Multispectral Imaging and p-XRF for the Non-Invasive Characterization of the Anonymous Devotional Painting ‘Maria Santissima delle Grazie’ from Mirabella Imbáccari (Sicily, Italy)

This work presents the results of the in situ, non-invasive diagnostic investigations performed on the canvas oil painting depicting Madonna and Child, venerated as ‘Maria Santissima delle Grazie’ by the local religious community. The work of art (72 cm × 175 cm) is located on the high altar of the main Church in Mirabella Imbáccari, near Catania (Sicily, Italy). The painter is anonymous, and the supposed dating is the late eighteenth century. Although the painting has never been studied before, it has been attributed to a Sicilian workshop in the literature, raising the doubts of the art historian who conducted this study and who hypothesized a Neapolitan manufacture. Furthermore, due to the good conservation state detected by a macroscopic examination, doubts also arose about dating. To shed light on these aspects, a technical-scientific examination proved necessary. Multispectral imaging techniques (IR Reflectography, UV-induced visible Fluorescence, X-ray) are carried out for the study of the execution technique, the identification of underlying remakes, sketch drawing and the evaluation of the conservation conditions. XRF spectrometry analysis is performed for the identification of the chemical elements constituting the pigments (inorganic chromophores). The diagnostic results allowed this research to confirm the dating suggested by the historical-stylistic knowledge and to highlight new technical peculiarities supporting the attribution to a Neapolitan workshop.

Madonna del Libro in the Collection of the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore: The First Data of Attribution and Technical Study of the Picture

This article is devoted to the attribution of the Madonna and Child painting from the collection of the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore (Yekaterinburg), corresponding to the image of Madonna del Libro distributed in Italy in the sixteenth century. Referring to works of Italian researchers, the author reveals the original source that served as the basis for creating the iconographic work, i.e. a work of Perino del Vaga, an Italian artist. Further research helps establish the fact that the Ural canvas is a copy of an original painting of the Spanish artist Pedro de Rubiales who worked in Italy in the 1640s–1660s and reinterpreted P. del Vaga’s work. However, a technological analysis of the Ural canvas demonstrates that it was created much later, between the second quarter and the mid-nineteenth century. The unknown author of the picture studied in the article made attempts to reconstruct the technology of the original, but the discrepancies between them and the materials and methods of the Italian painting from between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries revealed in the analysis of the canvas, ground, the stratigraphy of the paint layer, and paint binder make it possible to speak about the author’s insufficient awareness of the principles of painting of the era and region he referred to in his reinterpretation. Thus, the work in question demonstrates the peculiarities of creating imitations of sixteenth-century works at a later time. The article also proposes a version on the place and time of restoration of the painting, formulated on the basis of comparing data on the use of duplication technology, the design of the subframe, the presence of a signature on the subframe, and the correlation of said features with records from the catalogue of the Nizhny Tagil collection of paintings by D. P. Shorin. They suggest that work to improve the preservation of the painting was performed in the workshops of the imperial Hermitage by restorer N. A. Sidorov.

Making Images, (Re)Visioning Mothers (a Photography Workshop)

This chapter draws on phenomenological approaches to “dwelling in” and envisioning the world to ask how young women’s participation in photography workshops might offer a window onto the dynamic production of subjectivities (as mothers, or not). In a photography workshop, young women produce retablos, or portraits of themselves as Madonna and child. The chapter juxtaposes the structured activities of a workshop (organized by an international NGO) with more informal use of point-and-shoot digital cameras (which was integrated into this research project). Reflecting on the activity of taking photos, as well as the representational aspects of images themselves, demonstrates girls’ creative expression and experimentation as well as the moral dialogues in which visions of self are embedded.

