Ze skarbów Jasnej Góry. O dwóch manierystycznych klejnotach na Sukience Rubinowej obrazu Matki Boskiej Częstochowskiej .......... 663

FROM THE TREASURES OF JASNA GÓRA. ON TWO MANNERIST JEWELS UPON THE RUBY ROBE OF THE MIRACULOUS IMAGE OF OUR LADY OF CZĘSTOCHOWA

As a result of the destruction of the majority of our ancestors’ private treasuries, what remains of historical valuables has survived mainly as ex-votos in sanctuaries. Among nearly 900 jewels preserved on the Ruby Robe of the 14th century picture of Our Lady of Częstochowa (fig. 1) is a single piece (ca 1600), a dress ornament or a link of a chain (fig. 2a–b). A design of such an ornament (from 1606) can be found in the book of jeweler’s ‘masterpieces’ in Barcelona (fig. 4). Our object is an exceptional, three-dimensional realization of such a model. Sewn on in the middle of the Robe is an unusual brooch with a depiction of three fantastic animals (fig. 5). The dynamic figures of a lion, griffon and dragon are strongly orientalized. A comparison between them and the decoration of the hilt of a small hunting sword (ca 1654) at Rosenborg Castle, which belonged to Sophie Amalie, Queen of Denmark (fig. 6a–b), suggests that the elements of the Jasna Góra brooch may have been part of the decoration of an identical object from the mid-17th century.