Funkcja średniowiecznych rzeźb Chrystusa na ośle w średniowiecznej liturgii łacińskiej w Polsce

Abstract

Medieval Latin liturgy with its many elements of drama had a great emotional impact on the faithful and helped them participate more fully in the most important liturgical celebrations throughout the Liturgical Year. For people who took part in the celebration (clergymen, worship assistants, the faithful) full-modeled figures played very important role. There were, among other things, figures of Christ on a donkey, leaded in the Palm Sunday procession, animated figures of Christ crucified which could be taken down from the cross and entombed on Good Friday, or a figure of the risen Christ which was pulled with a rope under church vaulting on Ascension day. In this paper the Author tries to investigate the role of such figures, especially of the figure of Christ riding a donkey on Palm Sunday, in order to outline a research perspective for this little known liturgical and artistic phenomenon.