Madonna and the Child

Abstract

The image of the Madonna and Child is the most valuable and oldest work of art stored in the church in Kamień. The exact date the painting was created and its author are not known. According to art historians, the work might have been made earlier than at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries and no later than in the mid-17th century. It was probably created in the workshop of one of Cracovian painters. Perhaps its author was Łukasz Porębski, who worked for Canons Regular of the Lateran in Cracow in the first half of the 17th century, or one of the conventuals – friar Marcin, whose obituary says he was a painter. It is certain that the painting has been placed on the high altar of the chapel in Kamień at least since 1797. In the absence of source records, it was not possible to determine when and by whom the painting went to Kamień. Kazimierz Łatak suspected that it could have come from the former altar of Saint Ursula in the church of the Corpus Christi in Cracow. After the construction of the current parish church in Kamień in 1924-1927, wooden altars from the aforementioned wooden chapel were moved to it, including the high altar with the discussed painting of the Madonna and Child. In the 1930s, a decision was made to replace the furnishings. The current set of alabaster altars was created in 1937-1939. It was made at the "Żórawno" Alabaster Factory in Żórawno on the Dniester River. In the first stage of work, the high altar was made, which was completed in 1937. Initially, it was planned to include an alabaster representation of the Mother of God. This concept, however, met with the opposition of parishioners who wanted to see the image of the Madonna and Child in the altar. The completed furnishings set was consecrated on 8 July 1939. In 1941, the painting was covered with a silver-plated robe, made in Cracow, most likely by goldsmith Wojciech Batowski. In terms of iconography, the image in Kamień belongs to the images of the Virgin Mary in the type of Hodegetria, i.e. She who points the Way. The presentation of Hodegetria is one of the oldest and most representative images of the Virgin Mary, whose authorship according to tradition is attributed to Saint Luke.