Na pograniczu wyznaniowym. Nieistniejąca unicka cerkiew pod wezwaniem św. Praksedy Męczennicy w Milejowie i jej wyposażenie

<p>W czasach Rusi Halicko-Włodzimierskiej osadnictwo ruskie na terenie dzisiejszej Lubelszczyzny posuwało się systematycznie na zachód. W XV i XVI w. dotarło do doliny Wieprza. W jego środkowym biegu powstało wówczas kilka parafii prawosławnych – Łęczna, Puchaczów, a także Milejów. Parafie te po przystąpieniu diecezji chełmskiej do unii brzeskiej stały się unickimi. Usytuowanie ich na terenie ze wzrastającą przewagą osadnictwa polskiego spowodowało przechodzenie wiernych na rzymsko katolicyzm. Proces ten szczególnie widoczny jest w 2 połowie XVIII w. i 1 połowie XIX w. Parafia w Milejowie należąca do najstarszych na tym terenie, pod koniec XVIII w. liczyła zaledwie kilku parafian, a na początku XIX w. rezydował tu jedynie proboszcz unicki, ks. Bazyli Hrabanowicz. W 2 dekadzie XIX w. ówczesny właściciel dóbr milejowskich – Adam Suffczyński – rozpoczął starania o przekształcenie parafii unickiej w parafię rzymskokatolicką, a cerkwi unickiej w kościół. Okazało się to dosyć skomplikowane. Najpierw parafię unicką należało zamknąć, a dopiero potem utworzyć parafię rzymskokatolicką. Proces ten kontynuowała siostra Adama – Helena Chrapowicka, która wkrótce przekazała to zadanie kuzynowi Antoniemu Melitonowi Rostworowskiemu, a po jego śmierci założeniem parafii i budową kościoła zajęła wdowa po nim – Maria z Jansenów, a następnie ich syn Antoni Rostworowski. Parafia unicka została zamknięta w 1852 r., cerkiew rozebrana, a murowany kościół został wzniesiony w latach 1855-1856. Po śmierci wspomnianego proboszcza unickiego w 1832 r. (ostatniego tutejszego parocha), cerkwią opiekował się proboszcz Dratowa. Część wyposażenia cerkwi milejowskiej została przeniesiona do świątyni dratowskiej, gdzie spłonęło ono w roku 1886 r., w pożarze tamtejszej świątyni. Część wyposażenia zabezpieczona została we dworze milejowskim i po wybudowaniu kościoła przeniesiona do niego. Wśród tego wyposażenia wyróżnia się pochodząca z 2 połowy XVII w. ikona Matki Boskiej z Dzieciątkiem (w typie Eleusy), odnowiona w latach 2012-2013 staraniem ówczesnego proboszcza – ks. Andrzeja Juźko. Po akcji rozbiórkowej cerkwi w 1938 r. to jedna z wyjątkowo nielicznych, ocalałych ikon dawnej diecezji Kościoła wschodniego na Lubelszczyźnie.</p><p><strong>On the Religious Borderland. A Defunct Uniate Church under the Invocation of St. Praxedes the Martyr in Milejów and its Equipment</strong></p>SUMMARY<p>The parish in Milejów was one of the early Orthodox parishes in the Wieprz valley, recorded in the 1470s. The presence of the Orthodox priest in Milejów is documented in tax registers in the 16th century. More information on the Uniate parish and its Orthodox church can be found in the documents of the 18th-19th centuries. The author presents the history of the Milejów Uniate church and the parish with particular reference to the equipment of the church. First, the old Uniate church is described (the last quarter of the 17th and the fi rst half of the 18th century). The church had the high altar and three side altars; in addition, there were inter alia, liturgical vessels, altar bells, the bells on the belfry, liturgical books, an perhaps an iconostasis. The new Uniate church (the second half of the 18th and the fi rst half of the 19th century) – erected in the second half of the 18th century in place of the old one (which burnt down in ca. 1760) contained the high altar with the picture of Our Lady (painted on canvas) and two side altars. The equipment also included, inter alia, a silver and gilded pro Venerabili vessel, a chalice with a paten and a spoon, a can “for sick people”, an altar tin cross, a brass thurible, a metal swag lamp, three altar bells, a bell at the sacristy, four reliquaries, two small brass candlesticks, a processional cross, pictures, liturgical books. The next described stage is the end of the Uniate parish and the beginnings of the creation of the Roman-Catholic parish in the 19th century, founded in 1858. The new church – erected a few hundred meters from the place of the Uniate church – was consecrated in 1859. The equipment of the Uniate church before its demolition (the second quarter of the 19th century) included in 1828, inter alia, the above mentioned three altars, a new choir, a crucifi x, a confessional, a pulpit, candlesticks, pictures, and a new umbraculum. The inventory of 1847 also mentioned, inter alia, four icons situated near the high altar, a stoup, four benches, twenty candlesticks, and a porcelain chandelier. In the next part of the text the author describes the icons preserved in the Milejów church: „Matka Boska z dzieciątkiem” [Madonna and Child] and „Przemienienie Pańskie” [the Transfi guration of the Lord]. In the next parts of the article the author describes the history of the owners of Milejów, patrons and parish priests. At the end of the article he synthetically presents the history of the Milejów parish.</p>

