Description | Title The Madonna del Baraccano: Restoring a Miraculous Image in Renaissance Bologna Description The miraculous image of the Madonna del Baraccano, a thirteenth-century fresco depicting the Virgin and Child Christ painted inside one of the bastions of the south wall that used to protect the city of Bologna, was restored into the image we know today by Francesco del Cossa in 1472, and an oratory was built to host its cult. The fifteenth-century intervention destroyed the original figures almost completely, except for the heads of the holy personages, which significantly, were left intact and integrated by the artist in the new scene. This talk will re-examine the material transformations underwent by the fresco of the Madonna del Baraccano in the light of recent reflections on the status of images in the early modern period, and will ask what it meant for an artist to intervene on a miracleworking image, and how – if at all – its authority and efficacy were affected by physical alterations and stylistic updating. Speaker Gloria de Liberali is a PhD candidate in Art History. |
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