Jerzy Remer's article 'Madonna of the Vilnius stronghold (image of Our Lady of the Dawn Gate)', published in the journal 'Sztuki Piękne', 1926/1927, no. 9, pp. 324-341, presents a description and history of the image and the Ostrobramska Chapel. The article is illustrated with photographs and reproductions of the paintings.

A modernised reading of the text.

Madonna of the Gates of Dawn
(Image of Our Lady of the Dawn Gate)

Vilnius is an ancient creation of nature and a work of centuries-old architecture. The lofty hills in the centre of the former castle and the natural rampart of the mountains outside the city's perimeter, as well as the soaring towers, gables and domes of the churches, together with the mass of the roofs, form one great closed shape, in itself compact, almost fortress-like. Over the centuries, the individual elements of this dual creation have blended together in a single entity, a single form, which has been filled with different content over many generations: the majesty of great kings, the spirit of the nation's bards, the creativity of artists - the heroism of all of them and of the whole nation. In the geological layering of the earth and the work of human hands, we can see, in retrospect, the entire history of the centuries building up here the peculiar culture of an environment that was once a bridge between West and East, today a redoubt of the Republic of Poland. All that is left of the wide trade routes, and thus of the culture, are vestiges, disappearing at the borders of the state, hidden in them or trodden under foot, while the city, once opening its gates to everyone and everything on paths, has closed in on itself, becoming a fortress in the broadest sense of the word. A stronghold, albeit northeastern, full of brightness and sunshine, in the spiritual sense, full of brilliance and colour, however brief - our Florence of the North. It has earned this name by nurturing treasures of nature and art which, despite the tremendous storms, have survived thanks to a kind of material resistance and, above all, to spiritual forces stronger than stones. The latter speak at every turn of past times and people, walking in plumes of glory and fame, - an inner fortitude preserving a tradition of perseverance, defence, perpetuation in relationships documented by royal records. Vilnius, resurrected in our eyes by the sumptuousness of the Polish Republic, and by the power of the consciousness and will of its best sons, attracts the attention of Europe, which sees in it no longer only "a city of art forgotten (by itself)".

In the hierarchy of Vilnius churches dating back to the Gothic period, the first place, not in terms of chronology but in terms of universal significance, is occupied by the Ostra Brama Chapel with its miraculous image of the Mother of God, which together with the gate of that name is like the presbytery of a single-nave church under the open sky. This is undoubtedly the name given to the Ostra Bramska Street, which is an extension of Zamkovy Street and Great Street. At the entrance to this original temple rises, slightly to the side, the monumental façade of the Church of St. Theresa (built in 1635-1650), the side façade of which, together with the chapel of Michal Pociej (built in 1753) and the two-storey gallery (built in 1850), forms one wall of the open temple. The end of this unique temple in the world is, as mentioned above, the Ostra Brama Chapel, added in the 18th century to the Ostra Brama (Gates of Dawn), named after the sharp corner end in the narrowing area of the city. The lack of a vault in this building is replaced by a sky with magnificent Vilnius clouds or stars at night. Here, in the street, facing the Gate of Dawn, the passer-by, the pilgrim, the crowd, the people, the foreigner and all of Christian Poland prays, taking off their headgear. The Ostra Brama Street is such a church, leading us through its gate, once known as Medininkai-Krevska Street, to the old roads leading from Vilnius to Medininkai and Krevo, the ancient seats of the Lithuanian princes, with their Gothic castles still in ruins.

The Gate of Dawn, one of the many gates of Vilnius' ancient defensive walls, houses an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary "in plain view for the consolation of all", to which "the door is not closed to anyone, but as a public gate" everyone "has free access at all times". The original fortress gate has been transformed into a "holy gate pleasing to God", as a devotional song would have it, in which Mater Misericordiae has taken up residence. Mater Amabilis - as the Carmelites called her - becomes the 'Gates of Dawn Crown' and the 'Guardian of Vilnius'. Thanks to this transformation of secular architecture into a house of God, after the chapel was erected, the only 'Porta acialis' was saved during the demolition of the Vilnius fortress in 1799-1802. The image of the Vilnius Madonna is therefore connected to the defensive mitres which King Alexander, by a privilege issued in Hrodna in 1503, ordered the townspeople to erect to defend themselves "from Paganism" (Tartars) "for a better guard and security from enemies". The town's enclosure with five gates was completed in 1522.

