Baroque painting in Silesia, unio mystica, kisses of Mary and kisses of St Joseph, mystical religious experience

One of the most characteristic features of the religious iconosphere of the Silesia region (currently Poland) in the Baroque period is the presence of various types of representations of the Holy Family, i.e. Jesus, Mary and St. Joseph in the intimate scenes of the Kiss of Mary or the Kiss of St. Joseph. The depiction of the highest, culminating stage of the mystical path, in which the human soul becomes united with the divine essence in love ([Lat.] unio mystica), was then one of the most difficult tasks both for modern mystics, theologians, and for the artists cooperating with them. The difficulty was due to the essential qualities of this spiritual experience. In this work I will show that Silesian representations of the Kisses of Maria and the Kisses of St. Joseph appear not only as an original, but also an exceptionally accurate and mature solution to the problem of imaging unio mystica in the religious art of the Baroque period. This means that the European significance of Silesian mysticism (including Jacob Boehme, Angelus Silesius) is not limited only to textual works, but also extends to the original representations of Kisses of Mary and of St. Joseph, which we can consider a Silesian idiosyncrasy when viewed against the background of the then European iconography of unio mystica. I envisage the analysis as a dialogue between art and mysticism, establishing some of the canonical exponents of the painterly interpretation of mystical experience as a supra-denominational visual language that served to illustrate the content related to spousal mysticism.

One of the most characteristic features of the religious iconosphere of the Silesia region (currently Poland) in the Baroque period is the presence of various types of representations of the Holy Family, i.e. Jesus, Mary and St. Joseph in the intimate scenes of the Kiss of Mary or the Kiss of St. Joseph. The depiction of the highest, culminating stage of the mystical path, in which the human soul becomes united with the divine essence in love ([Lat.] unio mystica), was then one of the most difficult tasks both for modern mystics, theologians, and for the artists cooperating with them. The difficulty was due to the essential qualities of this spiritual experience. In this work I will show that Silesian representations of the Kisses of Maria and the Kisses of St. Joseph appear not only as an original, but also an exceptionally accurate and mature solution to the problem of imaging unio mystica in the religious art of the Baroque period. This means that the European significance of Silesian mysticism (including Jacob Boehme, Angelus Silesius) is not limited only to textual works, but also extends to the original representations of Kisses of Mary and of St. Joseph, which we can consider a Silesian idiosyncrasy when viewed against the background of the then European iconography of unio mystica. I envisage the analysis as a dialogue between art and mysticism, establishing some of the canonical exponents of the painterly interpretation of mystical experience as a supra-denominational visual language that served to illustrate the content related to spousal mysticism.