Catalog#: 2023.05.015

Marek Czarnecki
"Our Lady of Vilnius"
Egg tempera, oil paints, 23kt gold and palladium
32 X 22 X 6

Description:

This magnificent piece represents the icon of the Mother of God of Mercy, located in the pointed eastern gate of Vilnius, Lithuania.   It was originally a modest 17th-century painting of the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation.  However, after her coronation, she now wears a gold robe in thanksgiving for answered prayers.  She gazes down, contemplating the divine child miraculously conceived inside her.  She is the human mother of God.  Her magnificent robe of glory, now an inseparable part of the icon, manifests her other role as our eternal mother, intercessor, and Queen of Heaven.  The miraculous image of Our Lady of Mercy is enshrined in the ancient city walls of Vilnius, Lithuania. In gratitude for the Mother of God’s intercession, grateful clients returned to the image with gifts of gold and jewelry. These donations were made into the elaborate crowns and metal dress that now cover the icon. Crowned with 12 silver stars and the moon below her, the Mother of God is depicted as the woman dressed with the sun described in the Book of Revelations.

The gold shadow box frame faithfully replicates the architecture of the chapel in the eastern pointed gate or “ostra brama” in Polish.