2 - The Substance of Divine Grace: Ex-votos and the Material of Paper in Early Modern Italy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
Summary
Abstract
Devotion in Renaissance Italy consisted of certain practices and beliefs that have eluded historical investigation. As an expression of the intimate bond between devotees and the divinity, anatomical ex-votos represent the most captivating case, and continue to provoke wonder, suspicion and morbid curiosity by turns. Although occasionally documented in Tuscan sanctuaries, paper ex-votos have never aroused the interest of scholars. This contribution will explore the extraordinary surviving collection of 5,000 paper ex-votos still hung after centuries on the walls of the Romituzzo, a sixteenth-century rural sanctuary near Siena, and enhance our understanding of this distinctive expression of devotion.
Keywords: ex-voto; paper; Renaissance Italy; Tuscany; wax
In his vivid account of the artist Ludovico Cigoli, the Florentine biographer Baldinucci left a curious anecdote to posterity:
They say of him that, when walking up to the Annunziata church, he never passed through Via dei Servi, but rather diverted his route to the Castellaccio expressly to sidestep the accumulation of ex-votos made of cartone on display outside the workshops there. Because, he said, even catching a glimpse of those clumsy and repellent limbs of human bodies, hands, legs, heads and arms confused his inspiration and disturbed his thoughts.
The account of Cigoli's behaviour must have sounded familiar to contemporary readers who knew the centre of Florence and the busy walkway that takes pedestrians from the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore to the Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata. The Annunziata was an extremely popular attraction. Worshippers, votaries and pilgrims came from near and far to visit the Marian sanctuary. While some came to leave an object reflecting their personal gratitude for having received a cure or rescue as a sign of divine grace, others came simply to admire the amazing display of devotion and gratefulness toward the Virgin: a practice that brought together rulers and poor people, each to bear witness to their own personal miracle. That is indeed what ex-votos were primarily made for.
The clumsy accumulation of limbs made out of paper and displayed outside the workshops in Via dei Servi, sketched by Baldinucci, was a direct response to the devotional fervour within the Marian sanctuary. Votaries could apparently purchase there, according to their personal means, an object that epitomized the miraculous event, choosing from among those ready-made limbs of paper on display.
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- Religious Materiality in the Early Modern World , pp. 51 - 66Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019