Until the closure of the twentieth century, Byzantine wall paintings that once adorned residential quarters of grand ducal castles and after Lithuania's conversion penetrated into interiors of Catholic churches constituted a kind of art historical assumption rather than evidence. Having escaped all known medieval records these murals continued their silent existence among the debris of ruined buildings or beneath the plaster of early modern renovations. Even the sole exception – the murals of the palace of the Trakai Island Castle – existed not as wall paintings, but rather as their sketches, copies, descriptions, and photographs. Hence, the discovery of the Crucifixion in the crypt of Vilnius Cathedral in 1985, followed by archaeological finds in Kreva, Medininkai, the Lower Castle of Vilnius as well as the paintings unveiled in the parish church of Trakai, not only provided the long-desired material evidence, but also raised questions of identity and meaning, both puzzling due to the profound silence of written sources. The inquiry takes this silence as the platform for discussing the fragmented visual evidence, considering the silent mode to be an indication of visual sameness.

Beyond confessions: Byzantine paintings in Lithuanian castles

Wall paintings that once embellished interiors of castles in Kreva, Medininkai, Vilnius, and Trakai are very rare examples of lay Byzantine monumental arts. Of all the surviving fragments, only the paintings in Trakai can be circumstantially dated to the second decade of the fifteenth century.