The triptych “Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary” FOUNDED BY ŁUKASZ II GÓRKA. Iconography,sources of the image programme, and the historical context of the work

Created in 1529, the painting was founded by Łukasz II Górka, a magnate and dignitary from the region of Wielkopolska, and it was probably originally designated for the St. Stanislaus altar in the family chapel of the Górkas in Poznan cathedral. The scenes showing the Annunciation and the Visitation, painted in the central panel of the triptych, are expressed with an orthodox Catholic approach. The role of the Virgin Mary in the work of salvation is very clearly demonstrated, along with the active role of the Holy Trinity. The showing of four virtues in the Visitation was an allusive extension ofthe narration ofthe history of salvation with its beginning in Heaven, i.e. the council of the Holy Trinity and its decision to send Christ down to the earth. What is also peculiar about the programme is the showing of prophets from the Old Testament (on the triptych‘s wings) announcing the coming of the Messiah and the reference to Sibyl in the representations and inscriptions on the Virgin Mary’s kneeler. The complex structure of the images of both the Annunciation and the Visitation possibly draws from the motifs contained in liturgical books and books intended for individual devotion. The potential sources of the iconographic programme of the Kórnik panel can be traced most stronglyto the title page ofthe 1492 French missal for Paris (Paris, Bibliotheque Mazarine, ms. 412). The strongly traditional iconography of the triptych becomes even more prominent in the context of confessional controversies witnessed by Poznań and the region of Wielkopolska in the 1520s. With the help of the Kórnik triptych, Łukasz Górka clearly demonstrated his faithfulness to Catholicism