Miraculous Images

Kult obrazów a kult świętych w nowożytnym Krakowie (The cult of images and the cult of saints in Cracow in the early modern era)

by Grażyna Jurkowlaniec

in: Barok, 11 (2004), No. 2, pp. 69-87

A strong connection between cult of images and the cult of saints is very typical of Cracow in the early modern era.... more A strong connection between cult of images and the cult of saints is very typical of Cracow in the early modern era. This phenomenon, which developed in the 1st half of the 17th c., is explained by researchers as a sign of revival of the medieval cults, which in turn usually coincided with preparations to beatification or canonization processes. A few images or figures are said to have been owned by the blessed (e.g. in the Poor Clave convent: Salomea’s Byzantine mosaic icon of the Virgin Mary and a cult a figure of the Child). Many crucifixes are believed to have spoken to the blessed: the so called Queen Jadwiga’s crucifix in the Cathedral, or another in the St. Marks’s Church, which had several conversations with Michal Giedroyc, two crucifixes in the Dominican Monastery have spoken to friars, and – last but not least – the one in Our Lady’s Church, one of the most brilliant works by Veit Stoss, asked Swietoslaw "cur silet ecclesia?"; another person blessed by a vision in front of this crucifix was Barbara Lang, who also worshipped another crucifix, in St. Barbara. John Cantius (Jan of Kęty) is believed to have prayed in front of a likeness of the Man of Sorrow with the Virgin, fixed to the entrance to Collegium Maius (nowadays in the Rectory of the St. Anne’s Church). Finally, two mural paintings in the Augustinian Cloister are said to have been made on Izajasz called Boner’s initative: a likeness of the Man of Sorrows with the Virgin and an image known from the 17th c. as the Mother of Consolation.
The dating of the images usually excludes their connection with the blessed (with few exceptions, e.g. the Salomea’s icon and the Jadwiga’s crucifix). Nevertheless, the association of the local saints with the images remained an important and permanent characteristic of the religiousness typical of Cracow not only in the early modern era, but in the 19th and 20th c. as well.

The Slacker Crucifix in St. Mary’s Church in Cracow: Cult and Craft

by Grażyna Jurkowlaniec

in: Wokół Wita Stwosza. Materiały z międzynarodowej konferencji naukowej w Muzeum Narodowym w Krakowie, 19–22 maja 2005 [Around Veit Stoss. Proceedings of the international conference in the National Museum in Cracow, 19–22 May 2005], eds. Dobrosława Horzela, Adam Organisty, Cracow 2006, pp. 348–357

Der inszenierte Blick auf das Gnadenbild und zwei „verletzten“ Figuren in der Zisterzienser­klosterkirche Grüssau im 18. Jahrhundert

by Grażyna Jurkowlaniec

in: Sehen und Sakralität in der Vormoderne, eds David Ganz and Thomas Lentes, Berlin: Reimer 2011, pp. 200–217 ‹KultBild, 4›

More info and table of contents:
http://www.reimer-mann-verlag.de/controller.php?cmd=detail&titelnummer=101314&verlag=4

Faith, Paragone and Commemoration in Durer's' Christomorphic'Self-Portrait of 1500

by Grażyna Jurkowlaniec

proofs of the article published in:
Faith and Fantasy in the Renaissance: Texts, Images, and Religious Practices, ed. Olga Zorzi Pugliese, Ethan Matt Kavaler, Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2009, pp. 209–228 (Essays and studies, 21)

Il pennello dell'Evangelista: storia delle immagini sacre attribuite a san Luca

by Michele Bacci