Painting as a Book: The Connection between the Wall Paintings of the Vilnius Bernardine

Abstract

The wall paintings of the Church of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Bernard of Siena in Vilnius, created between 1513 and 1521, represent a monument of exceptional value to late medieval art and spirituality. They stand out for their carefully conceived and complex iconographic program, articulated through both images and inscriptions. The fresco painters placed considerable emphasis on the textual elements accompanying the compositions; however, these inscriptions have survived only fragmentarily, complicating a full understanding of the imagery.

Scholarly research has made it possible to reconstruct some of the lost inscriptions by identifying printed sources whose illustrations served as iconographic prototypes for the fresco painters. Notably, these graphic models were not copied verbatim. Instead, they were freely reinterpreted—rearranged, combined with elements from other scenes, and transformed into new, original compositions.

The wall paintings of the Bernardine Church, much like the illustrations in one of their principal iconographic sources—Der Schatzbehalter (1491) by Stephan Fridolin—were created for the religious instruction of the laity and to disseminate Franciscan ideals. Despite the differences in scale and medium, both works place central emphasis on images intended for the contemplation of Christ’s Passion and death. The use of illustrations from Fridolin’s book in decorating the Bernardine Church in Vilnius reveals not only the simple function of this publication as an iconographic prototype but also points to deeper intellectual ties between the Franciscan Observants active in Lithuania and those in the German-speaking regions. The Bernardine preachers of Vilnius likely drew inspiration and material from Fridolin’s text, especially since the frescoes themselves appear to have been conceived as visual counterparts to sermons. It is also significant that, in the early sixteenth century, the Vilnius Bernardines served as patrons of the Tertiary nuns. The book compiled by Brother Fridolin—active in Nuremberg, where he likewise served as the spiritual leader of the local nuns—would therefore have held particular meaning and relevance for them.

The ideological program of the church’s decoration was shaped in part by tensions between the Conventual and Observant branches of the Order of Friars Minor at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries—a divide rooted in differing interpretations of the Rule. The Observants, eager to assert themselves as the “true Friars Minor” (a title formally recognized by Pope Alexander VI in 1501 at the request of the Vilnius Bernardines), expressed these claims visually in the imagery that adorned their church walls.

Stylistically, the wall paintings of the Vilnius Bernardine Church align with the late Gothic traditions of Northern and Central Europe, although certain scenes also show the influence of Italian art. (The cycle depicting the life of St. Francis—particularly the scenes of his stigmatization—follows models that were widespread across Europe and ultimately derive from Italian prototypes.) Notably, this early sixteenth-century work represents the oldest surviving example of wall painting in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania that consistently draws on the iconography and stylistic principles of Western sacred art. The incorporation of graphic sources of exceptionally high quality—among them works by Dürer, Wolgemut, and Pleydenwurff—further underscores the remarkable artistic value of the frescoes. The names of the painters responsible for the Vilnius Bernardine cycle remain unknown; members of the monastic community may have taken part in the painting process, although the involvement of secular masters cannot be ruled out.