Maria Lactans

In the little church of San Rocco we find many curiosities that we will talk about in the near future.

Among the fifteenth-century frescoes by Girolamo di Domenico, down on the left wall at the bottom, we find a beautiful “Madonna of Milk”.
It is a representation of the Madonna who carries the nude breast to the Child, turned to the observer.

This Madonna who nurses the Child is a very common iconography in the Middle Ages; Madonna’s reverence as a protector of puerpers and a symbol of fertility can be found, for example, in Siena in beautiful medieval paintings such as that of Lorenzetti in the Palazzo Arcivescovile. It is also a call to the Madonna for protection against plague and famine at a time when breast milk was an indispensable element for the survival of newborns.

The Madonna in medieval painting is stylized, flat, ethereal, symbolic.
In the Renaissance he acquires physicality and volume according to the canons of humanism; the introduction of perspective brings to the painting the third dimension and the figures are characterized by a strong realism. Especially in northern Europe we come to images of the Madonna Lactans that we would now define at least “oceans”. This is how the Council of Trent, in the mid-sixteenth century, banned these images, considered inappropriate, that they might mislead the faithful by prayer. It was forbidden iconography and asked bishops to decide whether to remove existing images.
Many Madonnas were reworked and covered and this risk also underwent the painting of Seggiano.
Perhaps because it is in a small chapel, perhaps because it is placed in a little visible, almost concealed corner, perhaps because the bishop appreciated the beautiful image (perhaps more beautiful than the main image behind the altar) the painting has come intact to us . The recent restoration has restored the vivid colours, but the position, a bit unhappy, leads visitors to ignore it.

I invite you to come back to Seggiano to admire it.

From “Seggiano Curiosa”

by Fondazione Le Radici di Seggiano (website)