The image of Our Lady of Częstochowa, kept in the chapel of Jasna Góra, is surrounded by many stories. Some of them are legends, and some are findings by researchers published in conservation literature and the history of art. This text separates one from the other. Pilgrimages and the defence of the monastery in 1655 are covered separately.

What the legend says

According to a legend recorded in the 15th century in a text known as Translatio Tabulae, the image was painted by St Luke the Evangelist himself, on boards from a table in Mary's house in Jerusalem. The story then leads through Constantinople, where the image was supposedly carried by Emperor Constantine the Great, and Prince Leo of Halych, who begged the emperor for the gift. The image was supposed to have reached Belz, and from there Władysław, Duke of Opole, governor of these lands, wanted to take it to Opole. According to the legend, the horses harnessed to the cart stopped near Częstochowa and would not move, which the duke took as a sign that the image should be left in the Pauline monastery.

There is also a version in the Eastern tradition, which links the origin of the image with the Upper Room in Jerusalem and its flight with the Christians in the years 66 to 67. None of this rests on documents from the period. These are legends, not findings of historians.

What is documented

Two facts are documented: on 9 August 1382 Duke Władysław of Opole gave the Paulines, brought from Hungary, the church on the hill near Stara Częstochowa and established the monastery, and in 1384 he presented them with an image of Mary with the Child. The exact day on which the image was deposited, 31 August 1384, comes from a later tradition of the order, written down in the 16th century by Mikołaj of Wilkowiecko, and not from a document of that time.

The oldest reliable account of the history of the image was left by Jan Długosz. He did not give the date of its arrival, but he described the destruction of the image in 1430.

Who painted it and when: the researchers' dispute

The authorship and date of creation are not known, and art historians have no agreed opinion. The image has been attributed to the Byzantine, Hungarian, Czech, Bolognese and Sienese schools. Datings range from the 7th century (Tadeusz Albin Kruszyński) through the 13th century (Władysław Podlacha) to the 14th century (Boris Rothemund). In the view of Rudolf Kozłowski and Sykstus Szafraniec, the present image is a copy made after 1430 from a much older original.

In 1984 Anna Różycka-Bryzek and Jerzy Gadomski subjected the image to a thorough analysis. They concluded that it consists of three overlapping layers: the oldest, an icon layer, from the 12th or 13th century; an Italian one from the middle or second half of the 14th century, which forms the present painting; and a third, repaintings carried out in Poland in the years 1430 to 1434. According to them the iconography is Byzantine, but the image itself was created within the circle of Latin art. For this reason, the statement about an Italian painter of the 14th century, which appears in descriptions of the shrine, should be read as one of the hypotheses, not as a final resolution.

Technique and dimensions

The image measures 122.2 by 82.2 centimetres and was painted in tempera on a glue-and-chalk ground, on canvas glued to three lime boards joined edge to edge, 3.5 centimetres thick. The dark colouring results from a darkened layer of varnish. In iconography the image belongs to the Hodegetria type: Mary points to the Child, who holds a blessing gesture in his right hand and a book in his left.

The year 1430 and the ten cuts

The attack on the monastery in 1430 is recorded by Długosz, but sources give different dates. Some sources give 14 April, others 16 April. The leaders of the attack are named as Fryderyk Ostrogski, Jakub Nadobny of Rogów and Jan Kuropatwa of Łańcuchów, and the belief in the Hussite character of the attack is popular to this day. There are also versions saying that it was a purely predatory raid, and that the image was destroyed in anger when the expected treasures were not found. After the destruction the image was taken to Kraków and restored, and it returned to Jasna Góra in 1434.

On Mary's face ten cuts are visible: six on the neck and three main ones on the right cheek, and the cuts are painted and gouged with a burin, filled with dark red pigment. Tradition links them with the attack of 1430, and the fact that they were emphasised during the Kraków renovation in 1434 happened, as stated, for unknown reasons. Kozłowski's research indicates that of the original image only the wooden panel has survived, and the painting of 1430 to 1434 is a reconstruction of an earlier original. This thesis conflicts with the conclusions of 1984, so it remains one version among others.

Coronation and conservation

The coronation on 8 September 1717, performed by Bishop Krzysztof Jan Szembek by decision of Pope Clement XI, was regarded as the first coronation on Polish lands of an image of the Mother of God with the Child established by papal decree and performed outside Rome. About 200,000 of the faithful took part.

In 1925 to 1926 Prof. Jan Rutkowski removed layers of oil repainting and soot from the face. Thorough research was carried out after the war by Prof. Rudolf Kozłowski: in 1948 to 1952 the image was X-rayed and examined under a microscope, using mineralogical methods. During the Second World War the image was hidden under a tabletop in the monastery library.