Turin, Antoniazzo Romano's Madonna of the Parturients on display from the Vatican

From May 14 to July 2021, the Fondazione Torino Musei, with the patronage of the Fabbrica di San Pietro in Vaticano and the Archdiocese of Turin, will present Antoniazzo Romano ’s Madonna delle Partorienti, dating from the last decade of the 15th century, in the Medieval Court of Palazzo Madama. The work will be on public display for the first time after a long and complex restoration, which was promoted by the Fabbrica di San Pietro with the support of Fideuram - Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking. Upon completion of the exhibition, the fresco will return to the Sacred Grottoes of the Vatican Basilica.

"For the first time the Madonna of the Parturients, venerated for more than five centuries in St. Peter’s Basilica, leaves the Vatican to be presented in Turin in an exhibition that recounts its centuries-old history and restoration," says Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, Archpriest of the Papal Vatican Basilica. “It comes to you, not by chance, in the Marian month to bring comfort in this time of pandemic and hope for less difficult and more serene days.”

The fresco fragment depicts Our Lady holding the Child to herself. The two faces present an extraordinary expressive force: the loving gaze of the Madonna, serenely directed toward the faithful, invites prayer in a collected and silent dialogue; that of the Child, on the other hand, seems to extend to all humanity in a symbolic embrace.

The work was created by Antoniazzo Romano on the eve of the Jubilee of 1500 and was originally located in the south transept of the old basilica, above the altar of the Orsini chapel. During the construction of the new St. Peter’s, it was detached from the wall and in 1574 was placed in a niche behind an altar. Here it was venerated by the faithful and particularly by women expecting to give birth. Also removed from this place in 1605, it was then taken to the Vatican Grottoes and in 1616 found its final location in a chapel specially made under the floor of the basilica. The image of Our Lady of the Parturients was reduced in size, losing its original mandorla with cherub figures, which, however, can be admired in the unpublished and proposed reconstruction presented in the exhibition.

Thanks to the recent conservative intervention, it is possible to admire the work in its newfound integrity, in an evocative setting.

Image: Antoniazzo Romano, Madonna delle Partorienti (last decade of the 15th century) after recent restoration. © Fabbrica di San Pietro in the Vatican. Ph.Credit Mallio Falcioni

Turin, Antoniazzo Romano's Madonna of the Parturients on display from the Vatican

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