Typology of depictions of the image of the Our Lady of Dzików in museum collections

Abstract

The author thoroughly analyses museum collections of the depictions of the miraculous image of the Our Lady of Dzików, of which several dozen are extant. A meticulous review of individual elements featuring or omitted in the versions of the image makes it possible to categorise them into groups of similar compositions. This may indicate the same or different workshops of origin. Most of the described objects are paintings made in the nineteenth century by unprofessional creators. They present an iconographic variant largely different from the original based on copperplate engravings made by Erazm Belling and Joseph Sebastian Klauber, which popularised a particular notion of the image of Our Lady of Dzików. However, significant changes to the composition are noticeable, above all the replacement of fruits and birds from the foreground with the infant figure of St. John the Baptist. The objects from museum collections from the 18th century are closer to the original image. The author intentionally omitted chromolithographs, which do not have the individual characteristics of particular artists. She also did not include in the list prints of Klauber copperplate engraving or those related to them, which by their commonness may constitute the subject of a separate study. The author's object of interest were primarily the differences between the painting versions of Our Lady of Dzików kept in museums.Key words: Dominican monastery in Tarnobrzeg, Erazm Belling, Joseph Sebastian Klauber, the image of the Our Lady from Dzików.