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is that St Maiolus could not have led the procession since at
that time he had been dead for over half a century; he was
Odilo’ s predecessor as the abbot of Cluny, and not the other
way round. Chronologically, it should be assumed that it
is Hugo, another saint Cluniac abbot and Odilo’ s successor,
who heads the cortège. These are mere assumptions
for none of the two vita of St Odilo (or any other written
sources) mention either the funeral or the appearance of
the thankful spirits. Equally difficult is the task of finding
the sources of the idea for this unique composition. A hint
was found in one edition of the so-called ‘golden legends’,
i.e. lives of the saints for every day of the year, popular especially
in the nineteenth century, published in great numbers
and translated into numerous languages. The legend
of the life of St Odilo in this book says that the abbot ‘was
granted a vision before his death, in which he was able to
see many of the souls he delivered from purgatory, and
was called into haven, and was escorted on his way there’.
The text does not say who accompanied him, yet it may be
safely assumed that it was the grateful souls, recently freed
from purgatory, that accompanied him to heaven. This is
the only literary reference that might be considered the
source of this exceptional composition.
The funeral procession of monks is accompanied by
a parallel cortège of ingeniously rendered spirits – the souls
of the dead. The way they have been painted is undoubtedly
Rosen’ s own invention but their shape and the forms
of characteristically folded, ample, hooded cloaks, as well
as the context in which they appear, is an obvious quotation
from Late Gothic Burgundian sculpture. The figures
of the ghosts act as ‘classical’ pleurants, i.e. weepers, in
Burgundian tradition accompanying the deceased noblemen
in their last journeys. The two most famous, and at
the same time the most exquisite examples of Burgundian
tombs featuring pleurants, are the monuments of Philip the
Bold, executed by Jean de Marville, Claus Sluter and Claus
de Werve, and of Philip Pot, ascribed to Antoine Le Moiturier.
Rosen borrowed his weepers precisely from these
monuments, some figures being very faithful repetitions of
the French models [Figs 248–249].
Although at first sight inconspicuous, the tapestries
hanging in the intercolumniations of the cloister arcades in
the background of the composition are also worthy of attention.
The pieces of fabric are richly ornamented and, judging
from the fragments barely visible between the hooded personages,
they depict episodes from the Book of Revelation.
The artist, apparently, did not want to be anachronistic and
as a model from which to copy the scenes (with astonishing
faithfulness!) he used four miniatures (fols 3 r , 13 v , 33 v and
40 v ) of the Bamberg Apocalypse, a tenth-century German
illuminated manuscript, chronologically almost contemporary
with the death of St Odilo [Figs 253–256]. The first
version of the Funeral of St Odilo was painted in 1925 and
exhibited at the Zachęta gallery [Fig. 114]. Rosen repeated
it in the cathedral with only minor changes, copying the
small-scale composition in monumental scale.
In the same bay, above the Funeral of St Odilo, on either
side of the window the artist represented a single standing
figure: St George Slaying the Dragon [Fig. 262] on the left
and St Christopher Carrying the Infant Jesus [Fig. 263] – on
the right. Still higher, above the window we see another illustration
of the medieval Golden Legend: St Giles Defending
a Hind against Hunters [Fig. 264]. The three hunters,
wearing brightly coloured clothes, have been rendered in
a strikingly modern, vivid way, particularly in comparison
with the hermit’ s plain black habit. The austerity of
the landscape in which the scene is set seems to have been
aimed to underscore St Giles’ seclusion and his hermitic
‘profession’. Unusual is the juxtaposition of a theatrical-like,
highly decorative, yet artificial background with the figures
of the hermit, hunters and the exquisitely rendered animals
(two Dalmatians and a hind), which appear as real, of flesh
and blood. This very contrast contributes to the picture’ s
attractiveness.
Quite exceptionally, the stained-glass window in this
bay bore no references to the murals. It was executed to
commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the episcopate
of Archbishop Teodorowicz, in 1927. Above the
Archbishop’ s coat of arms and a dedication, three scenes
were visible (from top to bottom): Sts Nereses, Isak and
Mesrob, The Privilege of King John Casimir for the Armenians
of Lvov, and The Work in the Bank Mons Pius, thus
depicting the most important events in the history of the
Armenians of Lvov. Just like other stained-glass window
it was executed in the Białkowski workshop in Warsaw
but was not preserved to this day (only tiny scraps of glass
remain). It is known only from an archival photograph
[Fig. 265].
The paintings in the last bay continue the theme of the
Fourteen Holy Helpers [Fig. 266]. At the top of the wall,
over the window-niche we see the bishop, martyr and warrior
saints, each of them identified by his traditional attribute
[Fig. 269]. From the left stand: Sts Blasius (a bishop
in pontificals, holding two candles), Denis (again a bishop,
with his head held on a book), Pantaleon (tied to an olive
tree), Acacius (depicted as a knight, in a crown of thorns,
holding the palm of martyrdom in his hand), Cyriac (in
deacon’s vestments, treading down the devil under his feet).
Flanking the window on the left are: St Margaret, in a rich
Byzantine, jewelled headgear, and St Barbara with a tower,
her traditional attribute [Fig. 267]. Opposite to them, on
the other side of the window, are depicted, from top to bot-
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