Prawdziwy wizerunek św. Pawła Pierwszego Pustelnika na jasnogórskiej monstrancji z daru króla Zygmunta I .......... 615
Synopsis
THE TRUE IMAGE OF ST. PAUL THE FIRST HERMIT ON THE JASNA GÓRA MONSTRANCE, DONATED BY KING SIGISMUND I
The Treasury of the Pauline Monastery at Jasna Góra houses a monstrance founded in 1542 by King Sigismund the Old. A scene of the discovery of the corpse of St. Paul the First Hermit by St. Anthony is depicted on the foot of the monstrance. The model for this particular composition is an illustration found in two Venetian publications intended for use by the Paulines: a missal published in 1537 and a breviary published in 1540. The breviary is still kept in the Jasna Góra Library (ref. no. II J 2/3) and it was this copy that served as a model for the Cracow goldsmith. The choice of the representation of St. Paul the First Hermit (made certainly in the monastery on Jasna Góra) was related to the process of standardising the image of the patron saint of the congregation, which had been evident since the beginning of the 16th century. This process was then resumed and fully developed only in the first half of the 17th century, but its origins can be traced back to the first half of the 16th century.
