The Icon “Mamma Schiavona”

The history of the icon of Montevergine is surrounded by a halo of mystery. Many legends over the time have attributed the painting to different artists and made hypotheses on its transfer to the sanctuary...

​A legend being the icon was painted directly by St Luke in Jerusalem, displayed in Antioch and finally transported to Constantinople. During the VIII century, Emperor Baldwin II wanted to cut off the head of the picture to carrying it with him in his exile, to save it from the destruction by iconoclasts.

Through several stages of inheritance, the image of Mary’s face would have come into the hands of Catherine of Valois, who, probably, had it completed by Montano d’Arezzo and gave it to the monks of Montevergine in 1310, placing it in the noble chapel of Anjou. Later on, some historians and critics refuted any legends about the icon. The presence of Angevin lilies around the image of the Virgin seems to bind its origin unquestionably to this royal house.

In recent years father Placido Mario Tropeano, a Benedictine monk has accurately reconstructed the history of the prodigious icon, concluding that it can be reasonably ascribed to the style of Montano d’Arezzo, but, due to recurring rehashes, it may have lost its original feature.

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Article and image by ​Fabiola Annarita Iannaccone