The Development and Iconography of the Wall Paintings in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Rykantai

Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis

Abstract

The article explores the interior and exterior wall paintings of the Rykantai Church with the main focus on the Stations of the Cross and the Dominican series. The iconographic programme of the wall paintings follows the spatial and sacred areas of the church and is adapted to its architecture. It was most likely created by the Dominican friars in close cooperation with Marcjan Aleksander Ogiński, who renovated the Rykantai Church and handed it over to the friars in 1688. Portraits of this benefactor and his wife Marcibella Hlebowiczówna Ogińska are painted in the presbytery, the series of the Passion of Christ is arranged around the perimeter of church, and the images of nine Dominicans are seen on the parapet of the organ choir. The image of St. George that bears witness to the former title of the church (from the early nineteenth century) has been preserved on the façade. [...]

The article raises many questions as to the original structure of the Passion of Christ series (the number of stations), whether the entire series was uncovered and exposed during the 1931–32 conservation, and the specific time of creating the paint- ings (the Dominican cycle, The Pensive Christ), which could be answered by detailed architectural and polychrome investigations.