AUGUSTINIAN THOUGHT AS REVEALED IN THE ICONOGRAPHIC PROGRAMME OF BAROQUE MURAL PAINTINGS IN A WOODEN CHURCH OF WIELKOPOLSKA

In the wooden church at Gasawa, once belonging to the canons regular of Trzemeszno, a unique group of mural paintings was discovered occupying a number of layers that can be dated to four distinct periods, ranging from the 17th century, the years 1705-6 and the most recent from 1807. The 18th-century decoration possesses the most clearly legible iconographic programme, assumed to have been funded, like the two predating it, by the monastery of Trzemeszno, and being carried out by no fewer than two painters, almost certainly Augustinian canons regular belonging to a single workshop. Catechetical painting is dominated by the redeeming contents of Christology as interpreted in the spirit of St. Augustine's theological reflections. The original, simultaneous composition of The Resurrected Christ with Disciples and Mary Magdalen displays message of faith on the canonical Word. Episodes are portrayed from the life of the canonised bishop of Hippo and Job and the previously conceived synthesis of motifs gave rise to messages of a moralising nature.Depictions conventionally defined by musical themes are an echo of the Augustinian reflections on the essence of universal harmony. The instruments and verses of the Psalms depict musica instrumentalis, while the more highly valued musica mundana - sounding the eternal praises of God, are personified in King David playing the harp and St. Cecelia at the organ pipes, a choir of angels and the accompanying duet with violin and lute. Thanks to the effect of trompe l'oeil, the interiors open onto the painted world and true architectural space becomes that of the events pictured, lending a vision of the world of sacrum. This refined illusionism, harnessed during the late-Baroque to the service of catechetical duties as conducted in the wooden church of the Wielkopolska province lends continuity and permanent relevance of conceptually arranged mural paintings as originally worked out during the Middle Ages, most certainly with the decisive contribution of the Augustinian canons regular.