Straipsnis Susimąsčiusio Kristaus atvaizdo paskirtis

The Purpose of the Image of Christ in Distress

Summary. The image of Christ in Distress belongs to the group of Andachtsbilder (German for devotional images) which took shape in the Late Middle Ages (i. e. the 14th–15th c.) and depicted the sufferings of Christ. The purpose of this type of image is to encourage a meditative prayer and meditative conversation with the Savior, as well as emotional empathy for suffering. As a result, the image of the Christ in Distress was usually displayed in such a place in a church where people could observe it at a close range, for example, in side chapels, next to isolated columns, in the gallery or porch. In certain churches, the function of the Crucifix was attributed to the image of Christ in Distress, placed in the porch. Sometimes, the sculpture of Christ in Distress was placed next to a holy water container near the entrance to the church. Also, on some occasions, the image was painted on the facade of a church or chapel. In certain cases, a carved statue of Christ in Distress was put at the front of a church or chapel. Sculptures on this theme were also kept in cemetery chapels where the bodies of the dead were laid out. Just like in other countries, the image (i. e. a sculpture or painting) of Christ in Distress in Lithuania was mostly dissociated from the main ecclesiastical interior equipment, i. e. the altar. The statues of Christ in Distress (Lith. Rūpintojėlis) were often put in specially constructed brick niches imitating the prison of Christ.

As the images of Christ in Distress were often dissociated from the main interior equipment, such images are mentioned most rarely in the ecclesiastical sources dating back to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. As a result, the existence of the image of Christ in Distress in churches can only be traced in altar descriptions. The images of Christ in Distress (mostly sculptures) were not only integrated into altar reredoses, but were also placed separately on altar mensas or in tabernacles.

The purpose of Christ in Distress within the home interior of peasants or in the monuments of minor architecture was mainly determined by a client or owner. The majority of statues of Christ in Distress were found in tomb monuments, home interiors, homestead chapels and chapel-poles, and wayside chapels. The figure of Christ in Distress in such chapels was often solitary, almost without any accompanying sculptures of other themes. Similarly to the image of Christ in Distress in sacred buildings, the function of the Crucifix was sometimes attributed to the figure of Christ in Distress in private homes.

In Europe, tomb monuments with statues of Christ in Distress date back to the 16th century. It is impossible to determine when exactly the figure of Christ in Distress appeared in the tomb monuments of Lithuania; however, the custom to decorate tombstones with this image had already been deeply rooted in the 19th century cemeteries of Lithuanian province.

The sculpture of Christ in Distress was rarely included in common rural monuments with other dominant themes of Jesus or the plots of the Blessed Virgin Mary. As a result, during the 19th century – the 1st half of the 20th century, Christ in Distress still belonged to the sphere of private faith rather than public religiousness.

Keywords: Christ in Distress, devotional image (Andachtsbild), church art, post-Tridentine art, religious folk art.