The Original Painted Face of the Merciful Jesus

by Daniel diSilva

The masterpiece known throughout the world as The Original Image of Divine Mercy (formerly known as the “Vilnius Image”) has had a most fascinating and sometimes-dark history. Over the years it has needed to be restored. So are we really seeing what St. Faustina wanted us to see?

We receive many questions from visitors to www.OriginalDivineMercy.com. Here is a recent question.

"It is known that this painting was painted in 1934 and has undergone many reforms. Did these restorations change the painting, in particular the face of Jesus, from how it looked when it was painted by the artist Eugeniusz Kazimirowski in 1934? I would like to know if the painting, as it exists today, is exactly as it was painted by Kazimirowski under the supervision of St. Faustina." (submitted by Charbel Sahyoun - reprinted with permission)

 The one-word answer is "yes."

Here is the short but longer answer. It is true that the painting was restored three times. These were not attempts at reforming or improving or changing the image. These were careful and loving efforts to fix the damage that had befallen the masterpiece due to the poor conditions under which the painting was kept.

The two earlier restorations were not expertly done. Both were done prior to the advanced development of the scientific endeavor that art restoration has become. Today, for example, several art conservatories around the world offer Art Restoration as a concentrated field of study and experts in the "art of restoration" have been raising the bar around the globe. The contemporary science of the restoration of paintings can be described as a blend of painting, art history, chemistry, and archeology.

Well before these advancements, in the 1950's, someone was asked to repair the Divine Mercy painting and presumably a significant scratch in the canvas. The scratch itself happened when the painting was dropped while the canvas was being removed from the frame. Another restoration was done in 1986. These attempts at bringing the image back to a state of original beauty were archaic and were unable to keep up with the continual decay of the materials used in St. Faustian's life work.

The entire history of St. Faustina's masterpiece is traced in the documentary The Original Image of Divine Mercy. I mention this here because just how the image could have been so damaged and why it was damaged so often becomes clear when a timeline is drawn out.

The most recent restoration was done by Edyta Hankowska-Czerwińska in 2003. Hankowska, who is featured in the documentary, is one of those expert art conservator-restorers with years of experience with priceless works of art. At this time of this final restoration, the Original Image of Divine Mercy was hanging above a side altar in an old baroque Church in Vilnius. Just prior to this, it had been abandoned for years in a cold wooden church in Belarus. To say that St. Faustina's masterpiece was in very poor condition doesn't quite relate how bad things were.

Remembering what she saw when she traveled to Vilnius in 2001 to inspect the painting in preparation for the arduous work of restoration, Hankowska said, "I was terrified. The painting was in horrible condition." Hankowska reports that the Original Image of Divine Mercy was cracked, gaps were filled with wax, and the canvas was stained with moisture.

The biggest problem was that prior attempts to fix the image left behind several layers of what art restorers call "overpainting." Traditionally, a work of art is gently retouched; a process by which small amounts of paint are applied to areas of an artwork where paint is missing. Unfortunately, in the case of the Original Image of Divine Mercy, early attempts to fix the painting included liberal overpainting. Overpainting is done for many reasons, usually to cover flaking or lost paint, but can also do more damage to a painting since the problem is being covered up and not being fixed.

Overpainting, when not done by experts, often leads to discrepancies of style and pigments where paint has been generously and unnecessarily added, which was certainly the case here.

Hankowska remembers, "I had to work very gently, to remove overpaint, millimeter by millimeter." Hankowska was working from morning till the late hours of the night, 7 days a week. The process took her a total of 3 months, from April to June in a small convent in Vilnius. For context, it took Kazimirowski 6 months to paint it onto a blank canvas. "The most important thing was not to rush."

Hankowska also mentions the scratch which she found on the knee. "The earlier attempts to fix the scratch were largely overdone" which meant many more hours of work for Hankowska to remove unnecessary filler on both sides of the canvas.

Edyta Hankowska - conservator-restorer of the Original Image of Divine Mercy

Hanowska also mentions the face of Jesus. Stories about St. Faustina's legendary meticulosity when working on this painting together with Blessed Fr. Michael Sopćko and Professor Eugenisz Kazimirowski were confirmed through Hanowska's work. When doing her restorative work on the painted face of Jesus, she discovered that Kazimirowski's brush strokes, which were distinguishable from the later overpainting, revealed that Jesus' face was changed many times by the original, mostly-unknown artist. This confirms the writings of Fr. Sopoćko and St. Faustina herself about how much she insisted on being involved in the work, asking Kazimirowski to change things each time she was presented with an update of the painting.

It should be noted with gratitude that this final restoration done by Edyta Hanowska in 2003 was generously financed by The Apostles Of The Merciful Jesus Foundation from Łódź, Poland.

Until now, The Original Image of Divine Mercy was hidden from view for many years, not only in the fact it was physically hidden throughout most of the last century, but it was also covered with layers of additional coats of paint.

Despite all these setbacks, the painting of St. Faustian's vision was not lost!

Like Faustina's, the work of Edyta Hanowska was meticulous and expertly done. Although their expertise was in different areas, St. Faustina's in her witness and experience of Divine Mercy Himself, and Hanowska's in art conservation and restoration, together they have preserved the Message of Mercy for generations to come. We are blessed to live in this time when St. Faustian's masterpiece, The Original Image of Divine Mercy, can finally be seen and venerated freely and in all of it's intended glory.

From St. Faustian's Diary:

"I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over [its] enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I Myself will defend it as My own glory (47, 48)."

"I am offering people a vessel with which they are to keep coming for graces to the fountain of mercy. That vessel is this image with the signature: 'Jesus, I trust in You' (327)."

"I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and then throughout the world (47)."

Does the face of Jesus as we see it today look like the face of Jesus when it was first painted in Vilnius by Kazimiroski under the direction of St. Faustiuna? Yes! Finally, yes!

We welcome questions about the Original Image of Divine Mercy through our website, www.OriginalDivineMercy.com and via originaldivinemercy@gmail.com. We are grateful for all of them. Your emails give a voice to many who have had these questions and thoughts lingering unanswered for too long. We take great pleasure in responding carefully to all of them. Through our conversations the Original Image (AKA the Vilnius Image) of Divine Mercy is becoming known for what it is - the world's authentic and priceless painting of St. Faustina's vision.

Daniel diSilva is the director of the documentary about Faustina's epic painting, The Original Image of Divine Mercy (2016), and the founder of www.OriginalDivineMercy.com, the online headquarters of the most concerted effort to restore the Original Image of Divine Mercy to it's rightful pride of place. You can submit your questions about the Original Image of Divine Mercy by writing to originaldivinemercy@gmail.com

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