Zacharias is embodied in the language of sculpture. The Archangel Gabriel standing on the left side seems as if having just uttered to him: “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John” (Luke 1: 13). On the other side we see Zacharias depicted as if at the moment of burning
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Š V E N T OV Ė
incense in the temple when the messenger of the Lord appeared to him and added that his son “will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God” (Luke 1: 16).
ŠI LU VO S
The title image represents a multiplane distinctive creation which is full of precognitions of past, present and future events, supplemented with inscriptions and includes elements that are uncommon for this type of the subject (column, drapery). The first plane presents the depiction of the main group which includes sitting women, Anne and Virgin
Fig. 12. Tomas Podgaiskis. The vision of St. Anthony of Padua. 1786. Stucco. The second stage of the altar of St. Jude Thaddeus. Photo by R. Valinčiūtė-Varnė.
Summing up the results of the research on altars it is possible to say that the content and meaning as well as artistry of the sculptural decor and old images of these altars picturesquely and purposefully reveal their deep links: the first stages present even seven apostles who preaching the Word of God at the outset of the Journey of the Church and proclaiming the faith by martyrdom and death ensured Its further development. To put in other words, after all, each time the history of the beginning of the Journey of the Church is being related for or reminded us, loo king at those altars, through stories of its creators. Both saints of the second stage by their life each of them proclaiming the Christian Faith over and over again remind us anew that “the path of the Lord in all generations is not the path of worldly power and glory, but it is the path of the cross”32. The other two paired altars of St. Anne and St. John Nepomuk are mounted by the second pillars. The altar on the left side is dedicated to St. Anne (Fig. 13). In the retable of this altar, on both sides of the image of St. Anne (Fig. 14), the theme of the revelation to
Fig. 13. Tomas Podgaiskis. The altar of St. Anne. 1786. Stonework, stucco. Photo by R. Valinčiūtė-Varnė.