On the topographic plan of Vilnius, which gives a bird's-eye view of the city, included in the atlas of the main cities of the world by Georg Braun of Cologne, drawn by František Hogenberg in 1576, and taken much earlier (circa 1550), we see Vilnius - Lituaniae Metropolis - and the city's fortifications; the panoramic view from 1604 on the engraving by Tomasz Makowski, a cartographer from Nesvizh, revealing the city at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries. The panoramic view of 1604, painted by Tomasz Makowski, a cartographer from Nesvizh, revealing the city at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, shows the Gates of Dawn in the narrow corner of the city, above the low-rise houses, covered with a steep roof and facing the suburbs with two barbican towers. On a plan of Vilnius from 1648, drawn up by F. Getkant, the military engineer of King Władysław IV, we find the fortification intended and only partially undertaken, including the precisely marked perimeter wall with nine gates, of which the Gate of Dawn has a barbican. The well-known watercolour by František Smuglewicz (1745-1807), a professor of painting and drawing at Vilnius University, immortalises, among others, this gate from the eastern end of the Ostra Brama (Sharp Gate) suburb with the remains of the city wall adjoining it from the south. From the very beginning it has therefore played an important role as the most prominent defensive post at the end of the town. The medieval custom was to place an image of the Madonna on this gate. In all probability, this happened after the completion of the walls and gates (on which other images of saints were also hung) through the efforts of the town council, which was responsible for looking after the gates. This supposition is confirmed by the account of X. Hilarion (quoted in the footnote), which states that "when the Vilnius convent (of the Discalced Carmelites) began to be founded here at the Gates of Dawn in the year 1626, by Divine disposition, our Fathers immediately began to pay special attention and veneration to this Holy Picture and by their example began to encourage the faithful to devotion and due respect. Although they did not have the proper means to locate this Carmel's honour and decoration either in a more ornamental place, as long as they had not yet been entrusted with it by the town (which did not happen until 1668), or to decorate the place itself perfectly, they nevertheless began to think earnestly about how to extend and multiply the honour and glory of the Blessed Virgin Mary in this Image".

The fact that the Carmelites "observed" the painting immediately after 1626 allows us to state that the painting had been hanging on the gate before that year, only that "it did not have full veneration and due respect, but was only venerated and respected in a common and decent way by Catholics, like other paintings not famous for miracles in any place. It had no handsome chapel and no decent decoration for miraculous images, but was only on the same place where it is now, slightly recessed into the wall with windows or doors not quite square, covering the Image from snow and rainy weather. In front of it was a very narrow porch, with simple and cramped halls, barely accessible for pious people to light a lamp (if offered)".

Placed in the care of the Carmelites as early as that year, the painting was moved to St Teresa's Church in 1671 and "placed in the first chapel to the right of the great altar". In the same year, thanks to the efforts of Father Charles of the Holy Spirit, the convent's famous preacher, and after the construction of a very "shapely, even wooden" chapel, which was decorated and adorned "perfectly" with paintings, pictorials and inscriptions, the painting was moved to this chapel, where it remained until 1706, i.e. until the day (18. V) of the city fire. In establishing certain dates for the painting, we should also note the year 1715, when almost the entire city was destroyed, and "the chapel at the Gates of Dawn, which had been free from damage for 44 years, burned down at that time". The painting did not suffer in either conflagration, perhaps thanks to its transfer to the Carmelite church, where it was housed after the last fire for several years, before a new brick chapel was erected on the same site, receiving its present appearance after a restoration in 1829, giving it the form of late classicism.

Having realised in the above time indicators the historical facts indisputable due to the credibility of the simple words of the previously repeatedly cited Relation of X. With this knowledge of the Madonna's existence in the 16th-century fortress of Vilnius, at the sharp end of the hill, on a high gate, from where she reigned and almost hovered over the city - having it, as it were, at her feet - we proceed with due respect to the examination of the work as a work of art.

The pseudo-scientific prejudices, still wandering as scraps in the vast area of professional literature, that a work of art without written documents is mute, must be eradicated as soon as we rely on the younger sister of art history, the science commonly known as conservation. In this science, moreover, there have recently been elements of creativity, of this work which, on the basis of a multifaceted technical and artistic-formal study, discovers in a given plastic work the moment of its creation, the creation of a certain material in accordance with an artistic concept. The reconstructive elements of this work of thought and feeling, containing for the myopic viewer reconstructive features, have a profound creative sense in relation to timeless or nameless works of art in the historical sense. Monuments of this kind, from an unknown epoch or unknown creator, are the subject of intricate aesthetic inquiries by art historians, who reveal their knowledge through the bending of plastic facts to their own tastes or moods.

