St. Ignatius of Loyola

Description: The oval image contains a depiction of St. Ignatius of Loyola in religious and priestly attire, next to the book with the motto of the Jesuit Order. The saint standing almost frontally, very slightly turned to the left (heraldically), shown in three-quarters of the figure’s height. The head is also slightly turned. The face has portrait-like, slightly ascetic features with a very prominent forehead, deep-set, dark, raised eye, a nose with a slight hump, and large ears (only the left one is visible). The face with a slightly pink complexion is framed from below by very short dark stubble and on the sides with head tufts of graying hair. The saint has his arms spread out on the sides of his body, with the palms facing the viewer. Ignatius wears a black religious habit with a white collar of his lower robe visible at the neck; a white and gray surplice, trimmed with lace at the edge, is put on the habit. A golden stole is hung around the neck, made of a fabric patterned with floral motifs, with crosses at its ends visible in front, at the bottom of the figure. On the right side of the field of the picture, at its edge, just behind the figure of the saint, there is a bronze pedestal with a profiled edge, on which there is a diagonally set open book with gray pages; on them, the brown initial letters (in capital letters) of the Jesuit motto: “AMDG” – “An [D] M[AIOREM] D[EI] G[LORIAM]” (“For God’s greater glory”) – the first two letters are placed on the left side of the book on two levels, two more on the right. On the opposite side of the composition field, gray elements of monumental architecture are visible in the background of the figure of the saint: on the pedestal, a massive column base, the shaft of which, running upwards, is mostly covered with tangled dark green drapery. The entire upper part of the background to the right of this column is filled with pink clouds, illuminated at the top right, near the edge, by a radiant glory, in which also the pink monogram of Christ “IHS” (the abbreviation means: “Iesus Hominum Salvator” – “Jesus Savior of People” ) with a cross – a sign of the Jesuit Order. Partially openwork frame. In the general outline of an oval, slightly elongated on the vertical axis (slightly more from the top, where it has the character of a finial, at the top of which a pair of volutes is placed); from the bottom, a frame with suspended festoons tied in the form of a bow on the axis. Made of symmetrical, multi-layer weaves of acanthus flagellum in the white color of the polished ground, with a sharp styling (but not yet withering) and gold motifs: a single flower (on the axis in the upper part), profiled slats, sections of a crinkled ribbon, usually twisted, ribbons with a motif cabochons and rows of campanulas. In the lower part, the composition is complemented by two not-very-prominent cornucopias with flames.

Provenance: The painting belongs to a series of nine compositions funded by the Świdnica Jesuits as part of the baroqueization of the Gothic interior of the church in Świdnica, which lasted several decades. The paintings were commissioned in 1700 by two Silesian painters: four from Knechtl and five from Johann Jacob Eybelwieser the Younger. Knechtel probably painted his paintings quite quickly, as early as around 1700, while Eybelwieser – judging from the signatures and dates discovered during the conservation works on some of his paintings from the series – completed his part of the commission in 1710, and it was probably then that the rich frames for all the canvases were made.

Characteristics: The painting belongs to a series that was intended to illustrate the merits of the Jesuits in the history of the Catholic Church by showing the most outstanding representatives of the order. Undoubtedly, the most important of them was the originator and founder of the St. Ignatius of Loyola, a nobleman, born in 1491 in the Basque country, served in the army, and was seriously injured. During his convalescence, he began a long period of his spiritual transformation, marked by studies and pilgrimages, ending in France, where Ignatius, together with a handful of companions took vows to each other in 1534. In Rome, in 1540, he obtained from Pope Paul III the approval of the new congregation and devoted the rest of his life, until his death in 1556, to giving his work an appropriate organizational and spiritual framework. In the painting from Świdnica, his merits are shown in a concise and brief, but very eloquent way: dressed in the costume of a priest of St. Ignatius open to God’s will (gesture of spread hands) is accompanied by the sign of the Order – the monogram of Christ and the abbreviation of his motto – “For the greater glory of God”. The part of the series, to which the picture in question belongs, was entrusted by the monks from Świdnica to the Wrocław guild painter, Johann Jacob Eybelwieser. These are some of his earliest works. Some of them, resembling portraits to some extent, are characterized by a dynamic shot, painted with great care and subtlety. A painting depicting St. Ignacy with an accurate depiction of the figure that imposes itself on the viewer with great force and a clear use of attributes perfectly fulfills the function envisaged for it by the Jesuits, the founders of the cycle. Like the rest of the oval, The new compositions on the walls of the nave show the universalism of the message of the Catholic Church with a clear emphasis on the role of the Jesuits themselves who follow Christ and the Mother of God.

The painting was formerly a painting mistakenly believed to be a depiction of St. Francis Xavier. The attributes – dress, and inscriptions – are widely known and refer to the founder of the Jesuit order, Ignatius Loyola. The cycle from Świdnica also includes a performance of St. Francis Xavier with a slightly similar type of physiognomy (remember that both came from the Basque country) but with completely different attributes. However, St. Xavier, like St. Ignatius of Loyola, was depicted in a habit, surplice, and with a stole. Presumably, this is what confused the two characters.