EXHIBITION "CHRISTIANITY IN LITHUANIAN ART"
(28 December, 1999 - 31 December, 2003)

ANTIPEDIUM OF THE MADONNA OF MISERICORD ALTAR IN SS PETER AND PAUL’ CHURCH
Vilnius, the second half of the 1st quarter of the 18th c.
Silver, copper, stamping and engraving

Ruta Vitkauskiene

The altar of the Madonna of Misericord of SS Peter and Paul’s Church was built in 1653 after the outbreak of plague epidemic in Vilnius, when a copy of Italian painting depicting Madonna of Misericord was moved from Tiskevicius Palace to the church. The painting shows Our Lady breaking the arrows of Divine wrath, the image traditionally considered to protect the dwellers of the town from the epidemic. In 1708-1710, Lithuania was scourged by plague again. In 1709 Bishop Constantinus Casimirus Brzostowski introduced 40-hour Mass, celebrated every second week of May at the Altar of Mater Misericordia in SS Peter and Paul’s Church. Soon the image became famous through its mercies. In 1722 a new sumptuous silver antependium was commissioned. The antependium develops the theme of the saints Peter and Paul pleading to the Madonna of Misericord for he intercession in protection from Divine wrath, which is symbolized by broken arrows. Only the figures of the saints survived from the original antependium. The frame in the Rococo style is a work of second half of the 18th c., it was fitted for the antependium much latter in the 19th-20th centuries.

 

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