Salve Regina |
Nobody knows for certain the origins of the iconography of the Madonna della Misericordia. The image appeared almost simultaneously in Central Italy, Cyprus and Armenian Cilicia in the second half of the XIII century. It is likely that it evolved from the Byzantine Icon of Virgin Orans or Platytera (meaning: "More Spacious than the Heavens"), which depicts the Virgin wrapped in a densely pleated mantle, her arms outstretched towards Heaven. Christ rests in a circle on her chest. The Platytera shown on the left can be admired in Campo San Luca. Some of the earliest works of the Madonna della Misericordia are "Madonna of the Franciscans" by Ducio (ca. 1280); the Marshal Oshin Gospels (1274) and an icon of the enthroned Virgin and Child in the Byzantine Museum in Nicosia (late XIII century). The mendicant orders of the Franciscans and Carmelites with their many ties in Asia Minor, played an important role in disseminating the image. Duccio's Madonna can be admired in Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale. The Marshal Oshin Gospels are in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. |
