matriti, 1950, 1951, 1954, 1955.
15. F. Prat, La theologie de Saint Paul, Paris, 1949; S. Lyonnet, Die paulinische Soleriologie [in:] Einleilung in die HI. Schrift,
II, ed. A. Robert u. A. Feuillet, Wien, 1964, p. 781.
16. Prat, o.c, II, p. 91—4: Volonte salvifique du Pere celeste; 97 —112: Plan da salut des hommes; K. Romaniuk, L'amour
dii Pere et du Fils dans la soleriologie de Saint Paul, Romaę, 1961 (Analeeta Biblica 15) p. 153 — 183: Le salut, initia-
tive du Pere; 184 — 235: La charile du Pere comme motif de sn volonte saleifiąue.
17. Rom. 3, 24, 25.
18. G. Beck, Das Werk Christi bei Origenes. Zur Deulung paulinischer Theologie in Turnpapyrus des Rómerbriefkommentars,
Diss. Bonn, 1966. At Tura near Cairo in 1941 a papyrus was found including among othcr texts a fragment of the
commentary by Origenes on Rom. 1,5 — 5,5.
19. Origenis in Epistulam ad Ronianos Commentariorum pars I [in:] Origenes, Opera Omnia, ed. K.H.E. Lommatzsch, VI,
Berlin 1936, p. 213; Beck, u, p. 174.
20. A. Janssens, "De sacerdotio et sacrificio Christi", Divus Thomas (P), XXXIV, 1931, p. 376 —386; it is reasonable to
recall here the representations of the Crucified with the stole (rex et sacerdos).
21. W. Loewinson-Lessing et N. Nicouline, Les primilifs flamands. Le Musee de VErmilage, Leningrad, Bruxelles, 1965,
No. 108, 5 — 20; W. Kermer, Studien zum Diptychon in der sakralen Malerei von den Anfangen bis zur Mitte des sech-
zehnten Jahrhunderts. Mil einem Katalog, Diss. Univ. Tubingen, 1967, p. 128—133: VI Kap. Die Gegeniiberstellung
Trinitdl-Marienbild.
22. Die Gemdldegalerie der Staatl. Museen in Berlin. Die deutschen und altniederldndisclien Meister, Berlin, 1929, No. 1205/1206.
23. Hebr. 10, 5-7, the quotation is from the Psalm XL, 7-9.
24. A Silesian master active at the close of the XIVth century, sec: Katalog der Gemdlde u. Skulpturen. Schlesisches Mu-
seum der bild. Kiinste, Breslau, 1926, p. 72, No. 128, sec also E. Guldan, "«Et verbum caro factum est». Die Darstellung
der Inkarnation Christi im Verkundigungsbild", Romische Quarlal-Schrift, LXIII, 1968, p. 145 — 169, pl. 27 — a Parisian
Missal of the Und half of the XVth century, Paris, Bibl. Mazarinc, Ms412; pl.29a — Lorcnzo Veneziano, the central
part of a polyptych of 1370, Venice, Ga lleria delTAccademia; pl. 29b the wing of the Crucifixion Altar of ca 1370 — 80
in Netze near Wildungen (Westphalia). For the separate motif of the Child with the cross see J. Plummer, Die Minia-
turen aus dem Slundenbuch der Katharine von Kleve, Berlin, 1966, pl. 37 (Fig. 9).