Humanity, or Childhood Forever

The article deals with the problem of metaphysics of childhood, which is considered in the context of the search for human identity, through the identification of its proportionality to the world. Childhood is considered not so much as a stage of growing up, but as an essential characteristic of man, integral to him throughout the existence of both ontogenesis and phylogenesis. Children feel organically in the "era of equipment", staying in the Universal House. Since Modern times, people live in the "era of homelessness." He destroys the House, considering himself an Adult, able to do without a House. Adequate Parent-Child relationships with the world are destroyed. Abandoning the Child, man did not become an Adult but faced infinity of loneliness and insignificance. Man overthrew the walls of the House, feeling a big, strong, and independent Adult. Facing the absurd immensity of helplessness, he suddenly woke up a Baby again. "Adulthood" (more precisely, "teenage revolt") was manifested only in the ability to destroy the old House; ignorance, immaturity was manifested as a lack of understanding of the need and inability to build a new Home. A person can found a new House (scientific picture of the world), but cannot live in it. The modern man is a lost Child on the ruins of a destroyed and unfinished House. The largest gap between the eternal childishness (its essence) and the illusion of its own super-adulthood (its quasi-existence) is amplified by the fact that the "historical pendulum", at present, "froze" on Childishness. The eternal (essential) and specific historical Childishness of man is opposed to the simulacrum his super-adulthood (which appears as a crisis of identification). The theme of "the return of the Prodigal Son", which is widely included in the world culture, appears to denote the way of resolving the identity crisis. An adequate the end of this path is expressed in the image of Madonna and Child. The centuries-old involvement of man in this image lies in the fact that he identifies himself with the eternal Divine Child in the native hands of the eternal Mother of God. These Divine Faces embody the metaphysical ideal of building a harmonious Child-Parent relationship between man and the world.

Playing Games of Dress-Up During the Italian Renaissance

Throughout the Renaissance, people would dress sculptures of the Virgin during sacred ceremonies, adorn sculptures of the Madonna and Child with jewels, and swaddle sculptures of the infant Christ. Agostino di Giovanni’s Annunciate Virgin (1321) [Fig. 1] reflects the popular tradition of dressing sculptures in Tuscany during the Trecento and Quattrocento. Agostino di Giovanni carved the Annunciate Virgin wearing only a red underdress, as this sculpture was originally dressed in an actual fabric mantle and veil. The moveable joints in her elbows and shoulders facilitated dressing. The Virgin reflects the idealized beauty standards of the period, with full cheeks, almond-shaped eyes, a small pointed nose, and delicate rosebud lips. During the Trecento and Quattrocento, dressing sculptures were popular, and worshipers likely engaged in the act of dressing as a form of devotion. Her youthful beauty, and the fact that worshipers dressed her, raise issues of decorum, especially considering that the act of dressing implies undressing. These tensions are reflected in later accounts of priests dressing sculptures of the Virgin Mary using poles and under the supervision of pious women. Given that worshipers dressed this sculpture in actual fabric, how did the Annunciate Virgin balance humanity and divinity, thus mitigating these concerns of modesty? This research paper explores this question using the visual reconstruction of the Annunciate Virgin, which recreates the original physical and social context of the sculpture [Figs. 2 –3]. (clockwise from upper left) Figure 1.Annunciate Virgin by Agostino di Giovanni1321 Figure 2.Annunciate Virgin Reconstruction Figure 3.Reconstruction

