Matka Boska Zwycięska z Mariampola nad Dniestrem w kościele NMP na Piasku we Wrocławiu

Tradition associated this canvas with Hetman Stanisław Jan Jabłonowski (1634-1702) for whom it fulfilled the function of a field painting. Conservation provided an opportunity for a number of analyses making it possible to examine the technical-technological construction of the work, to establish the stratigraphy of the painted layer of assorted fragments of the composition, and to determine the pigments and bindings. In turn, a visual analysis of the original enabled the recreation of the manner in which particular parts were executed. These data proved to be of great help for preparing a copy, which the author of this article completed in 1997-1998, and which was to replace the original for daily display. An attempted comparative analysis from the domain of the history of art was expanded by technical-technological problems, without which the establishment of the time and range in which the painting in question originated would have posed a much more difficult task. The entire composition is covered by a thick layer of overpainting, deforming the original character of the depiction, and making impossible its artistic-stylistic assessment. Only photographs taken with X-rays registered the distinct shape of the original composition, which, unfortunately, is to a considerable extent damaged. Nonetheless, the most important parts, such as the faces of the Virgin and the Child, are preserved quite well. The actual state of the preservation could be estimated only after the removal of the overpainting, the duplication and the old putties. The number of gaps in the painted layer was put at 30%, and the number of holes in the original canvas exceeded 136. The localisation of some of them testifies to the fact that they were caused by the sharp edges of a silver dress placed upon the painting during the eighteenth century, which touched the surface of the painting. In the course of conservation the removal of overpainting and putties was followed by the removal of duplication. Gaps in the original canvas were cleaned of the remnants of the duplication mass and covered with cloth patches. In the next stage, the gaps were supplemented by putty produced by Clam-Brummner in a colour slightly darker than the original. The surface of the putties was polished mechanically and the painting was stretched on a new pine frame. The surface of the composition was covered with dammar varnish upon the base of turpentine oil — the ratio of resin to solvent was 1:4. The pointing was executed with Rembrandt-Tralens, Winsor & Newton, and Lefranc-Bourgeois oil paints. Owing to the stylistic character of the composition and its cult rank it was decided to conduct the retouching and reconstruction of larger fragments by means of an integration-imitation method, making it possible to gain the impression of a uniform work. After the completion of the reconstruction, the composition was covered once again by dammar varnish. Upon the basis of archival material and literature gathered by the author we should not exclude the possibility that this particular canvas was actually the property of Hetman Stanisław Jan Jabłonowski. From the eighteenth century the painting was adored and regarded as miraculous. It was featured in Mariampol up to 1945, when the Polish population of the Eastern Borderlands was forcefully resettled to the Western Territories. Since 1965 the canvas is displayed in the church of the Holy Virgin Mary in Wroclaw. The cult surrounding the object remains lively, as evidenced by its coronation with papal crowns in 1989. The stylistic features of the canvas indicate Bolognese painting from the second half of the sixteenth century, which flourished in the Carracci Academy. The technical-technological character of the object also appears to confirm this assumption.