36
carefully studied and commented upon by Patristic and mediaeval writers,14 is in ecraal degree
theocentric and Cbristocentric one.15 In the work of Redemption the initiative belonged mainly
to God the Father. Actuated by love He established the eternal plan of Salvation, which was
to be fulfilled through the sacrificial death of Jesus. The work of Christ, in which He performs
simultaneously the function of Priest and Victim was, as a matter of fact, a gift of God the
Father, sińce it was He, Who sent His only Son to redeem man and to reconcile mankind with
its Creator through this sacrifice.16 Thus, God the Father exposed before the eyes of the whole
world His Son as a sign of reconcilliation (=propitiatorium), sprinkled with Christ's own blood
and in this way revealed His saving justice (iustitia sahifica).11
Already Orygenes in his commentary upon the sentence of St Paul,18 mcntioned above, en-
closed three basical Christological elements: Invenies igitur ąuoniam in ipso (=Christo) com-
placuit habitare omnem plenitudinem divinitatis corporaliter, esse ipsum et propitiatorium et
pontificem et hostiam, quae offertur pro populo.1®
To the essence of Jesus' Priesthood belongs the mediatorship between God and man, the
ordination Him Priest in the very moment of Incarnation, and the offering by Him the real
sacrifice through His voluntary death on the cross.20 To give these elements pictorial shape
was one of the main tasks of mediaeval art. The artists visualized this connection juxtaposing
two representations — the Incarnated Child, held by the Virgin Mary, and Christ in the moment
of the offering of the sacrifice. It seems worthwhile to recall here two diptychs — the one,
painted by the Master of Flemalle,21 the second — by the Master of the Darmstadt Passion.22
According to the Epistle to the Hebrews Jesus when descending on earth addresses His
Father, Who sent Him, with the words of the Psalmist: Ecce venio in capite libri scriptum est
de me ut faciam Deus voluntatem tuam.23 We come here — beyond any doubt — across an
explanation of the meaning of an iconographical motif known from certain mediaeval Annuncia-
tions: the Child bearing the cross on His arm flows down toward the Virgin as if just let out
by God the Father emcrging from the clouds (Fig. 8).24
14. A. Souter, The Earliest Latin Commentaries on the Epislles of St Paul, Oxford, 1927; W. Affeldt, Yerzeiclmis der Rom er-
briefkommenlare der laleinischen Kirche bis zu Nikolaus von Lyra [in:] Traditio, XIII, 1957, p. 369 — 406; F. Stegmuller,
Repertorium Biblicum Medii Aevi. Commentaria. Auctores, II—V, Matriti, 1950, 1951, 1954, 1955.
15. F. Prat, La theologie de Saint Paul, Paris, 1949; S. Lyonnet, Die paulinische Soleriologie [in:] Einleilung in die HI. Schrift,
II, ed. A. Robert u. A. Feuillet, Wien, 1964, p. 781.
16. Prat, o.c, II, p. 91—4: Volonte salvifique du Pere celeste; 97 —112: Plan da salut des hommes; K. Romaniuk, L'amour
dii Pere et du Fils dans la soleriologie de Saint Paul, Romaę, 1961 (Analeeta Biblica 15) p. 153 — 183: Le salut, initia-
tive du Pere; 184 — 235: La charile du Pere comme motif de sn volonte saleifiąue.
17. Rom. 3, 24, 25.
18. G. Beck, Das Werk Christi bei Origenes. Zur Deulung paulinischer Theologie in Turnpapyrus des Rómerbriefkommentars,
Diss. Bonn, 1966. At Tura near Cairo in 1941 a papyrus was found including among othcr texts a fragment of the
commentary by Origenes on Rom. 1,5 — 5,5.
19. Origenis in Epistulam ad Ronianos Commentariorum pars I [in:] Origenes, Opera Omnia, ed. K.H.E. Lommatzsch, VI,
Berlin 1936, p. 213; Beck, u, p. 174.
20. A. Janssens, "De sacerdotio et sacrificio Christi", Divus Thomas (P), XXXIV, 1931, p. 376 —386; it is reasonable to
recall here the representations of the Crucified with the stole (rex et sacerdos).
21. W. Loewinson-Lessing et N. Nicouline, Les primilifs flamands. Le Musee de VErmilage, Leningrad, Bruxelles, 1965,
No. 108, 5 — 20; W. Kermer, Studien zum Diptychon in der sakralen Malerei von den Anfangen bis zur Mitte des sech-
zehnten Jahrhunderts. Mil einem Katalog, Diss. Univ. Tubingen, 1967, p. 128—133: VI Kap. Die Gegeniiberstellung
Trinitdl-Marienbild.
22. Die Gemdldegalerie der Staatl. Museen in Berlin. Die deutschen und altniederldndisclien Meister, Berlin, 1929, No. 1205/1206.
23. Hebr. 10, 5-7, the quotation is from the Psalm XL, 7-9.
24. A Silesian master active at the close of the XIVth century, sec: Katalog der Gemdlde u. Skulpturen. Schlesisches Mu-
seum der bild. Kiinste, Breslau, 1926, p. 72, No. 128, sec also E. Guldan, "«Et verbum caro factum est». Die Darstellung
der Inkarnation Christi im Verkundigungsbild", Romische Quarlal-Schrift, LXIII, 1968, p. 145 — 169, pl. 27 — a Parisian
Missal of the Und half of the XVth century, Paris, Bibl. Mazarinc, Ms412; pl.29a — Lorcnzo Veneziano, the central
part of a polyptych of 1370, Venice, Ga lleria delTAccademia; pl. 29b the wing of the Crucifixion Altar of ca 1370 — 80
in Netze near Wildungen (Westphalia). For the separate motif of the Child with the cross see J. Plummer, Die Minia-
turen aus dem Slundenbuch der Katharine von Kleve, Berlin, 1966, pl. 37 (Fig. 9).
36