Description
This room presents significant examples of artistic production in Abruzzo from the Early Middle Ages to the mid-13th century. Alongside sculptural decorations that once adorned buildings and presbyterial furnishings from the region, a selection of painted panels dedicated to the Virgin Mary is here exhibited. The widespread diffusion in the region of Marian devotion is in part a legacy of ancient cults linked to fertility and the seasonal cycle.
The earliest representations depict Mary as Sedes Sapientiae (“Seat of Wisdom”), enthroned and holding the blessing Christ Child on her lap. This iconography is joined by other variations: the Virgin as Queen, crowned and adorned with gems to symbolise her heavenly royalty, and the Madonna lactans — the nursing Madonna — whose tender, human gesture of breastfeeding softens the otherwise formal portrayal, conveying both intimacy and salvific meaning.
These artworks, striking in their expressive intensity, bear witness to religious devotion through a visual language that unites the sacred with the everyday.
