A RTI UM VI LNENS S 125 2002 I

, CULT OF V I RGIN MARY AN D IT S I MAGES , LIT H UAN IA FROM T H E M I D D LE A GES UN T IL THE SEVEN T EEN T H CEN T URY'
Ausra 1 C ntral Euro ean Uni vers ty, Budap e e p i st

1. I nrr ao n v c r ro x

T he M ari an cult established during the C ounter Reform ation i n W estern Europe reached L ith uani a as well , w here i t w as adopted and developed . L i thuani a's h istori cal , geographi cal , and reli gious si tuati on added som e pecul ia features to the cul t of the V i rgin . T his thesis is historical and iconographi cal analysi s of the m iraculous im ages V irgin in Li thuania from the M iddl e A ges until the sevent een th cent ury. T hese im ages w ere venerated lik e Byzantine icons; how ever, they are not , but som e of prototypes derive from Byzantium and som etim es the i m ages w ere m odifi ed w ith new i conographi c features. T hei r i conography and thei r venerati on m ake them sim il ar Byzanti n e i con s. T h ese i m ages, rep eat i n g an d i m i t at i n g Byzan ti ne icons' p rototypes w ere particularly w i despread .in the G rand D uchy of L i th uania at the end of the sixteenth, and the begi nning of the seventeenth century. T hey w ere called m i raculous and w ere di rectly connected w ith the cul t of the V i rgin . D uri ng this period , of course, there w ere m any of them in sm al l villages as w ell as tow ns; how ever, m any of these i m ages did not sur vive until present day and it i s know n only from w ri tten sources such as i nventories of the churches, that they existed. For others, w hich still exist i n the churches sm all tow n or vi llages, it ' is som etim es i mpossible find th ei r origi n and dating, because the documents of the churches, where they are located, or even the votive of erings testi fy ing thei r f m iraculous pow er , w ere lost , but they are still called mi 1 7

The veneration oFM arian im ages traces back the early Christian ti m es, w h en the Fourth Ecum eni cal Council (Ephesus 43 1) procl aim ed V i rgi n " the true Mother of God" ( Theotokox From this tim e on, her )~. images were after those of C h rist, and even m ore they became equal to them ~. T he variety of the V irgi n 's iconographic types in the Eastern Ch urch , and the l arge quantity of her im ages i n the W est sh ow the i m portance of V irgin 's cul t in both fai ths. The cult of the Byzantine of the V irgin M axy in the W est started during the crusades Constantinople, when her most venerated im ages w ere imported directly l kom East W est4 . T he Eastern icon became an archety pefor numerous Italian arnsts of D ugento and T recento, a well as for the painters of the f fteenth century, when s i the copying becam e popul ar5. After the Council . , of Trent, the V irgin's iconography and veneration, based '; on Eastern icon tradition, waswell established in the W est6. t .Numerous copies of the m ost venerated i cons spread '" throughout W er n Europe. T hese copies resem bled G reest e icon painting in the iconography as w ell as in prototyk pe . These images had the function m ediator ~ the icons had. H ow ever, if in the M iddle A ges the cult of images was managed locally, during the Counter Reformation it becam e m atter whole Church, whose identity was dependent on the im age. T he m onastic or(lers supported the veneration images.s