“lo, the heavens, and the heavens of the heavens do not contain Thee” (1 Kings 8:27)

The Lost Painting of the Risen Christ Appearing to Mary (1506) from the Convent of the Poor Clares in Wroclaw and the Relationship Between Faith and Touch

Abstract

The article deals with a lost painting featuring the Risen Christ Appearing to Mary, created in 1506 and originating from the former convent of the Poor Clares in Wrocław (before 1945: Breslau). The reason for providing a separate study to this particular object lies primarily in its rare, even on a European scale, iconography, being a merge of apocryphal and biblical scenes and at the same time synthesizing medieval descriptions of Christophany, especially those written by Franciscan authors. What is more, the artwork proves to be all the more complex in its intellectualand ideological eloquence, the more educated and aware of its meditative goals the Poor Clares praying before it were. The nuns being less advanced in their studies could, with its help, especially at Easter, worship Mary Queen of Heaven (Regina Caeli) and the mother of God. On the other hand, the spiritually and mentally more mature Poor Clares, aware of the fact that the possibility of touching, let alone embracing, God and Mary is the privilege of those whose faith remains unshaken, the image could lead deeper and support contemplation intended to result, according to St. Clare’s recommendations, “in clinging to His most sweet Mother who carried a Son whom ‘the heavens cannot contain'.”