A printed icon in early modern Italy: Forlì's Madonna of the fire

Abstract

"In 1428, a devastating fire destroyed a schoolhouse in the northern Italian city of Forlì, leaving only a woodcut of the Madonna and Child that had been tacked to the classroom wall. The people of Forlì carried that print - now known as the Madonna of the Fire - into their cathedral, where two centuries later a new chapel was built to enshrine it. In this book, Lisa Pon considers a cascade of moments in the Madonna of the Fire's cultural biography: when ink was impressed onto paper at a now-unknown date; when that sheet was recognized by Forlì's people as miraculous; when it was enshrined in various tabernacles and chapels in the cathedral; when it or one of its copies was - and still is - carried in procession. In doing so, Pon offers an experiment in art historical inquiry that spans more than three centuries of making, remaking, and renewal"--

Contents

Machine generated contents note: Part I. Thing: 1. Iconography: Madonna and child; 2. Imprint: paper, print, and matrix; Part II. Emplacement: 3. Miracle: the fire of February 4, 1428; 4. Domestic display: Lombardino da Ripetrosa's schoolhouse; 5. Ecclesiastical enshrinement: the cathedral of Forlì; Part III. Mobilities: 6. Moving in the city: the translation of 1636; 7. Mobile in print: the procession on paper; 8. Multiplied: the Madonna of the Fire in Forlì and beyond.