“I am the Bishop of Cracow, Stanisław”. A Contribution to the Baroque Iconography of St Stanisław of Szczepanów

Abstract

Studies of St Stanisław’s iconography focus on the early presentations, from the first, extremely doubtful images, until the 16th century. In the present text a problem has been undertaken that up till now has been completely neglected by discussions of visual images of St Stanisław, namely, one of the saint bishop-martyr in mystic visions of other Polish saints and blessed ones. The research problem formulated in this way is connected with a little broader context of showing St Stanisław’s visions in Polish art.

St Stanisław’s visions present in art can be divided into three basic groups. Numerous mentions of the saint’s appearances to various people after his death, his helping, teaching and keeping up their spirits that are recorded in miracles may be included in the first one. The second group of visions is made up by many relations of St Stanisław appearing to Polish soldiers over the fields of most famous battles fought by the Polish military. The third type of visions is the basic subject of the article. In these visions the Cracow Bishop appears to Polish saints and blessed ones. Along with this subject we step onto the field of baroque hagiographic iconography, as in Polish Gothic and Renaissance visual arts there are no images of this kind.

Visional episodes in the lives of saintly Poles that have St Stanisław the Bishop as their protagonist are another manifestation of his cult, and indirectly they testify to the exceptional significance that God’s servant had in the history of Polish Catholicism. No other national saint appears in Polish art in such a role. Although descriptions of supernatural experiences contained in old Polish lives and memoirs talk about our saints appearing to various people, these references did not become an inspiration for artists.

A comparison of the figures of Świętosław, Jacek, S. Kazimierczyk and Prandota with the person of St Stanisław allows them to gain significance and their social perception acquires a different dimension. It is a peculiar element of visual popularization through referring to the person of a saint, generally known and accepted by the faithful. It is also a specific form of legislation for those cults that were only to be sanctioned by the Holy See.

In a broader iconographic context it can be remarked that saints, also of foreign origin, did not enjoy a lot of popularity in Polish iconography that showed mystic visions where images of Mary and the Infant or Christ (Flagellated, Crucified, Resurrected) dominated.