With regard to the painting of the Madonna of the Dawn Gate, the principle of looking for the first time "with one's own eyes" at a historical work of painting, which has had its own speech of shapes for centuries, through which it undoubtedly works actively, has been adopted. The discovery of this eloquence inherent in the work itself, without using, at least for the time being, genre-specific other arguments, became the premise of the conservation idea when it was decided to simultaneously examine the state of preservation of the great painting intended for the great coronation act. Appointed to carry out this responsible work, the artist-conservator Jan Rutkowski, the creator of the conservation of the painting of the Virgin Mary of Czestochowa, set about the new work with a wealth of knowledge and many years of experience, which enabled him to overcome with serenity and infallibility all the difficulties piling up at every relic. For conservation problems are individual. There are no recipes or templates, nor can there be. Relying on certain principles like foundations, it builds its edifice on the ground of the object under study. The two-month work of the conservator, after inspecting and adding up all the data, yielded results summarised in the following objective statements:

The painting is painted on a panel consisting of eight oak planks. The individual boards, counting from the left of the viewer looking at the painting, are: 7, 17, 14, 12.5, 21.5, 19.5, 21.5, 27 cm. The thickness of the board is 2 cm. Dimensions of the entire panel: 2 m by 1 m 63 cm. The boards were joined by three 7 cm wide inserted strips, besides which they were tied together with dovetail stays. On the upper edges of the board are rectangular cut-outs, founded on the left with a pine board (20 cm × 43 cm), on the right with a lime board (24.5 × 44 cm). The boards are generally preserved in a state of considerable deterioration, occurring most visibly in the lower part of the slab. Here it was possible to ascertain, thanks to the established distance of the dovetails, that the slab had been cut away from the bottom about 20 cm. The arrowheads had fallen out in several places. The strained consistency of the Sten of the tree was reinforced with iron bars, nailed to the boards. Their bond was loosened, resulting in gaps, appearing on the reverse side, covered with paint, in the form of cracks, one of which, for example, went through the Madonna's face. In the painting itself, we can distinguish exactly two painting techniques: tempera on a thin layer of chalk ground and oil. The former appears visibly and almost completely on the face of the Virgin and on the mantle in places where the oil paint, i.e. the second layer covering it, not organically bound to the tree, has detached from it, flaked off or splintered off, creating blisters or irregular shapes that do not fill the tree in many places. The presence of tempera paint was also found on the white shawl covering the head. The oil paint, on the other hand, covers, in addition to the background, the tempera paint, as noted above - over the entire mantle, as a result of which there is a significant thickening of the painting here, - then there is a completely clear oil painting of the tunic and hands, under which there is a (2 cm x 2.5 cm) hole, touched in its depth with a brush with oil paint of the same colour as the tunic. Faint traces of the original chalk priming were observed in the background of the painting and on the rays near the head. Conversely, traces of oil paint are found on the face in the lights of the eyes, nose, mouth and chin and in the flush of the cheeks. In several places, most clearly on the contour of the mantle, traces of an engraving pen were seen, which left a kind of narrow groove or indentation. On a narrow strip of the lower part of the mantle, an oil layer was removed to ascertain the existence of two techniques, under which tempera paint appeared, malachite in colour, lighter than the dark green undercoat.

These findings obtained during the conservation of the painting are of paramount importance for its history, from an artistic standpoint. For they lead to the conclusion that the original painting, painted on a chalk ground using the al tempera technique, was repainted with oil paints. The simultaneity of painting with both techniques is ruled out, as under the layer of oil paint a layer of tempera colour was discovered, which almost completely fills the face of the Madonna. The combination of the two techniques in one painting as presented proved disastrous for the state of preservation of the painting, causing very considerable damage to the mantle in the first instance. On the other hand, M. B.'s face, thanks to an almost uniform technique with only minor exceptions of oil retouching, retained an almost fresh appearance in the painter's texture, to which the removal of dirt and dust, which, with a layer a centimetre thick, covered the parts covered by the sheeting of the robe, nailed directly to the board, undoubtedly also contributed. When the gilded robes (made of silver gilt) were removed, 2,683 holes were found on the board, mainly on the surface of the background, caused by the nailing of the robes (consisting of 13 parts of separate sheet metal plates), and above all the votive offerings, which were nailed directly to the painting before the figure was covered with the metal cloth. All holes, cracks in the boards and other traces of deterioration, such as chipped oil paint, were removed by conservator J. Rutkowski with Benedictine patience using a chalk primer or wax, after first strengthening the consistency of the wood with so-called parqueting. Restricting ourselves to a cursory note of some moments in the history of the restoration of the painting (which will be published separately on the basis of the work diary), we proceed in turn to an objective description of the figure of Our Lady of the Dawn Gate painting.

