DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29253#0279
OSTRA BRAMA (POINTED GATE) IN YILNIUS
The eariiest documents related to the cult of Our Lady of Ostra Brama come from 1671, when a smali
wooden chapel was added to the town gate called Ostra Brama where the painting of Our Lady was
originally placed. The only entrance to the chapel was from the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites,
adjacent to the town walls; the monks were responsible for the construction of the chapel and the
introduction of religious services. According to Carmelitan sources from the end of the 18th century,
both Latin and Greek masses were said before the painting venerated equally by the Roman-Catholics
and the Greek-Catholics (Uniates). The tradition however must have been much earlier, this being
proven by the ideological bond between the order of the Discalced Carmelites and the Uniate order of
the Basilians. The Carmelites came to Vilnius in 1626 to consolidate the Union of the Catholic and
Eastern Churches concluded in 1596. To achieve the purpose, a monastery was founded, the initiative
taken by Hipacy Pociej, the Uniate Metropolitan, and his successor Welamin Rutski together with the
authorities of the Polish Province of the Discalced Carmelites, and accomplished by Stefan Dubowicz,
the mayor of Vilnius, and a Uniate himself, who was father of the then superior of the Basilian
monastery of the Holy Trinity. The ideological and political bonds between the monasteries were
rapidly cut off in 1832, when the same yet opposite forces broke the Union, which antagonized the
hierarchies and believers of both rites, when the Uniates were forced to return to the Orthodox Church.
This is when the controversy over the "right" to the cult of Our Lady of Ostra Brama began.
Consequently, the controversial versions of the painting's provenance led to mutual claims to the right
of priority and exclusive ownership of the painting; hence the charges and accusations against the
appropriation of the miraculous effigy madę by both sides. Religious emotions mixed with political ones
to make the painting of Our Lady of Ostra Brama a symbol of the nation's struggle for liberation from
the Russian supremacy.
In the present study the arguments of both sides are supplemented by explanations of the conflict's
historical conditioning; moreover, new objective elements to tracę the painting's artistic genesis are
presented. The iconographic analysis concerns not only the image of Our Lady of Ostra Brama but also
its relations to other paintings that originally formed decoration of Ostra Brama with Salvator Mundi in
half-figure and the fuli figures of St Casimir (patron of Lithuania) and St Stanislas the Bishop (patron of
Poland) on the outer elevation. The decoration has not survived except for the painting of Our Lady.
Painted in distemper on oak panels (ca. 1620-1630), it has been thoroughly re-painted with oil paint
(except for the face) in the course of many restorations.
When restoring the painting in 1927, Jan Rutkowski left it in this very State. There is also a copy of
Salvator painted in oil on oak panels, probably from the end of the 18th century. From among the wali
paintings on the Southern elevation of Ostra Brama the remains of both patrons of the Commonwealth
267
The eariiest documents related to the cult of Our Lady of Ostra Brama come from 1671, when a smali
wooden chapel was added to the town gate called Ostra Brama where the painting of Our Lady was
originally placed. The only entrance to the chapel was from the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites,
adjacent to the town walls; the monks were responsible for the construction of the chapel and the
introduction of religious services. According to Carmelitan sources from the end of the 18th century,
both Latin and Greek masses were said before the painting venerated equally by the Roman-Catholics
and the Greek-Catholics (Uniates). The tradition however must have been much earlier, this being
proven by the ideological bond between the order of the Discalced Carmelites and the Uniate order of
the Basilians. The Carmelites came to Vilnius in 1626 to consolidate the Union of the Catholic and
Eastern Churches concluded in 1596. To achieve the purpose, a monastery was founded, the initiative
taken by Hipacy Pociej, the Uniate Metropolitan, and his successor Welamin Rutski together with the
authorities of the Polish Province of the Discalced Carmelites, and accomplished by Stefan Dubowicz,
the mayor of Vilnius, and a Uniate himself, who was father of the then superior of the Basilian
monastery of the Holy Trinity. The ideological and political bonds between the monasteries were
rapidly cut off in 1832, when the same yet opposite forces broke the Union, which antagonized the
hierarchies and believers of both rites, when the Uniates were forced to return to the Orthodox Church.
This is when the controversy over the "right" to the cult of Our Lady of Ostra Brama began.
Consequently, the controversial versions of the painting's provenance led to mutual claims to the right
of priority and exclusive ownership of the painting; hence the charges and accusations against the
appropriation of the miraculous effigy madę by both sides. Religious emotions mixed with political ones
to make the painting of Our Lady of Ostra Brama a symbol of the nation's struggle for liberation from
the Russian supremacy.
In the present study the arguments of both sides are supplemented by explanations of the conflict's
historical conditioning; moreover, new objective elements to tracę the painting's artistic genesis are
presented. The iconographic analysis concerns not only the image of Our Lady of Ostra Brama but also
its relations to other paintings that originally formed decoration of Ostra Brama with Salvator Mundi in
half-figure and the fuli figures of St Casimir (patron of Lithuania) and St Stanislas the Bishop (patron of
Poland) on the outer elevation. The decoration has not survived except for the painting of Our Lady.
Painted in distemper on oak panels (ca. 1620-1630), it has been thoroughly re-painted with oil paint
(except for the face) in the course of many restorations.
When restoring the painting in 1927, Jan Rutkowski left it in this very State. There is also a copy of
Salvator painted in oil on oak panels, probably from the end of the 18th century. From among the wali
paintings on the Southern elevation of Ostra Brama the remains of both patrons of the Commonwealth
267