Jasna Góra presents the painting as a Hodegetria, "she who shows the way," in the Byzantine tradition, measuring 121.8 by 81.3 cm (about 48 by 32 in) on linden boards up to 3.5 cm thick. Tradition holds that St. Luke painted it during Mary's lifetime; what is documented is its arrival on the hill in 1382, when Duke Władysław of Opole brought it from Bełz and entrusted it to the Pauline Fathers he had just founded there. The darkening of such panels over centuries, generally attributed to aged varnish, candle soot and the original pigments, is what viewers see today.
After the 1430 attack King Władysław Jagiełło had the image restored in Kraków. The monastery says the restorers laid new canvas over the damaged original and repainted following the fragments of design still visible beneath, and the restorers kept the scars visible as part of the face. They are the first thing most pilgrims look for and the detail most often reproduced in copies.
The later history explains the crown and the robes. The monastery withstood a forty-day Swedish siege ending December 27, 1655, after which King John Casimir proclaimed Mary Queen of Poland; the image was crowned with papal diadems on September 8, 1717. The jeweled dresses that cover everything but the faces and hands are changed for feasts and kept in the Museum of the 600th Anniversary. The page on the unveiling times says when the image can be seen; the chapel is dark and the icon small, so binoculars or a seat near the front help.