Our Lady of Sorrows
The painting of Our Lady of Sorrows is the oldest image in the Kaunas Cathedral. Votive offerings hanging on either side of the painting testify to the special graces long experienced here. Documents related to official visitations and the church’s property registers, beginning in the second half of the 17th century, characterize this painting as “miraculous” and “old”. Painted in the late 16th or early 17th century, it is placed at the Altar of Our Lady of Sorrows, by the first pillar on the right (if one is facing the main altar).
The painting portrays the Pietá – the Blessed Virgin Mary holding on her lap the limp body of Christ, who has just been taken down from the Cross. Beyond her is a deep nocturnal landscape with buildings and hills, an allusion to the time and place of the scene. Angels with burning candles stand on either side of the Mother of God and her Son. A second section of the altar scene contains a painting of St Anthony of Padua completed in 1921 by the artist Petras Kalpokas (1880–1945).
