Defining the boundaries of the lawful cult. History of an Adriatic Icon

The article analyzes the public use of an icon in the early modern era, namely a Lamenting Virgin, painted at the end of the 13th century by an artist of the Adriatic area and now in the Cathedral of Fermo, in the Marche Region. Cross-checking the biography of Giacomo della Marca and the records of the council of the town of Fermo, it is possible to reconstruct the intriguing events occurred in 1473. On March 12, fra Giacomo preached against the scoundrel and drunkard Albanian Peter, to which the Virgin appeared in a vision, asking him to build a church. To block the cult toward the image commissioned by the Albanian, Giacomo della Marca gave the community a valuable and ancient icon, directly painted by St. Luke the Evangelist. This way the preacher succeeded in bringing back the management of what is “sacred” within the boundaries of the Church. In the 18th century the friars put on the altar, where the icon was venerated, a now lost painting with Giacomo della Marca, canonized in 1726, receiving the icon as a gift by the pope. Probably on the same occasion, the friars glued on the back of the wooden case that contained the icon a painting on canvas, now in the Diocesan Museum of Fermo. Trough a new story told in this image, the friars reinforce the relationship between Giacomo della Marca, the pope and St. Luke, in function of the canonization of the saint.