Dunajec 3 Regions
Lesnica - Łącko - Szczawnica

A discovery that linked two eras

In 1968, during conservation work in the church in Łącko, a discovery was made that completely changed what was known about its earliest furnishings. It was established that the Baroque paintings in the altar of St Anthony had been painted on panels originating from a 15th-century Gothic triptych, created around 1440 for the oldest church in Łącko.

These panels originally formed the wings of the Gothic high altar. They miraculously survived a church fire around 1720 and were later reused in the construction of a new side altar. Only conservation research carried out in the 1960s revealed the medieval paintings – one of the most important finds in the history of sacred art in Małopolska.

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The reverse – the first signal from the past

Conservators first noticed that on the reverse of the wings, on their back side, there were well-preserved Gothic paintings from the 15th century. They depict the Annunciation (with Mary and the Archangel Gabriel) and images of Our Lady of Sorrows and the Man of Sorrows.

These were originally the outer panels of the Gothic triptych, visible when the altar was closed. Because they had remained hidden for centuries, they preserved their original colours and the structure of the paint layers.

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The front – a hidden image within an image

The discovery of Gothic paintings on the reverse led researchers to carry out a detailed analysis of the front of the same panels. It then became clear that in the 17th century new figures – St Wenceslaus and St Casimir – had been painted over the original Gothic scenes.

X-ray examinations revealed four original Gothic panels that, in the medieval triptych, would have been visible when the wings were opened. They depicted:

• The Beheading of John the Baptist – a symbol of martyrdom and a foreshadowing of Christ’s mission,
• The Coronation of the Virgin Mary – a scene of glory and salvation,
• St Catherine and St Leonard – patrons of prisoners and the dying,
• St Margaret and St Martin – protectors of the poor and those in need.

According to Professor Jerzy Gadomski, this set had a profound theological meaning, presenting saints who bring help to people in suffering, captivity and at the hour of death.

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The art of separation – how to recover two paintings from one panel

The most difficult stage of the work was separating the two painted layers – Gothic and Baroque – without damaging either. This type of conservation treatment is undertaken only in exceptional cases.

The separation process involved the following stages:

• securing the surface of both layers with Japanese tissue and reversible adhesives,
• microscopic separation of the ground and pigments using scalpels, gels and solvents,
• transferring the detached layer onto a new support – canvas or panel – so that both paintings could be preserved as independent works.

Similar treatments have been carried out, for example, in the National Museum in Kraków (separation of a 14th-century Madonna with Child) and in the Louvre, where two superimposed paintings from a Burgundian triptych were separated. In the church in Łącko a comparable procedure had previously been applied to an image of Our Lady.

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Return to where it all began

Conservators from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków are currently carrying out painstaking work on separating and stabilising both layers, restoring their original structure and colours. Once this process is complete, in line with the decisions of the conservation authorities and the diocesan administration, the historic paintings will return to the church in Łącko. There they will once again become part of its interior, no longer as elements of a later side altar, but as independent, fully restored works of sacred art.