The Lusina altarpiece came home in pieces

Opening the late Gothic altarpiece from Lusina once revealed three arrangements for different occasions. Its most elaborate view showed gilded, painted reliefs. A Holy Family filled the centre and the story of Saint Theophilus of Adana appeared on the right inner wing. The image shows the lost Theophilus relief.

The object entered the historical record in the nineteenth century when the owners of the Lusina manor donated it to the Kraków Scientific Society. A public exhibition in 1858 produced the earliest surviving photograph. The National Museum in Kraków later received the components in stages, with the central section and inner wings deposited in 1938.

German occupation authorities seized the altarpiece in 1940 and exhibited it in Kraków the following year. Two pairs of wings were recovered after the war. Decorative strips resurfaced in 1963, while the centre and the Theophilus panel remained untraced. The museum’s technical study of the surviving wings may help identify related material if it appears.