ŠI LU VO S
Š V E N T OV Ė
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Fig. 4. The High altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 1786. Stonework, stucco. Photo by R. Valinčiūtė-Varnė.
shapes unfold throughout the remaining space of the shrine. Compared with other high altars of multiplex composition in churches of St. John, St. Theresa of Avila, St. Raphael and St. Casimir in Vilnius and St. Francis Xavier and St. Peter and Paul in Kaunas as well as of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Tytuvėnai, it becomes obvious that this piece of equipment of the Šiluva church is one of latest and most original. As in other altars of that type, the middle two-stage part of this altar is supplemented with elements that are turned at a right angle and put by the side walls. But
here these amplified vertical elements are very distinctive and determined by the ideological programme. The middle part of the altar consists of a high regular form socle, an elongated first stage retable and cannelured pilasters of the reduced Corinthian order framing the retable alongside the column of the same order in front of them, the all of which climb up and rise to the second stage and constitute an all-in-one composition merging with the gloriole. Architectural decoration elements of the same order on the side parts repeat the organization of the middle part and