„Porachowanie z Panem Auszpurczaninem”. Specyfikacje kosztów wykonania złotej figury Matki Boskiej z Dzieciątkiem i argenteriów z fundacji Jana Wawrzyńca Wodzickiego dla kościoła Mariackiego w Krakowie oraz historia tych zabytków

“Getting even with Mr. Augsburgian”. Cost estimates for making the silverware and gold statue of Madonna and Child by Jan Wawrzyniec Wodzicki and donated to Saint Mary’s Basilica in Kraków Until 1794, silverware and gold statue of Madonna and Child funded as a votive offering for blessings received by Jan Warzyniec Wodzicki, the Deputy Cup-bearer of Warsaw, was kept in Saint Mary’s Basilica in Kraków. Wodzicki donated several items to his parish church: in 1690 he made a gift of six altar candlesticks, in 1692 a gold statue of a Madonna and Child on a gilt silver pedestal and a pair of kneeling angels on pedestals identical to the pedestal of the Madonna statue, and on 12 July 1694 a five-piece silver antependium. In the Archive of the Wodzicki Family from Kościelniki, kept in the Ossolineum Library in Wrocław, the author of this article has found two cost estimates for making the above mentioned silverware, except for the antependium, issued in Warsaw on 9 May 1694 by Rad & Hößlin, a trading house from Augsburg. Christopher von Rad I and Bartholomäus Hößlin (Hösslin), jewellers and goldsmiths from Augsburg, established their company in 1690. The documents found by the author are the first ones to confirm that the above mentioned jewellers from Augsburg operated in Poland. The first cost estimate (Annex I) tells us that Wodzicki gave 1,100 ducats (1,114 Augsburg ducats) for the figure of Madonna and Child. The labour cost of both figures, a case and a travelling bag was 559 imperial thalers and 11 kreutzers (the cost of a wax model and forming the body out of gold sheet cost 35 imperial thalers, whereas the repoussage of the body cost 498 imperial thalers and 11 kreutzers). In accordance with the second specification (Annex II), the goldsmith was paid 1,847 imperial thalers and 30 kreutzers for the candlesticks. The labour cost of making two statues of angels on pedestals was 536 imperial thalers and 22½kreutzers, whereas making the pedestal for the statue of the Madonna and Child cost 182 imperial thalers and 78 kreutzers. The cost estimate of the silver antependium for the main altar has not survived. The inventory of Saint Mary’s Basilica in Kraków shows that the five-piece antependium weighed 206 grzywnas (ancient Polish measure of weight) and cost 14,856 tymf (Polish silver coins). The works were most probably the result of one workshop, and were perhaps by Abraham II Drentwett (1647–1729), a goldsmith, wax sculptor and draughtsman from Augsburg. During the Kościuszko Uprising in 1794, the above mentioned silverware, except for the statues of angels, were taken from the treasury of the basilica by the Order Committee established by Tadeusz Kościuszko and melted down to support the uprising. In 1807, the two statues of angels funded by Wodzicki were sold to goldsmiths from Kraków.

Prijedlog za Jacopa Amigonija (Bogorodica s Djetetem) na Visovcu

The painting Madonna and Child on the island of Visovac is comparable to the paintings produced by Jacopo Amigoni in the early 1740s, at the time when he stayed in Venice and probably established a workshop. The article explains the reasons for a preliminary attribution of this painting to the prominent painter of the Venetian and European Settecento, and its significance for the Franciscan artistic heritage in Dalmatia.