The Madonna of the Gate of Dawn is depicted at supernatural size. The axis of the figure, passing more or less through the crossing of the hands, marks the angle of the head inclined towards the right (to the left of the viewer). The arms are slightly tilted, crossed on the chest. The crossing of the hands was created by folding the left hand over the right, with the fingers of both hands, except the middle ones, slightly open. M. B. is clad in a mantle with visible lining, a tunic with sleeves and a gown (visible at the joint of the left hand from under the tunic), a shawl on her head extended from under the mantle and a shawl (Italian for "gargoyle") under her neck. Madonna's face enclosed by an elongated oval. Eyes half-open (they appear closed when the painting is in its place in the chapel - differences in perspective), set in prominent eyelids, especially the upper one, - irises large, beer-coloured. The eyebrows have a definite semi-arc line. Nose straight with a very slight "hump", ending with proportional nostrils. Mouth full, with regular shape, slightly closed, lower lip slightly deviated. Chin with a regular line, rounded and emphasised with chiaroscuro. Neck uncovered, slender, plunged into a grey-greenish shadow, with a slight light from the chin. Complexion of the face in general colour light. The forehead up to the line of dark brown eyebrows is slightly darker in tone compared to the lower part of the face, due to the slight shading caused by the shawl surrounding the face. On it we find colours of ivory and milky pink, on the cheeks strongly browned, in the shadows grey-greenish or brownish, arising rather from the dirt and in places from the brow of the tree, the lips are the colour of ripe raspberries. The light shading is similarly marked from the left as it is on the neck, - strongly and broadly present from beneath the scarf, fading to the rosy cheeks, after which the tension of the light is reinforced by highlights of considerable flash. The hands are remarkably different in complexion from the colour of the face. They are of a flesh-brown-yellow hue and are modelled with an anatomical sense using strong though diffused lights and shadows. M. B.'s painted robes, which comprise the above-mentioned parts of the garment, do not correspond in colour to the original colours, as we have already found on the exposed narrow strip of the lower lining. As it stands today, the coat with its lining of luscious green and dark yellowish trim is cobalt blue with a green tinge. It covers the entire figure from the head, refracting, generally speaking, to the arms, from which it falls in heavy planes downwards. The tunic, visible in the triangle formed above the hands by the unwinding of the cloak and on the wide sleeves and the lower part beneath them, red in colour, - is painted in the lights with cinnabar, in the shadows with carmine. On the head, covered by the outer garment, there is, beneath it, a white shawl of the cornet type, which is arranged in sharp folds and touches the lower part of the self-contained white shawl, pinned below the neck. The white planes of both parts of the garment, i.e. the shawl and the shawl, are greyish grey in the shadows and folds. Around the head there are traces of a plate-shaped nimbus, from which golden rays, 42 in number, emerge. The background of the painting is of a uniform grey-brown colour.

Based on the above interpretation, which as far as possible corresponds closely to the work in terms of its colour, let us consider the meaning of the forms themselves. The impression of a kind of monumentality that we get at first glance is, upon rational inspection, significant. The monumentality of the painting lies not only in its dimensions, but in the architecture of the forms of the whole figure, generally treated broadly.

The colour of the painting is greyish grey. Around the head there are traces of a plate-shaped nimbus, from which golden rays, 42 in number, emerge. The background of the painting is of a uniform grey-brown colour.

