Epitafinės kompozicijos Vilniaus Šv. Kazimiero jėzuitų bažnyčios kriptoje

Abstract

The crypt of the Jesuit church of St. Casimirus in Vilnius, installed under the big altar was discovered in 1991. No historical documents of the church provide any information on the compositions, therefore the year of the building and the authors of the crypt are not known. The walls of the columns of the crypt depict the compositions of the Crucifix, the Resurrection and the Blessed Virgin Mary, manes figures are drawn at the sides of the columns and on the Northern and Western walls. The images are accompanied with inscriptions: Latin quotes, selected from the Bible and prayers, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The technique of the compositions is difficult to characterize. One could guess that the paintings are unfinished. The compositions can be connected to certain segments, characteristic of an iconographical programme. They show a certain compositional and meaningful connection between the image and the text. The compositions provide ideas of suffering, death and sacrifice (the subject of the Redeemer), the conquering death, the saving of the righteous (the subject of the Judgment Day), grace, sympathy for the suffering and the needy (the subject of the Blessed Virgin Mary). The composition reflects the cult of praying for the souls, suffering in the Purgatory, which was popularized by the Jesuits, their worship of Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The figures of souls are presented not as symbolic images, but as realistic figures of, most probably, the Jesuits themselves. The images are characterized by schematic drawing, but also have characteristics of portraits.