“Ecce Homo” – History
Creation
In 1879, Albert Chmielowski moved to Lvov and started painting his most beautiful picture of suffering Christ “Ecce Homo.” This work of art expressed undergoing changes in the artist’s soul. It took him several years to paint this picture. He completed the painting towards the end of the eighties at the special request of Archbishop Andrew Szeptycki. Albert finished painting it at a homeless shelter but was not satisfied with the final outcome of his work.
“I have just made an awful botch of the painting, but the Metropolitan badgered me until I finally gave in, so I finished it in the way an artisan rather than an artist would do… Today I can hardly force myself into painting when God demands that I do something different.”
Despite the artist’s reservations, the painting of the suffering Christ is outstanding. The painting was the property of Archbishop Szeptycki for a long time. Just before his death, gave it to the Archdiocesan Museum in Lvov, under the care of the Basilian monks. After the Second World War, when Lvov became part of the Soviet Union, nothing was known of the painting.
Recovery
The painting was found thirty year after the war and was kept in the Museum of Ukrainian Art. The Albertine Sisters spared no effort to recover the painting. However, it took them a very long time, and it was a very complicated process. The Sisters learned where it was kept in 1972, but it was not until 1978 that the painting arrived in Krakow.
The Sisters had to buy a painting by a Ukrainian artist and only then could they exchange it for “Ecce Homo”. The task of exchanging the pictures was undertaken by Ms. Jarosława Szczepańska, a representative of the Ministry of Culture and Art in Warsaw. On July 17, 1978, she took a landscape painting by Ivan Trusz to Lvov and brought “Ecce Homo” back to Poland. Thanks to the determination of Ms.Szczepańska, and through the intercession of Saint Brother Albert „Ecce Homo” finally arrived in Krakow on July 21, 1978. The painting was disposed in the General Home at 10 Woronicza Street.
The original painting is located in the Sanctuary “Ecce Homo” of Saint Brother Albert in Krakow, Poland. It is displayed in the Main Altar, where Christ “Ecce Homo” is venerated by the faithful. Feast of Ecce Homo is celebrated on the Friday before the Pascal Friday.