DOI Artikel:
Rozanow, Zofia: The implicit symbolic content of the painting of the Mother of God of Częstochowa
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18951#0060
In regard of its predatory character, this bird used to symbolize evil. However, the
black and white feathers of a magpie were sometimes associated with the notion
of mourning and death. Such is the meaning of this bird in the Nativity scenes
pictured by the Italian artists of the 14th and 15th centuries, where magpie stands
for the prediction of the Passion and death of the newly born Saviour. Such is the
meaning of the magpie on the panel of Częstochowa: it was represented, together
with a cross-shaped nimbus surrounding the Infant, as a tragic memento.
The scenes of Flagellation and Mocking were not completed with a symbolic
commentary. The stages of the Saviour’s Passion, preceding His death on the
Cross, are dynamie, portrayed with drastic expression.
The radial nimbuses with a wavy, cloud-like frieze (gilded, embossed, chased
and press stamped), surrounding the heads of two figures, present fifty-six rays
in the one which encircles Mary and thirty-three in the nimbus of Jesus (when
deducting two joints of the plates). Thus, they symbolize the age of the Virgin
and Christ.
The plates endowed by Ladislaus Jagiełło referred, as one can conclude from
the sources, to the gilded, Byzantine casing of the icon, which was robbed in
1430. According to the oldest version of the Translatio Tabulae legend, repeated
by the consecutive authors of the painting’s story, it was prince Leon (Lev)
Halicki who founded the casing. He put the gold piąte in the back of the painting,
and the silver one in front. “He ordered to gloriously embełlish the diadems of
both pictures, that is the one of the blessed Virgin and of her beloved son, with
multicoloured blaze and abundance of yarious gems [...], the total number of
these magnificent and very expensive Stones was to be seventy.” The consecutive,
16th century authors of the story increase the number of gems to seventy-two.
Marks left by the gilded casing are visible on the back side of the planks in support
of the painting. There are silver nails with filed caps, arranged in a regular, faint
pattern. Under the canvas, where the six-armed star of the maphorion placed
over Mary’s forehead used to be, one can see a vast loss in the painting, covered
with a linen patch and priming. It suggests that a decorative element was torn out
together with the base.
The number of seventy-two gems in the nimbuses, endowed by prince Leon
Halicki, has multiple meanings in the Christian iconography.
According to Saint Matthew (1:1-17), the genealogy of Christ established on
the basis of the right of primogeniture and the transfer of the royal honours,
encompasses seventy-two generations. The entire Holy Scripture consists of
seventy-two books (forty-five of the Old and twenty-seven of the New Testament).
Number seventy-two on the painting of the Mother of God of Jasna Góra matches
the concept of evangelization of all nations. It is in accordance with the Gospel
of Lukę, who was to paint the image of the Hodegetria (Lukę 10 and 1:2): “After
58
black and white feathers of a magpie were sometimes associated with the notion
of mourning and death. Such is the meaning of this bird in the Nativity scenes
pictured by the Italian artists of the 14th and 15th centuries, where magpie stands
for the prediction of the Passion and death of the newly born Saviour. Such is the
meaning of the magpie on the panel of Częstochowa: it was represented, together
with a cross-shaped nimbus surrounding the Infant, as a tragic memento.
The scenes of Flagellation and Mocking were not completed with a symbolic
commentary. The stages of the Saviour’s Passion, preceding His death on the
Cross, are dynamie, portrayed with drastic expression.
The radial nimbuses with a wavy, cloud-like frieze (gilded, embossed, chased
and press stamped), surrounding the heads of two figures, present fifty-six rays
in the one which encircles Mary and thirty-three in the nimbus of Jesus (when
deducting two joints of the plates). Thus, they symbolize the age of the Virgin
and Christ.
The plates endowed by Ladislaus Jagiełło referred, as one can conclude from
the sources, to the gilded, Byzantine casing of the icon, which was robbed in
1430. According to the oldest version of the Translatio Tabulae legend, repeated
by the consecutive authors of the painting’s story, it was prince Leon (Lev)
Halicki who founded the casing. He put the gold piąte in the back of the painting,
and the silver one in front. “He ordered to gloriously embełlish the diadems of
both pictures, that is the one of the blessed Virgin and of her beloved son, with
multicoloured blaze and abundance of yarious gems [...], the total number of
these magnificent and very expensive Stones was to be seventy.” The consecutive,
16th century authors of the story increase the number of gems to seventy-two.
Marks left by the gilded casing are visible on the back side of the planks in support
of the painting. There are silver nails with filed caps, arranged in a regular, faint
pattern. Under the canvas, where the six-armed star of the maphorion placed
over Mary’s forehead used to be, one can see a vast loss in the painting, covered
with a linen patch and priming. It suggests that a decorative element was torn out
together with the base.
The number of seventy-two gems in the nimbuses, endowed by prince Leon
Halicki, has multiple meanings in the Christian iconography.
According to Saint Matthew (1:1-17), the genealogy of Christ established on
the basis of the right of primogeniture and the transfer of the royal honours,
encompasses seventy-two generations. The entire Holy Scripture consists of
seventy-two books (forty-five of the Old and twenty-seven of the New Testament).
Number seventy-two on the painting of the Mother of God of Jasna Góra matches
the concept of evangelization of all nations. It is in accordance with the Gospel
of Lukę, who was to paint the image of the Hodegetria (Lukę 10 and 1:2): “After
58