Saints and sinners in the ‘Space’ of a 16th-17th century painting: the case of Adoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Vilnius Church of All Saints

Adoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a picture painted with oil on board in the early 17th century, was first recorded in historiography in the Riešė church. The first restoration of the painting was conducted in Poland in 1938, and several lost parts were reconstructed. In 1992 the painting was restored by Violeta Katilienė, and analysed by Dalia Panavaitė, Arūnas Bėkšta and others. After this restoration the painting was transferred to the Church of All Saints in Vilnius. In the present paper, referring to the Michel Foucault’s concepts of the space of localisation and heterotopia, we discuss how space is organised in the painting currently held in the Church of All Saints, and how the mediaeval principle of localisation of figures and the new features of post-Trent church painting of the late 16th – early 17th century are expressed in its structure. In this research possible iconographic sources and / or analogues of the painting are presented, the depicted persons are newly identified, and the logic of their presence in the same painting space is historically justified. It is revealed that the unknown artist who painted this work referred to a copper engraving by Johan Sadeler, created after a work by Christopher Schwartz (1545–1597) that did not survive, and also followed the engravings of the book of emblems by the Jesuit Johan David of the late 16th – early 17th century as well as other examples. A comparative analysis of the restoration material and the prototype of the work allows us to assert that in the primary variant of the painting a graphic prototype was meticulously followed, and iconographically different details (Mary’s foot, Infant’s arms, Mary’s ears and hair) coincide with the physically lost parts which were reconstructed in a somewhat different form during the pre-war restoration. While comparing the total image of Mary’s figure represented in the painting to the print that served as its prototype, the basic outstanding stylistic difference is the placidity and monumentality of the painted variant. The enlarged eyes and the generalised modelling of facial features of the holy persons, and the gilded sky decorated with carved ornaments extending above the cloud allow us to relate the work to the local painting school, possibly of Vilnius, that combines the decorativeness and schematism of icon painting, and the Baroque sumptuousness and magnificence of the Trent Church. In the paper, the iconographic analysis of the work is made more specific, the Carmelite saints – Saint Angel Martyr and Saint Albert – are established, and the three rulers – Sigismund III Vasa, Sigismund Augustus and Sigismund the Old – are recognised and their presence is justified. Jesuits occupied the key positions in the court milieu of Sigismund III (they were King’s tutors, confessors and the court’s preachers); the possible author of the prototype of the painting, Christopher Schwartz, worked for the Munich Jesuits, and other graphic prototype used in the composition of the painting is also related to the design of emblematic Jesuit literature mainly published in Antwerp. It allows us to draw a conclusion that the circumstances of the creation of the painting are related to the activity of the court of Sigismund III and the cultural activity of the Jesuit