Based on the above interpretation, which as far as possible corresponds closely to the work in terms of its colour, let us consider the meaning of the forms themselves. The impression of a kind of monumentality that we get at first glance is, upon rational inspection, significant. The monumentality of the painting lies not only in its dimensions, but in the architecture of the forms of the whole figure, generally treated broadly. The expansiveness of the shapes, expressed primarily in the contours, in the linear treatment of the robes, has its greatest tension in the accumulation of different matter, breaking, undulating and intersecting in different directions. The broad, in many places flat, treatment of the painting is emphasised by the confident, tight contour of the figure. This contour of the mantle guides the viewer's eye along its strong line, building the shape fundamentally about the top of the head, framed by the vertical lines of the mantle and shawl. Detailed and factual observation, following this trajectory of the construction of forms, must lead the researcher to the judgment that in the architecture of the painting of M. B. Ostrobramska there are, like in the technique and texture of painting, different worlds. Starting from the head with its covering, we notice the angularity of the lines of the shawl and the mantle, the sharpness of the angles breaking the material into triangles, in a word, forms based on a linear style. The inclusion of the face with expressive features, in a linear sense, in the "frames" of the robes, which have the character discussed, singles out the entire head. From this spirit of forms we can still see very clear reminiscences in the folds of the lower parts of the mantle, especially on the left side , in the folds of the lines running towards the left hand of the figure of M. B. We can see a similar shaping of the forms in the sharp-angled line of the mantle, on the opposite side, slightly below the scarf, which is folded and triangular at this point. On the same coat, however, there are forms derived from a different plastic spirit, using wavy and soft lines, creating masses and broad planes of colourful patches. To this world belongs the shawl at the neck, whose fabric is arranged in folds with free, open, soft lines, to which the diffused chiaroscuro contributes - coming from a different premise, a different source of light than the chiaroscuro on the neck and face. But it is apparently in the tunic that we are aware of this other style, revealed here in a whole mass broken up into individual elements of larger and smaller undulations and wavy lines, forms flowing, as it were, one into the other. The sum of these observations, which we will have to multiply with others of internal, spiritual and psychological significance, leads us to the conclusion that a formal and artistic analysis also reveals certain layers in M. B.'s painting as a work of art. While in architectural works we have long been able to identify and distinguish historical moments in old buildings (which have grown over the centuries or have been layered in different styles in different epochs), paintings of past eras, movable monuments, which are also subject to restoration, repainting and other layering, are still neglected and inaccessible to scientific and artistic study.

Since in this case (similarly to the Virgin Mary of Czestochowa) we are dealing with an object of exceptional and comprehensive value, we have tried, as far as possible, to carry out this analysis from a technical and formal point of view, using the results obtained during the restoration of the painting. In order to visualise these results within the framework of certain scientific categories revolving around our subject of study, we have compiled theses:

The painting of M. B. Ostrobramska, originally painted on a chalk ground with tempera paints, was later repainted with oil paint. An analysis of the forms shows that, in terms of their formation, there are fundamental differences in the painting between the individual parts on the surface of the work.

The overlapping two analyses, technical and formal, aim to simplify the problem: the Ostrobramski painting has layers of two painting techniques and, let us assume for the moment, at least two styles. If we take the historical data, taken only from the "Accounts" of X. Hilarion's "Report", let us consider that the painting already existed before the arrival of the Discalced Carmelites in Vilnius, i.e. before 1626, and, as the report states, on the Gate of Dawn. In support of this assertion, we will use the final conclusions of the previous arguments, deliberately closing within the work of art itself. There is no doubt that the original painting, which we can see in the parts of the head and the face, came from the brush of a Renaissance artist, who, however, still lived in Gothic traditions. On the other hand, the oil painting may have been done in the 17th century and at the beginning of the 18th century, after 1702 (except for the hands, which, according to oral accounts, were done by Kanuty Rusiecki, i.e. in the 19th century). This date is fixed for us by the hole coming from the opening to the exit (through a metal cloth made by the Carmelites before 1671), in the depth of which the red paint of the tunic is found. In the account of X. Hilarion we read that in 1702. "Charles XII, King of Sweden, having captured the city of Vilnius, set all the gates of Vilnius with his soldiers to guard them. Among them, he guarded the Gate of Dawn, which is famous for its miraculous image of the Holy Mother... In the same year, 1702, on 16 April, Easter day, His Highness Lordship Antoni Nowosielski, the first king of Vilnius, was awarded the privilege of guarding the gates of Vilnius. His Excellency Mr. Antoni Nowosielski, the Provost of V. X. Lithuania, attacked a large part of the Swedish army encamped in Vilnius, so fortunately that having broken down the first gate of the Ostrobramska Street from the Suburbs, he scattered some of them and laid some of them dead in the square. And W. Imość Pan Oboźny himself, supported by the defence of the Blessed Mother, from frequent gunshots, returned unharmed... At the same time, His Lordship Mr. Stachowski, the Companion, seized from the Swedes in front of the very Image of the Gates of Dawn, as soon as he sighed to the Blessed Virgin Mary and fired, he happily escaped from the midst of the Swedes, having had nothing to do with the frequent shots behind him. Undoubtedly, the shooting at the Gate of Dawn was frequent and dense, as can be seen from the description.

