Alegoria Eucharystii – wspólne wzory graficzne w malarstwie XVII i XVIII w. w Polsce i Peru

The motive of Eucharist is one of the most important subjects of allegoric images in baroque Polish as well as Vice-Kingdom of Peru art. Apart from classical images with The Eucharist’s adoration, in which the luminous body of Christ is placed in a monstrance, there were also symbolic compositions in which the mystery of Christ’s sacrifice was presented in an allegoric way. Some of these images are presented in the article. The most interesting for the author are images common for modern Polish painting and colonial Peru. The first such composition is The Mystical Press – the subject that was very well known in all Latin America – from New Spain to Argentina. It was also known in Europe, but in modern period became less popular. The composition of majority images is based on Hieronim Wierix’s print. Images from Poland and these from Peru repeat the same compositional pattern.The second example is The scouts return from Kanaan, which topic is related with the allegoric of The Eucharist. There are quite a lot of such pictures from both countries. Some of them were a pattern based upon the same print – anonymous work based on Maarten de Vos’es picture. The popularity of The Eucharist motive had been analyzed and variety of its allegoric compositions in post-Tridentine age and Counter-Reformation art. The finding of the article is that art in distant extremities of the Christian world had similar functions – it was used to preserve the Catholicism from heresy danger (Orthodox Church, Protestantism) and, on the other hand, it was a tool to achieve new mission areas for The Church.