The first painting was made by Eugeniusz Kazimirowski, under the supervision of Faustina and her confessor, Michał Sopoćko, in Vilnius. Sopocko was a professor of theology at the University of Vilnius and introduced Faustina to Kazimirowski, who was a professor of art there and had painted other religious images. Faustina gave Kazimirowski specific instructions about the appearance and the posture of the image, which she said she had received from Jesus Christ in a vision. Sopocko himself posed as Jesus for the image as wearing an alb, and both he and Faustina regularly visited the painter's workshop. The final painting satisfied neither Sopocko nor Faustina, who later wrote that Jesus told her it was not that important for the picture to be beautiful since true beauty would be the blessing that he would bestow upon people by means of the painting.