Returning to the subject, we must point out the differences between the repainting of the tunic and the coat. While there is tempera paint under the oil paint on the latter, on the tunic we see pure oil paint, from which we can conclude that this part of the garment, apparently very damaged, was completely repainted after scraping off the old chalky ground together with the paint. The stylistic differences between the tunic and the mantle are also not insignificant. The mantle generally remained in its earlier forms, while the foliation of the tunic, the arrangement of the folds, and a certain restlessness of line in relation to the monumental treatment of the outer garment are probably evident. We therefore presume that the first restoration of the original painting, hanging
on the gate without adequate protection from the weather, and therefore certainly damaged and not yet properly 'respected', took place in the 17th century, As early as 1671, they built a chapel at the Gate of Dawn, which was then famous for "graces and miracles recorded and sworn to", as X. Hilarjon writes in the relevant paragraph of the book. Hilarjon writes in the relevant paragraph of his account. The second restoration may have taken place, as we have indicated, after 1702, while the third and final restoration, differing artistically from the second by a complete misunderstanding of the expression of forms and colours, concerns the hands and was executed in the previous century.

The purpose of the painting for the Gate, its adaptation to a certain height and perspective impact, can still be deduced from the monumental forms already mentioned here, which cannot be imagined, for example, in an altar painting. The tranquillity of these forms, despite the second restoration no longer adhering to the style of the original painting, is perhaps the most apt term to oppose the categorically baroque view of the shape.

And if, finally, we turn our attention to the innermost side of the painting, to its spiritual sense, emanating from the whole figure, from the face and from those ineffable hands explaining to us the whole content of the painting, and so peculiar in movement and at the same time making contact with the eyes directed into each other, we will perhaps see the iconographic side of the Madonna of the Dawn Gate. We are not considering this matter specifically, it requires a separate study, we are only throwing out some thoughts which will be developed in a comprehensive monograph on the Dawn Gate painting against the background of the development of religious art in Poland.

The statement that the Madonna without Child appears in the area of our
art as a new type only around the middle of the 17th century under the influence of Italian art, is easy on the basis of previous research and the incomplete inventory literature on the subject. It is also known that the indications and orders of the Councils and synods forbade painting the Madonna without the Child, recommending also in Poland the painting of this type of image in the type of Odigitrja, the Madonna of pilgrims, such as the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa. From the above prohibitions of depicting the Virgin Mary without the Child one could conclude that the synods and councils obviously took into account the fact that painters often depicted images of a different type than the Church and its laws required. We can still surmise,
that these rules applied, strictly speaking, to ecclesiastical and monastic images or those which were in connection with an ecclesiastical institution. In our opinion, however, the Ostra Brama painting was not of ecclesiastical or monastic origin in the sense of being painted by a monk, but was commissioned by the city for a secular gate of the defensive walls, and was executed by a painter, probably a layman, staying at the court of Sigismund the Old or Sigismund Augustus, who at that time, as we know, was carrying out very serious work in Vilnius, for example in connection with the rebuilding of the cathedral or the reconstruction of the lower castle.

Representatives of "artificers" of various nationalities include, for example, two Italians: the architect Bernardo Zenobi from Rome and the sculptor Giovanni Cini da Siena. From the preceding discussion, it is clear that the painting of B. M. Ostrobramska was made by the Italian architect Bernardo Zenobi. M. Ostrobramska was made on the spot. The painting's very poorly prepared tableau, barely 'beaten', could not have withstood a long journey from, for example, Krakow; besides, the artistic conception of the painting, calculated to operate from a certain height and perspective, allows us to attribute the painting to an artist aware of the task and function of a monumental work. Thus, the iconographic question cannot be resolved by taking the path of least resistance, i.e. clinging to an established template by a certain category of facts from the typological range. While by no means underestimating this side of research, which is closely related to hagiography, which is little known in our area, we allow ourselves to depart from this kind of fact-finding in the field of artistic phenomena, for which there are undoubtedly other canons, deeply reaching precisely into the emotional-religious side of the matter.

