DOI Artikel:
Mączyński, Ryszard: Mater Gratiarum Varsaviensis: Wizerunki Madonny łaskawej w sztuce polskiej
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16407#0317
WIZERUNKI MADONNY ŁASKAWEJ W SZTUCE POLSKIEJ
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the smali one, clearly related to the idea of the arch of triumph. Decorating it with the Gracious Madonna statue meant not only
a glorification of the Virgin but also a legible sign of important function that the monastic church had as a major sanctuary of Our Lady.
In the Republic of Poland, although the iconographie type of the Gracious Virgin Mary gained popularity, it could not equal
the vénération of the Virgin Mary of Częstochowa. It was first of ail a subject of the Piarist propagation as it was the Piarists that
have chosen Mater Gratiarum for the patron of their own order: Scholarum Piarum. To her name were devoted confraternities for
adults in churches and sodalities gathering the youth at schools. Also, most Piarist temples were decorated with paintings and
sculptures imagining the Gracious Virgin Mary, of which merely few have survived till now and others are mentioned in written
sources. The vénération of Madonna Gracious has also dynamically developed in three large towns: Warsaw, Vilnius, and Cracow.
The spreading of this iconographie type was strictly linked there with the principal patronage attributed to it - the faith that Mater
Gratiarum's intercession before God сап bring His mercy and save from pestilence. The circumstances of setting the images in big
cities were therefore always connected with épidémies which took a vast toll in large conglomerations: 1653 in Vilnius and 1708
in Cracow. It's also the source of a more or less officiai custom of giving in entire towns to the protection of the Virgin Mary the
Gracious, as happened first to Warsaw and later to Cracow. Sporadically, Madonna de Gratiis was also attributed a universal
intercession in the face of a threat of war (the confederacy of Bar, World War I).
In monuments decimated by history remain représentations of the Virgin Mary Gracious performed in various techniques,
sizes and forms. There are many stone and wood sculptures: from architectural (the façade of a tenement house at Freta Street in
Warsaw, late 18th century) to loose figures (Chełm Lubelski, 1753; Lubieszów, 1766; Cracow, 1771) to numerous movable
feretories (Łomża, early 18th century; Łowicz, around 1740; Warsaw (initially in Podkamień?), third quarter of the 18th century).
The paintings were as a rule oil on canvas, at times spread on planks (Vilnius, 1653; Chełm Lubelski, late 17th century; Cracow,
Łuków, middle of the 18th century; Piotrków Trybunalski, Rydzyna, the 18th century; Warsaw, 1849) but also in the fresco
technique (Chełm Lubelski, 1758) and usually found their place in altar retables. Engravings popularized the vénération of the
Gracious Virgin Mary the protector of towns (Warsaw, Vilnius, Cracow). One could find Mary's banners (votive offering of
Warsaw, 1652; military of the confederates of Bar, 1768). It should be stressed here that no Polish représentation of the Mother
of God from Faenza was imported from Italy; all of them were made in Poland. The immédiate model for the oldest paintings both
in Vilnius (1653) and Cracow (1708) became the oldest image of Mater Gratiarum in the area of Poland kept in the church of the
Piarists in Warsaw (1651), which is confirmed by visual and written évidence.
The type of the Gracious Holy Virgin was highly conventionalized and lent itself to hardly any modifications. As a rule, it
included a figure of the standing Madonna dressed in a robe and a cloak and holding broken arrows in her hand. Déviations from
this image were sporadical (painting in Łuków with sitting Mary). What was characteristic (because in accordance with baroque
style changes both in painting and sculpture) was an advancing dynamie of the figure. It evolved from 17th - century hieratic
représentations (paintings in: Warsaw, Vilnius, Chełm Lubelski; the feretory from Warsaw) to a definite dynamie of initially the
robe in the middle of the 18th century (altar painting in Cracow, polychromy in Chełm Lubelski) and finally the whole figure
(statues from Cracow, Podkamień) to 19th-century eclectism where miscellaneous conventions coexisted.
A distinctive attribute of Mater Gratiarum were arrows signifying either, according to the Piarits' interprétation, Planets
which punish people's sins or, as popularly understood, "divine anger". Primarily the arrows were 7, later also 6, and the réduction
often resulted merely from the needs of symmetry and not from any philosophical of theological reasoning. Picturing arrow-heds
downwards was not strictly observed, either. Very rarely, Mary held thunderbolts instead of arrows which was closer to the vision
of Punishing God (statue from the Mary's church in Cracow, early 18th century and the military banner of the confederates of Bar).
However, it happened sometimes that the Virgin received other extra attributes: in one hand she would hold a royal scepter (stone
statue from Cracow), she would have a 12-star halo over her head (wooden statue from Podkamień and secondarily painting in
Chełm Lubelski) etc. Authors seemed also to like to join the Mater Gratiarum type with the Lady of the Immaculate Conception
picturing her on the globe, setting her foot on the crescent and trampling the snake. This form has gained popularity especially
(though not exclusively) in Cracow.
Zdjęcia wykonali: J. Bajorek - 52; S. Bochnig - 36; M. Bronarski - 32; S. Deptuszewski - 26; M. Kalinowski - 24; S. Komornicki
- 29; M. Kopydłowski - 33; E. Kozlowska-Tomczyk - 20; J. Langda - 1, 28, 30, 31, 34, 35, 46, 51; H. Poddębski - 2, 21;
H. Romanowski - 12; L. Sempoliński - 49; A. Wojtarowicz - 19; W. Wolny - 13, 18, 23, 44, 45, 47, 48; AGAD - 10, Arch.
Pijarów-3, 8, 9, 11; Bibl. Nar. - 42; Bibi. Ossolineum - 38; IS PAN - 22, 37, 43; Muz. Hist. -25; Muz. Nar. - 39, 40, 41; Muz.
