Between Nazareth and Loreto: The Role of the Stone Bricks in Caravaggio’s ‘Madonna di Loreto’
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Daniel M. Unger
Abstract
The present essay focuses on Caravaggio’s ‘Madonna di Loreto or Madonna dei Pelegrini’ and its unique representation. In this painting, Caravaggio depicted an encounter between two pilgrims and the Madonna with the baby Jesus. At first glance, the importance of Loreto and the miraculous voyage of the Madonna’s house from Nazareth to Loreto is unrecognizable in the painting. The historical dimension of the miracle, so prominently displayed in earlier representations of the Loreto story is absent. Yet, Caravaggio’s choice of representation still marks its presence by adding a cluster of bricks revealed where the plaster has cracked and fallen away beyond the doorpost. These stone bricks, as I would like to argue, may help us locate additional meaning in the painting. The bricks connect two worlds, that of the Madonna and child in Nazareth and that of the two pilgrims in Loreto. Caravaggio created a superposition of two locations and two times with the help of a common wall. The integration of both moments in time and place defuses the historical character of the scene. The unhistorical perception yet replicated authority of the location depicted, enhances the importance and significance of the scene within the site. This will be argued with the help of pilgrims’ travelogues to both locations.
Abstract
The present essay focuses on Caravaggio’s ‘Madonna di Loreto or Madonna dei Pelegrini’ and its unique representation. In this painting, Caravaggio depicted an encounter between two pilgrims and the Madonna with the baby Jesus. At first glance, the importance of Loreto and the miraculous voyage of the Madonna’s house from Nazareth to Loreto is unrecognizable in the painting. The historical dimension of the miracle, so prominently displayed in earlier representations of the Loreto story is absent. Yet, Caravaggio’s choice of representation still marks its presence by adding a cluster of bricks revealed where the plaster has cracked and fallen away beyond the doorpost. These stone bricks, as I would like to argue, may help us locate additional meaning in the painting. The bricks connect two worlds, that of the Madonna and child in Nazareth and that of the two pilgrims in Loreto. Caravaggio created a superposition of two locations and two times with the help of a common wall. The integration of both moments in time and place defuses the historical character of the scene. The unhistorical perception yet replicated authority of the location depicted, enhances the importance and significance of the scene within the site. This will be argued with the help of pilgrims’ travelogues to both locations.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Notes on Contributors VII
- Maps and Travel: An Introduction 1
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Part I: Historical Space
- Traveling the Mappa Mundi: Readerly Transport from Cassiodorus to Petrarch 17
- The Bestiary on the Hereford World Map (c. 1300) 37
- Cultural Landscape in Christian and Jewish Maps of the Holy Land 74
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Part II: Use and Reception
- Winds and Continents: Concepts for Structuring the World and Its Parts 91
- Fictive Travel and Mapmaking in Fourteenth-Century Iberia 136
- Les cartes marines comme source de réflexion géographique au XVe siècle 165
- Around the World: Borders and Frames in Two Sixteenth-Century Norman Map Books 189
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Part III: Travel into Sacred Spaces
- The Travels of the Rabbis and the Rabbinic Horizons of the Inhabited World 221
- Real and Fictive Travels to the Holy Land as Painted in the Florence Scroll 232
- Between Nazareth and Loreto: The Role of the Stone Bricks in Caravaggio’s ‘Madonna di Loreto’ 252
- Sacred Topographies and the Optics of Truth: Vasilij Grigorovich Barskij’s Journeys to Mount Athos (1725–1744) 281
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Part IV: Word and Images
- Antwerp Civic Self-Portraits 315
- Fra Niccolò Guidalotto’s City View, Nautical Atlas and Book of Memories: Cartography and Propaganda between Venice and Constantinople 342
- How to Represent the New World When One Is Not Andrea Mantegna: Sovereigns in the Americas on Sixteenth-Century Maps 363
- Index of Toponyms and Locations 383
- Index of Historical, Religious and Mythological Figures 395
- Index of Modern Authors 403
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Notes on Contributors VII
- Maps and Travel: An Introduction 1
-
Part I: Historical Space
- Traveling the Mappa Mundi: Readerly Transport from Cassiodorus to Petrarch 17
- The Bestiary on the Hereford World Map (c. 1300) 37
- Cultural Landscape in Christian and Jewish Maps of the Holy Land 74
-
Part II: Use and Reception
- Winds and Continents: Concepts for Structuring the World and Its Parts 91
- Fictive Travel and Mapmaking in Fourteenth-Century Iberia 136
- Les cartes marines comme source de réflexion géographique au XVe siècle 165
- Around the World: Borders and Frames in Two Sixteenth-Century Norman Map Books 189
-
Part III: Travel into Sacred Spaces
- The Travels of the Rabbis and the Rabbinic Horizons of the Inhabited World 221
- Real and Fictive Travels to the Holy Land as Painted in the Florence Scroll 232
- Between Nazareth and Loreto: The Role of the Stone Bricks in Caravaggio’s ‘Madonna di Loreto’ 252
- Sacred Topographies and the Optics of Truth: Vasilij Grigorovich Barskij’s Journeys to Mount Athos (1725–1744) 281
-
Part IV: Word and Images
- Antwerp Civic Self-Portraits 315
- Fra Niccolò Guidalotto’s City View, Nautical Atlas and Book of Memories: Cartography and Propaganda between Venice and Constantinople 342
- How to Represent the New World When One Is Not Andrea Mantegna: Sovereigns in the Americas on Sixteenth-Century Maps 363
- Index of Toponyms and Locations 383
- Index of Historical, Religious and Mythological Figures 395
- Index of Modern Authors 403
