Faces of the Saints

After I World War he briefly worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1923 he abandoned civil service to focus exclusively on painting, since while working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs he could only afford evening classes at the School of Decorative Arts and Painting.

In 1925 the Warsaw Zachęta Gallery hosted his first solo exhibition, which was a great success. It was thanks to this exhibition that Archbishop Józef Teodorowicz offered Rosen a job decorating the Armenian Cathedral in Lviv. Although Rosen had no experience in wall painting, he accepted the commission and made a set of paintings which is undoubtedly his greatest achievement.

However, there is no doubt about the validity of giving the features of Fr. Teodorowicz to St. Gregory the Illuminator, shown en face, wearing magnificent bishop’s robes and a miter, holding a crosier. The justification was the position of Fr. Teodorowicz as an outstanding pastor of the Armenian Church (St. Gregory converted Armenia to Christianity, and he was the patron saint of the Armenian nation and church).

The archbishop’s Teodorowicz fame as a great preacher explains the idea of presenting him also as St. Thomas. A critic wrote: “Due to the immense mental capacity and the extraordinary sharpness of the intelligence of both figures [i.e. Father Teodorowicz and St. Thomas], the choice [...], is perfect”.

 is a completely unique scene which greatly
stirred the imagination of the con- temporaries
due to its unusual form and subject matter, but also its mysteriousness. A critic wrote that “the three figures of the monks carrying the
bier represent three degrees of religious
initiation. The first monk, wrapped in a hood, does not yet seem to
hear the call from the other world, the second one, with his blazing, focused eyes, looks towards the happiness
detached from this world, and the third
one walks in mystical
concentration, immersed in what only the chosen souls are allowed
to see and hear”.

It is known from oral accounts that once the middle monk was identified as Father Adam Bogdanowicz, these “three degrees of initiation” started to be seen as directly associated with his person and his path to priesthood.

Above the Funeral of St. Odilon, on narrow vertical stripes of wall on both sides of the window, another two saints from the group of Fourteen Holy Helpers are depicted: on the left – St. George, and on the right – St. Christopher, the patron saint protecting from sudden death and dangers while traveling. At first glance the figures are not very remarkable, as they are presented in accordance with their traditional iconography, but their attractiveness lies in the vivid yet harmonious color scheme and particular psychological realism, rendered by expressively treated facial features.

St. George is a portrait of Fr. Tadeusz Fedorowicz (1907–2002). In 1929 Tadeusz Fedorowicz received his Master of Law degree from the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv, and later (1931-1936) he entered the Lviv seminary and studied theology at the Jan Kazimierz University. He was ordained in 1936, later he voluntarily joined the Poles deported by the Soviet authorities to Kazakhstan. Officially – although informally and in secret – he served among them as a priest. He is presented as St. George fighting the dragon.

St. Christopher is probably portrait of Wacław Damian Moraczewski, an outstanding doctor and biochemist, professor at the Academy of Veterinary Medicine in Lviv (1929–1933) and rector of the same university (1925–1927).

 became
very famous scene, so relatively much is known
about the identity of the people painted
there. Rosen was said to have given the features of Włodzimierz
Dzieduszycki (1885-1970) to the  face of
the crucified Christ, and of Anna Wolańska, née
Dzieduszycka (1860-1944) to Our Lady; Tadeusz
Wojciechowski (1902-1982) was St. John. The description on the photograph of the Crucifixion in the collection of Fr.
Tadeusz Fedorowicz states that Witold (Tadeusz) Czartoryski (1908-?) was
portrayed in the figure of St. Casimir, while in the background under the cross stand: Fr. Andrzej Głażewski (1905-1973) as St. Stephen and Adam (Michał Józef)
Czartoryski (1906-1998) as St. An- drew Bobola. Rosen’s assistant,
Kazimierz Smuczak, posed for St. Maurice, and St. John of Nepomuk is a
self-portrait of the artist.

While the gallery of saints depicted under the cross is a highly original feature, determining the uniqueness of Lviv’s Crucifixion, the group of Mary and St. John was a typical element of presentations of this theme. It was a historical feature, not a symbolic one, illustrating the event described in the Gospel and the words of Christ addressed to his mother: “Woman, behold thy son” and to the disciple: “Behold thy mother” (John 19:26-27). In Rosen’s painting he latter has the face of Tadeusz Wojciechowski, painter and architect, creator of numerous stained glass windows.

The features of Jacek Malczewski, who was a painter but also a Franciscan tertiary, were given to St. Francis of Assisi. Malczewski was one of the most eminent Polish painters. He liked to paint self-portraits; however, they were rarely meant to depict him as himself, most often they involved various “roles”, or rather disguises – he would represent himself as a knight, an exile or Don Quixote. Or as Christ.
Rosen’s idea to “cast” Malczewski in the role of St. Francis was by no means original. Many years earlier, in 1908, Malczewski painted St. Francis, where he portrayed himself wearing a Franciscan habit, surrounded by Parcae, fauns and chimeras; this painting is currently housed in the National Museum in Warsaw.

Helena Ottawa (1874-1948) was presented in the group of Fourteen Holy Helpers as St. Margaret of Antioch – the saint who was asked for safe childbirth – wearing a rich Byzantine headgear decorated with jewels, half hidden behind St. Barbara carrying the tower as her traditional attribute, which is why the attribute of St. Margaret, i.e. a dragon which she held on a chain, could not be fitted into the painting. The richness of St. Margaret’s costume is a reference to her tradition- al representation wearing a royal crown, but most of all it highlights her eastern origin.
Helena Ottawa was recognized pianists and she was running own musical school in Lviv.

Rosen always tried to paint according to “historical truth” (even when it concerned legends), even against the usual iconographic patterns; since St. Margaret was an early medieval martyr living in Antioch in Pisidia in Asia Minor, he decided that she should not be depicted wearing a Western crown and gave her a headgear typical of Eastern art, a golden diadem decorated with a cross, with strands of pearls falling down from it. The costume of the saint can also be interpreted as an allusion to the fact that St. Margaret is worshipped both in the Western Church and in the Eastern Church.
And perhaps it also refers to the model of the painting herself: Helena Ottawa was of Armenian descent, so she belonged to a nation that comes “from the east”, and is commonly and traditionally associated with the East.

Zofia Drexler-Pasławska presented as St. Barbara, patron saint of good death and miners, accompanies Helena Ottawa in the painting depicting her as St. Margaret. These are two out of the three holy virgins among the Fourteen Holy Helpers (the third, St. Catherine of Alexandria, posed for by Halina Hamerska, is depicted in the third bay of the nave).
Zofia Drexler-Pasławska was a chamber singer and teacher, she also completed her doctorate in philosophy. She frequently performed with the pianist Helena Ottawa.