Wojska Pol. - 50.
315
the smali one, clearly related to the idea of the arch of triumph. Decorating it with the Gracious Madonna statue meant not only
a glorification of the Virgin but also a legible sign of important function that the monastic church had as a major sanctuary of Our Lady.
In the Republic of Poland, although the iconographie type of the Gracious Virgin Mary gained popularity, it could not equal
the vénération of the Virgin Mary of Częstochowa. It was first of ail a subject of the Piarist propagation as it was the Piarists that
have chosen Mater Gratiarum for the patron of their own order: Scholarum Piarum. To her name were devoted confraternities for
adults in churches and sodalities gathering the youth at schools. Also, most Piarist temples were decorated with paintings and
sculptures imagining the Gracious Virgin Mary, of which merely few have survived till now and others are mentioned in written
sources. The vénération of Madonna Gracious has also dynamically developed in three large towns: Warsaw, Vilnius, and Cracow.
The spreading of this iconographie type was strictly linked there with the principal patronage attributed to it - the faith that Mater
Gratiarum's intercession before God сап bring His mercy and save from pestilence. The circumstances of setting the images in big
cities were therefore always connected with épidémies which took a vast toll in large conglomerations: 1653 in Vilnius and 1708
in Cracow. It's also the source of a more or less officiai custom of giving in entire towns to the protection of the Virgin Mary the
Gracious, as happened first to Warsaw and later to Cracow. Sporadically, Madonna de Gratiis was also attributed a universal
intercession in the face of a threat of war (the confederacy of Bar, World War I).
In monuments decimated by history remain représentations of the Virgin Mary Gracious performed in various techniques,
sizes and forms. There are many stone and wood sculptures: from architectural (the façade of a tenement house at Freta Street in
Warsaw, late 18th century) to loose figures (Chełm Lubelski, 1753; Lubieszów, 1766; Cracow, 1771) to numerous movable
feretories (Łomża, early 18th century; Łowicz, around 1740; Warsaw (initially in Podkamień?), third quarter of the 18th century).
The paintings were as a rule oil on canvas, at times spread on planks (Vilnius, 1653; Chełm Lubelski, late 17th century; Cracow,
Łuków, middle of the 18th century; Piotrków Trybunalski, Rydzyna, the 18th century; Warsaw, 1849) but also in the fresco
technique (Chełm Lubelski, 1758) and usually found their place in altar retables. Engravings popularized the vénération of the
Gracious Virgin Mary the protector of towns (Warsaw, Vilnius, Cracow). One could find Mary's banners (votive offering of
Warsaw, 1652; military of the confederates of Bar, 1768). It should be stressed here that no Polish représentation of the Mother
of God from Faenza was imported from Italy; all of them were made in Poland. The immédiate model for the oldest paintings both
in Vilnius (1653) and Cracow (1708) became the oldest image of Mater Gratiarum in the area of Poland kept in the church of the
Piarists in Warsaw (1651), which is confirmed by visual and written évidence.
The type of the Gracious Holy Virgin was highly conventionalized and lent itself to hardly any modifications. As a rule, it
included a figure of the standing Madonna dressed in a robe and a cloak and holding broken arrows in her hand. Déviations from
this image were sporadical (painting in Łuków with sitting Mary). What was characteristic (because in accordance with baroque
style changes both in painting and sculpture) was an advancing dynamie of the figure. It evolved from 17th - century hieratic
représentations (paintings in: Warsaw, Vilnius, Chełm Lubelski; the feretory from Warsaw) to a definite dynamie of initially the
robe in the middle of the 18th century (altar painting in Cracow, polychromy in Chełm Lubelski) and finally the whole figure
(statues from Cracow, Podkamień) to 19th-century eclectism where miscellaneous conventions coexisted.
A distinctive attribute of Mater Gratiarum were arrows signifying either, according to the Piarits' interprétation, Planets
which punish people's sins or, as popularly understood, "divine anger". Primarily the arrows were 7, later also 6, and the réduction
often resulted merely from the needs of symmetry and not from any philosophical of theological reasoning. Picturing arrow-heds
downwards was not strictly observed, either. Very rarely, Mary held thunderbolts instead of arrows which was closer to the vision
of Punishing God (statue from the Mary's church in Cracow, early 18th century and the military banner of the confederates of Bar).
However, it happened sometimes that the Virgin received other extra attributes: in one hand she would hold a royal scepter (stone
statue from Cracow), she would have a 12-star halo over her head (wooden statue from Podkamień and secondarily painting in
Chełm Lubelski) etc. Authors seemed also to like to join the Mater Gratiarum type with the Lady of the Immaculate Conception
picturing her on the globe, setting her foot on the crescent and trampling the snake. This form has gained popularity especially
(though not exclusively) in Cracow.
Zdjęcia wykonali: J. Bajorek - 52; S. Bochnig - 36; M. Bronarski - 32; S. Deptuszewski - 26; M. Kalinowski - 24; S. Komornicki
- 29; M. Kopydłowski - 33; E. Kozlowska-Tomczyk - 20; J. Langda - 1, 28, 30, 31, 34, 35, 46, 51; H. Poddębski - 2, 21;
H. Romanowski - 12; L. Sempoliński - 49; A. Wojtarowicz - 19; W. Wolny - 13, 18, 23, 44, 45, 47, 48; AGAD - 10, Arch.
Pijarów-3, 8, 9, 11; Bibl. Nar. - 42; Bibi. Ossolineum - 38; IS PAN - 22, 37, 43; Muz. Hist. -25; Muz. Nar. - 39, 40, 41; Muz.
Wojska Pol. - 50.