ARTI UM VILNENS S 125 2002

, CULT OF ÒÍ Å VIRGIN MARY AN D IT S IMAGES

, LIT HUANIA FROM T H E M IDDLE AGES UNT IL

THE SEVENT EENT H CENTURY'

Ausra Âàï ø 1óñå

Central European Uni vers ty, Budapest

. Inrraon v c r rox

The venerat ion oFM arian i ages traces back ñî the

early Christian times, when the Fourth Ecumenical

Council (Ephesus 43 1) proclaimed ñÜå V irgin " th e true

Mother of God" ( Theotokox)~. From th is time on, her

images were after those of Christ, and even more they

became equal to them~. T he vari ety of the V irgin 's ico-

nographic types in the Eastern Church, and the large

quantity of her im ages in the W est show the importan-

ce of é å V irgin 's cult in both fait hs.

The cult of the Byzantine ê î ï ÿ of the V irgin M axy in

the West started during the crusades ñî Constanti nople,

when her most venerated images were imported directly

l kom East ñ W est4 . T he Eastern i con became an archety-

pe or numerous Italian arnsts of D ugento and T recento,

as well as for the pain ters of the f fteenth century, when

the copying î Ãé åò became popular5. After the Council

, of Trent, the V irgin 's iconography and veneration, based

'; on Eastern icon tradit ion, was well established in the W est6.

'".Numerous copies of the most venerated icons spread

throughout West ern Europe. T hese copies resembled Gre-

ek icon pain ting in the iconography as well as in p rototy-

pe~. These images had the ÿàãóïå unction î ñé å mediator

àÿ he cons had. H owever, if in the M iddle Ages the cult

of images was managed locally, during the Counter Re-

formation i t became à matter î é Üå whole Church, whose

identity was dependent on the image. T he monasti c or-

(lers supported the veneration î ÃÌ àÍ àï images.s

T he M arian cult established during the Counter Re-

form ation i n W estern Europe reached L ith uania as well ,

where i t w as adopted and developed. Li thuani a's h isto-

rical, geographical, and religious situation added some

peculiaã features to the cult of th e V irgin Ì àãó. T his

thesis is à historical and iconographical analysis of the

mi raculous m ages î êî ï å V irgin Ì àãó in Li thuania from

the M iddle Ages unt il the sevent eenth cent ury . These

images were venerated like Byzantine icons; however,

they are not ê î ï ÿ, but some of ñï åãã prototypes derive

from Byzant ium and someti mes the images were modi -

fi ed wi th new iconographi c features. T heir i conograp-

hy and their veneration make them sim il ar ñî Byzant i -

ne i cons. T h se im ages, repeat in g and im it ati ng

Byzanti ne icons' p rototypes were part icularly widespre-

ad. n the Grand D uchy of L ith uania at the end of the

sixteenth, and the beginning of the seventeenth centu-

ry. T hey were called m iraculous and were directly con-

nected with the cult of the V irgin Ì àãó.

D uring this period , of course, there were many of

them in smal l v il lages as well as tow ns; however, many

of these images did not survive until present day and it

is known only from w ri tt en sources such as inventories

of the churches, that they existed. For others, which

st il l exist i n th e churches î ã ñï å small town or vi ll ages, it

is sometimes impossible ñî find their ori gin and dat ing,

because the documents of the churches, where they are

located, or even the vot ive of erings test i fy ing ñî their

m iraculous power, were lost , but they are sti ll called mi-

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