A painting from the epitaph of Jakub Paulewski (d. 1515) showing Christ’s Farewell to Mary

This painting represents a fairly rare example of illustrating a subject not mentioned in the Bible but taken from the 13th century work by Jacques de Vitry (Jacobus de Vitriaco) entitled “Passio Christi” (Christ Taking Leave of Mary). In painting the figure of the donor, Jakub Paulewski – the Abbot of Norbertine fathers at the Church of St Vincent in Ołbin in Wrocław – kneeling in front of Jesus, the artist assigned it a function of an epitaph which mixes the sadness of the Holy Farewell with the sorrow of the monk departing from this world (d. 1515). The painting, which combines the late Gothic graphic style of the figures with the background of a distant mountainous landscape, points to the gradual arrival of the Renaissance style to Silesia.