Altarpiece of the Immaculate Virgin
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Authors
Giacomo Del Maino and Giovan Angelo Del Maino
Date
Type
Image
Language
Keyword
Immaculate , Mary , St. Catherine of Alexandria , St. Lucy , St. Cosmas , St. Damian
Alternative Title
Abstract
This altarpiece is currently housed in an oratory built in the seventeenth century, Madonna della Neve in Sernio (a small town nestled in the mountains north of Tirano in the Valtellina)and so must have been moved from its original church, perhaps one dedicated to Saints Cosmas and Damian, who are depicted on the lower level along with saints Peter and Gottard. On the main level, the Immaculate Mary adoring baby Jesus, set against a background of wood carved to mimic the rough stones of a cave, is flanked by St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Lucy. Above, paintings of the Annunciation and God the Father crown the altarpiece. Raffaelle Casciaro arguets, on the basis of style, that the work was created by Giacomo Del Maino in 1490-5, and that the more fluid and slender figures on the lower level may be early works of his son, Giovan Angelo del Maino. Framed with classicizing architecture like Giacomo's other altarpieces in Ponte in Valtellina and Pavia, this one is smaller and less elaborate. The work was restored in 1990-1 and is fairly well-preserved, with mostly original polychromy. The florid frame was added in the eighteenth century. The crown, rosary, and baby's linens are not original and show how devotion involves giving gifts and dressing them as if the figures were real people, as is common with polychrome sculpture of the period, such as the slightly later nearby Madonna di Tirano, sculpted by Giovan Angelo del Maino. Earlier photographs show St. Lucy without the martyr's palm or the dish with the eyes, and so it is not clear whether these are more modern additions or are original pieces which were found and reunited with the sculpture perhaps when it was restored in the 1990s. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
Oratorio della Madonna della Neve, Sernio
Citation
Raffaele Casciaro, La scultura lignea lombarda del Rinascimento (Milan: Skira, 2000), 80, cat. 46, p. 278.