The interpretation of the painting of the Virgin Mary of the Dawn Gate, as it were, from within, is very simple and yet very difficult. The collective genius of the people of many generations has offered to Her "who shines at the Dawn Gate" their songs, sometimes inadequate in literary form, yet profound and opening up wide horizons to Her meaning. As in the art of words, so in the plastic arts, alongside the great peaks of inspiration flowing from the image of the Dawn Gate Madonna and the faint flames of folk, almost "beggar's" literature about Her, there is a long series of images that "reproduce" the image of the Mother of God and illustrate its miraculousness. All this Ostra Brama graphic art, which deserves a scholarly study, tells us one thing: that the interpretation of a work of great artistic merit, which our image unquestionably possesses, depends on the optics of the time in which one comes into contact with a work of art, especially one of exceptional religious and national significance, raised to extraordinary power thanks to the second in command of the Ostra Brama image, the Discalced Carmelites. From the very beginning she has been the Order's "ineffable Comfort, Comforter, Defender, Protector and Ornament of Carmel". For her they build a chapel, they make vestments, of which a metal gold one, a work of high art, most probably made by Vilnius goldsmiths, raises the charm of the image of this Mater Amabilis and Mater Misericordiae, transforming her at the same time into the golden mountain of Carmel, into sunshine and cosmos.

Well, drawing on these sources, which are invigorating and sometimes evoke profound comparisons, does not yet explain the content or spiritual expression of
. Madonna of the Dawn Gate, also called, as we know, the Palladium. We are not interested at this point in what kind of feelings the painting evokes or causes, but in how it expresses spiritual content. For the sake of making this clearer, we will start with the hands. The crossing of their hands has the semblance of a monastic laying on of hands during the prayer of disciplined and humble handmaids. We will consider these appearances to be misleading once we see that these hands are not 'properly' folded.
First of all, they are lower than the normal height of physical support, which is precisely what we do not see here. Rather, these hands are slightly, but clearly, offset from the breast, not touching it, perhaps rather
they hold the coat with their weight. We have already drawn attention to the disjointedness of the fingers before, we add to this their soft and sort of conchoidal arrangement. The result of a similar analysis is an expression of hands hugging, taking something or someone into their care, in a word, caring hands in contrast to, for example, the hands of the Madonnas from the paintings depicting the theme of the "Annunciation", in which we see humble hands or hands accepting something from someone (the heraldic angel).

Linked to the expression of the hands is the expression of the face, focused, as always, in the eyes
and the mouth. Consequently, we believe that the arrangement of the head inclined "a little to the right with affect", as X. writes. Hilarjon, giving a brief but relevant description in his valuable account, cannot be the movement of the Virgin Mary from the "Annunciation", since it does not contact the person of the supposed messenger of God, the archangel Gabriel. The person receiving the unexpected news would have to indicate with a movement of the whole figure or head (not infrequently the hands), and above all with an expression, the surprise or humility of surrendering to the message, or of receiving the glad tidings.
We are unable to attribute this expression or movement to the Madonna of the Dawn Gate. On the other hand, the whole "static" movement, i.e. the inclination of the head and the downward expression of the gazing eyes, the closed mouth, in a word, the whole inner contact with one's own being, which gives a psychological resonance in the sphere of spiritual concentration, thoughtfulness and serenity taken together, and at the same time a refuge for the onlooker, arousing " some kind of fear".a kind of fear combined with solemnity and affect", as Hilarjon again wishes, leads us to see in Our Lady of the Dawn Gate a modern type of Italian Renaissance without reminiscences of the archaic solemnity of Odigitria. We do not intend to draw any further conclusions for the time being.

And if, in the end, one is allowed to express one's most personal feeling, I find no other expression, after long pondering in the face of the Dawn Gate painting, than that it imagines a figure raised to the power of an ideal image of the Deity. Perhaps that is why, beyond the individual feelings and associations of our hearts, we all venerate Her, the whole nation without exception. Born in the stronghold of Vilnius, she has always been its protector and defender, for the whole country a Palladium, for the nation a Queen, residing for centuries in today's borderland fortress.