Krzeszów, Cistercians, The Virgin of Mercy, Mater Misericordiae, The Virgin of Grace, the Thirty Years’ War

“Salve, Mater Misericordiae!” About the picture of The Virgin of Mercy (1624) from the collection of the Archdiocesan Museum in Wrocław.The 1624 painting of the Virgin of Mercy from the collection of the Archdiocesan Museum in Wrocław is one of the few works of art from the Cistercian Abbey of Krzeszów (Grüssau) that survived the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). However, this work has so far received little attention among researchers. This is astonishing, because this painting is a unique testimony of Cistercian spirituality from wartime period. It shows the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus in the iconographic type Mater Misericordiae, in a protective coat, under which 21 Cistercians were hiding with Abbot Andreas Wolffgang at the head. The monks adoring Mary and the Child ask her for her care and salvation. This is evidenced not only by Mary’s protective mantle, but also by the words of the popular Marian antiphons written on two banderoles. This multimedia combination of image and text of two antiphons is unique against the background of the well-known images of the type Mater Misericordiae.The painting of The Virgin of Mercy from Krzeszów is formally conservative and was most likely made by a local Silesian artist from guild circles. This formal conservatism was probably due to the preference of the founders, who wanted to recall artistic forms of the pre-Reformation period for ideological reasons. The creation of the image of The Virgin of Mercy was one of the elements of the founding action of the Cistercian monastery in Krzeszów, which was undertaken in the period of the Tridentian renewal of the Silesian Catholic Church. The then ongoing the Thirty Years‘ War influenced the choice of such a theme. A direct impulse, however, was the discovery of the icon of The Virgin of Grace on the 18th of December 1622 under the floor of the monastery church. This picture earlier served probably as the Madonna “protector” of the Cistercian monastery in Krzeszów. The tradition of possessing such Marian miraculous images, which were intended to protect male and female monasteries from all kinds of threats, was widespread in Central Europe. Therefore, two years later the monks of Krzeszów ordered the painting which was on the one hand a votive work and on the other hand a kind of act of handing over all Cistercians from Krzeszów to Mary’s care in view of the danger of war.

“Salve, Mater Misericordiae!” About the picture of The Virgin of Mercy (1624) from the collection of the Archdiocesan Museum in Wrocław.The 1624 painting of the Virgin of Mercy from the collection of the Archdiocesan Museum in Wrocław is one of the few works of art from the Cistercian Abbey of Krzeszów (Grüssau) that survived the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). However, this work has so far received little attention among researchers. This is astonishing, because this painting is a unique testimony of Cistercian spirituality from wartime period. It shows the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus in the iconographic type Mater Misericordiae, in a protective coat, under which 21 Cistercians were hiding with Abbot Andreas Wolffgang at the head. The monks adoring Mary and the Child ask her for her care and salvation. This is evidenced not only by Mary’s protective mantle, but also by the words of the popular Marian antiphons written on two banderoles. This multimedia combination of image and text of two antiphons is unique against the background of the well-known images of the type Mater Misericordiae.The painting of The Virgin of Mercy from Krzeszów is formally conservative and was most likely made by a local Silesian artist from guild circles. This formal conservatism was probably due to the preference of the founders, who wanted to recall artistic forms of the pre-Reformation period for ideological reasons. The creation of the image of The Virgin of Mercy was one of the elements of the founding action of the Cistercian monastery in Krzeszów, which was undertaken in the period of the Tridentian renewal of the Silesian Catholic Church. The then ongoing the Thirty Years‘ War influenced the choice of such a theme. A direct impulse, however, was the discovery of the icon of The Virgin of Grace on the 18th of December 1622 under the floor of the monastery church. This picture earlier served probably as the Madonna “protector” of the Cistercian monastery in Krzeszów. The tradition of possessing such Marian miraculous images, which were intended to protect male and female monasteries from all kinds of threats, was widespread in Central Europe. Therefore, two years later the monks of Krzeszów ordered the painting which was on the one hand a votive work and on the other hand a kind of act of handing over all Cistercians from Krzeszów to Mary’s care in view of the danger of war.