DOI article:
Rozanow, Zofia: The implicit symbolic content of the painting of the Mother of God of Częstochowa
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18951#0058
The results of the inąuiry were partly published and delivered as lectures in 1991
and 1995.1
It is not easy to decipher these meanings, for they were expressed in
hermetic language of numerology, based on secret numerical symbolism.
Such codę can be easily recognized in some parts of the gilded decoration of
the painting.
The repair of the damage done by the Hussite iconoclasts (according to the
traditional version) was followed in the years 1430-1434 by the embellishment of
the image with—as the legends tell us—“gold and silver from the Royal Majesty’s
treasury.” This poetic phrase refers to silver and gilded plates (embossed and
engraved), endowed by king Ladislaus Jagiełło, which cover up the nimbuses
around the heads of Mary and Jesus and fili the background behind them. They
were presumably created by a goldsmith from Kraków (according to the opinion
of father B. Przybyszewski, his name was Jan Polak, a.k.a. Jan Polski).
Four plates in the background, engraved and chased, present scenes from
Chrisfs life—two joyful and two painful moments—which are diagonally
arranged, in accordance with their subject.
In the right corner there is a scene of the Annunciation. Archangel Gabriel
emerges from the triangular area of the sky, which is composed of nine rows
of forty-four serpentine-shaped clouds. Nine levels symbolize the arrangement
of nine spheres of the cosmic sky and refer to the total number of the angelic
choirs. Archangel Gabriel leans out from the third, external zonę, holding a band
covered with a text of angelic salutation. The other end of the band is held in the
beak of the eagle with stretched wings that assists the kneeling Virgin Mary. At
her feet the falcon chases the running hare. According to the Gothic symbolism,
the eagle is a figurę of Christ, who conceals the might of the Divine Majesty in
the Mystery of the Incarnation through the mediation of Mary. The falcon can
symbolize virtue and goodness conąuering weakness, lust and sin, identified in
the Medieval art with the image of a hare.
The magie number of forty-four clouds, arranged in nine levels of the sky,
supports the assumption that the entire composition on the gilded panel of
Jasna Góra refers to the mystery of redemption and humanity’s rebirth from the
original sin.
1 I presented the article “The Implicit Symbolic Content of the Painting of the Mother of God of
Częstochowa” twice in 1985—first in May during doctoral seminar by Professor Jerzy Kowalczyk
at the Institute of the Plistory of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences and later on 15 December
at the Jasna Góra Session in Częstochowa. The text was published in 1991 in the two-monthly
Plastic Aris and Education and reprinted in the Całalogue of the Exhibition of Wate7'colours by Iza
Trelińska in Łódź. My article was also known to Tadeusz Dobrzeniecki who did not ąuestion my
interpretation proposals on the symbolism of the ornamental decoration of the painting.
56
and 1995.1
It is not easy to decipher these meanings, for they were expressed in
hermetic language of numerology, based on secret numerical symbolism.
Such codę can be easily recognized in some parts of the gilded decoration of
the painting.
The repair of the damage done by the Hussite iconoclasts (according to the
traditional version) was followed in the years 1430-1434 by the embellishment of
the image with—as the legends tell us—“gold and silver from the Royal Majesty’s
treasury.” This poetic phrase refers to silver and gilded plates (embossed and
engraved), endowed by king Ladislaus Jagiełło, which cover up the nimbuses
around the heads of Mary and Jesus and fili the background behind them. They
were presumably created by a goldsmith from Kraków (according to the opinion
of father B. Przybyszewski, his name was Jan Polak, a.k.a. Jan Polski).
Four plates in the background, engraved and chased, present scenes from
Chrisfs life—two joyful and two painful moments—which are diagonally
arranged, in accordance with their subject.
In the right corner there is a scene of the Annunciation. Archangel Gabriel
emerges from the triangular area of the sky, which is composed of nine rows
of forty-four serpentine-shaped clouds. Nine levels symbolize the arrangement
of nine spheres of the cosmic sky and refer to the total number of the angelic
choirs. Archangel Gabriel leans out from the third, external zonę, holding a band
covered with a text of angelic salutation. The other end of the band is held in the
beak of the eagle with stretched wings that assists the kneeling Virgin Mary. At
her feet the falcon chases the running hare. According to the Gothic symbolism,
the eagle is a figurę of Christ, who conceals the might of the Divine Majesty in
the Mystery of the Incarnation through the mediation of Mary. The falcon can
symbolize virtue and goodness conąuering weakness, lust and sin, identified in
the Medieval art with the image of a hare.
The magie number of forty-four clouds, arranged in nine levels of the sky,
supports the assumption that the entire composition on the gilded panel of
Jasna Góra refers to the mystery of redemption and humanity’s rebirth from the
original sin.
1 I presented the article “The Implicit Symbolic Content of the Painting of the Mother of God of
Częstochowa” twice in 1985—first in May during doctoral seminar by Professor Jerzy Kowalczyk
at the Institute of the Plistory of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences and later on 15 December
at the Jasna Góra Session in Częstochowa. The text was published in 1991 in the two-monthly
Plastic Aris and Education and reprinted in the Całalogue of the Exhibition of Wate7'colours by Iza
Trelińska in Łódź. My article was also known to Tadeusz Dobrzeniecki who did not ąuestion my
interpretation proposals on the symbolism of the ornamental decoration of the painting.
56