Matka Boska pod Krzyżem – nieznane malowidło ścienne z 1. połowy XVIII wieku w Janowie Podlaskim. Próba określenia historii i atrybucji dzieła
Our Lady at the Cross – Uknown Mural from the 1st half of the 18th Century in Janów Podlaski

Summary/Abstract: Janów Podlaski, Our Lady at the Cross - Uknown Mural from the 1st half of the 18th Century In the course of the conservation works on the high altar in the Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity in Janów Podlaski, namely in 2008 when the painting on canvas was taken out of the main section of the retable, a mural was discovered behind the retable. It covered a niche and a small fragment of the flat wall around it. Due to the absence of any information in literature and sources on the painting, its author, studio, dating, and circumstances of the execution remained unknown. The painting is particularly interesting, since having remained covered by the retable canvas painting, it had its original painterly layer preserved without any superposed layers, such as whitewash or repaintings. The composition, enclosed within an imitation of a golden frame, shows Our Lady at the Cross. Painted before 1735 together with the retable as the geunine furnishing of the church, it was created in the second as for its importance bishops’ seat in the Łuck Diocese. The circumstances of the work’s creation as well as the associating it with the activity of Bishop Stefan Rupniewski and the Reformati architect Mateusz Osiecki working for him are provided. In 2010-2012, the mural underwent conservation conducted by the Author of the paper as part of her Master’s thesis at the Faculty of the Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. The conducted conservation allowed for a close investigation of the painting, ascertainment of the painter’s changes to the composition, as well as the ascertainment of the work’s state of preservation. The ascertainment of the workshop technique and technology were later confirmed by the analitical investigation of samples. Following the end of the conservation of the altar painting, in 2013, the mural was covered again and it can no longer be viewed. The article’s aim is to include a new, previously unknown work, in the limited set of genuine well preserved paintings of the modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, while also setting the newly discovered mural within the history of art of the 18th century.

• Details
• Contents