Selected artistic, theological and historical aspects in the paintings „Allegory of Faith” and „Adoration of the Christ the Redeemer” from St. Peter and Paul Church in Puck

This paper describes two seventeenth-century paintings in St. Peter and Paul Church in Puck. The works are placed next to each other and they have the form of discs fitting into the arches of the Gothic vault of the church. The images are consistent in terms of composition and content. Allegorical paintings symbolize the significance of faith, the communion of saints and mediation in salvation. The anonymous works are creative transformation of the Gothic tradition of painting in the service of the post-tridentine Catholic Church fighting with the Reformation. The paintings are overloaded with excessive content of iconography and raise a number of issues about which the Reformation spoke critically or towards which it had a negative attitude. The images depict characters from the Bible and the Gospel. To bring people closer to the scenes on canvas, the painters included elements of familiar realities and the characters of the time. Works form Puck in terms of iconography and composition make use of the experience of artists from Gdańsk and painters working with the Cistercians and the Jesuits. Described paintings cannot be placed in a catalogue of relics as high-quality works. They refer to the paintings, which were characterized by dignity and simplicity. The value of these paintings is remarkable from theological and iconographic point of view; as it is an example of an attempt to spread counter-reformation ideas among the faithful.