THE MIRACULOUS IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY ROMAN PAINTING Eunice D. Howe After the end of the A vignon exile and the return of the papacy in the fifteenth century, a revival of the arts took place in . Pope Martin V (1417-31) and his successors conceived of major projects which were to impart a Renaissance form to the city. Com­ missions went to leading architects, sculptors, and painters who, more often than not, were foreigners or non-Roman Italians. They brought to Rome a familiarity with current theory and practice as weIl as a curiosity about the city's classical heritage. While these recognized artists pursued the more conspicuous undertakings, a school of local Roman masters produced paintings on a smaIl scale that reflected another side of the artistic rebirth of Rome. Fifteenth-century Roman painters turned frequently to a source that was both indigenous and symbolic of the early tradition of the church. Significantly, patrons and local painters used the as a model for images of the miraculous Madonna. Since early Christian times the icon, a product of the Byzantine east, had been venerated as an image archeropita, not made by human hands.' Divinely created, it was endowed with miracle­ working powers. The icon was neither a relic nor a representational work of art, but rat her an image -endowed with- a symbolic presence. The Volto Santo (the Holy Face of the Sancta Sanc­ torum), the Sudarium (the Veil of Veroncia), and the portraits of Saints Peter and Paul (once belonging to S1. Sylvester) number among the most renowned preserved in Rome. But the city of the Virgin harbored a special devotion to the image of the Madon­ na. W orship of certain Madonna icons involved ritualistic pomp on sacred as weIl as civic occasions. Such ceremony recalls early Chris­ tian tradition, imperial glory, and, finaIly, miraculous legends associated with specific icons representing the Virgin. The tradition that Saint Luke painted a portrait of the Virgin dates from the sixth century.2 This belief spread quickly during the 2 EXPLORATIONS IN RENAISSANCE CULTURE

following centuries, owing in part to accounts written by travelers to the Holy Lands who acknowledged that more than one image of the Virgin had existed during her lifetime. Various representations served as prototypes for icons: the Madonna Avvocata (Virgin with her hands raised in prayer), the Madonna Glykophilousa (Virgin who presses her face to her child), the Madonna Galactotrophousa or Lactans (Virgin suckling her child), and the Hodegetria (Virgin holding child who blesses).3 The churches of medieval Rome possessed a number of these icons that tradition held to be ancient images of the Madonna.' The city rivaled other Italian centers such as Venice or Bologna in its dedication to the miraculous Madonna. The types varied, but all the icons were consistent insofar as the ar­ tist represented the standard bust-Iength form of the Madonna and employed stylistic features which, whether in fact executed by an artist of the west or of the east, retained a strong Byzantine flavor. The portrait Madonna is exemplified by the Hodegetria (see il­ lustrations, especially Fig. 2.) A rather formal and heiratic image when compared with its variants, it was nonetheless accepted as the primary type invented by Saint Luke. S The Madonna holds the Child effortlessly with one arm (usually her left); her other arm is raised and points in the direction of the Child. While her figure is frontal, her gaze is lowered. The Child sits rigidly to the side, ex­ tends one hand in blessing, and frequently with the other clutches a book or serolI. The true icon of the Virgin Hodegetria reputedly was discovered by the Empress Eudoxia (408-50) in Jerusalem and sent back to , where it was venerated as the earliest Marian portrait and carried by the Emperor when he led his troops to battle. 6 The ultimate fate of the icon is disputed, but the Turks were said to have desecrated the image upon seizing Constantinople in 1453. During the fifteenth century icons of the Madonna attracted an­ tiquarian interest. Not only did scholars address the authenticity of the various versions, but efforts were directed toward their con­ servation. 7 Painters and craftsmen had firsthand contact with the more famous specimens-those recognized as objects of art requir­ ing restoration. 8 Roman artists of the fifteenth century also preserved large-scale representations of the miraculous Madonna. In keeping with the tradition of the healing powers attached to cer­ tain public sites, often a gateway or a thoroughfare, frescoes of the