Mikołaj Tereinski, CORONATION / APOTHEOSIS OF THE MOTHER OF GOD
The complex iconography allows the painting “Coronation of the Virgin Mary” to be titled “Apotheosis of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.” The painting is divided into two zones. In the lower center, on the sprouting trunk of a spreading tree, Mary is seen supported by her parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne, and its upright branches. Mary has a crescent moon and a serpent’s head beneath her feet. On the left, behind St. Anne, are Zechariah and St. Joseph, each holding a blossoming wand, and on the right, behind St. Joachim, St. Elizabeth of Zechariah. In the upper zone, the Holy Trinity is depicted in the clouds, with angels carrying a cross and putti. God the Father and Christ hold the royal crown intended for Mary. The image was commissioned by Anna Krasicka, née Starzechowska, mother of the poet-prince Ignacy Krasicki, who funded and furnished the parish church in Dubiecko from 1753 to 1755. The artist, Mikołaj Tereinski (c. 1718-1790), in addition to his artistic work, served as royal postmaster, and after Poland lost independence, he became a Uniate priest and parish priest in Przekopana. In fact, Tereinski painted two paintings with the same iconography, but in different formats. Both have survived. One, the smaller altarpiece, is currently located in St. Martin’s Church in Krasiczyn, where it arrived in the early 1970s along with the altarpiece from Dubiecko. The other was a slightly larger replica intended for the founder for the Krasicki castle in Dubiecko and was donated to the MNZP collection in 1968.