Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index

In this painting, the virgin Mary dominates the scene, towering over the other figures. She wears a tunic and mantle with her right arm upraised holding a club. This menacing gesture is in contrast to the serene look on her face and the golden halo surrounding her head. On her left is a devil with an iron-clawed instrument attempting to grab a child, who is clinging to her mantle. To the far right of Mary, the child’s mother prays for aid, dressed in black and on her knees with her arms raised in supplication. “Sancta Maria Del Soccorso” (Holy Mary of Help) is written in the background of the painting.

This altarpiece was commissioned for the Velluti Chapel in the church of Santo Spirito in Florence and remains in situ. Santo Spirito was an Augustinian priory and served as a center for theological education and shared spiritual life. A representative for the Velluti family gave the friars of Santo Spirito the choice in how to decorate the chapel and this painting was commissioned in concert with Augustinian concerns and ideals. All of the chapels located in the southern corner of the right arm of the chapel relate to Augustinian themes. The entire church is dedicated to the Virgin, and D'Ancona has argued that the chapel was associated with the veneration of the virgin immaculate. The original church at Santo Spirito burned in 1471, and this was part of the renewal and rebuilding of the church. During the 1480s and 1490s various depictions of the Madonna del Soccorso were created in cloisters and churches founded by the order of Hermits, pointing to the Augustinian promotion of this image. The Madonna del Soccorso image reflects the doctrine of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Because she is free of original sin, the devil has to flee from her. The painting is attributed to Dominico di Zenobi, previously known as the Master of the Johnson Nativity. Zenobi was an assistant to Filippo Lippi and later shared a workshop with Domenico di Michelino in Florence.

There is a story from the sixth century by Theophilus of Adina that recounts Mary giving a repentant man back the contract he had made with the devil. (This scene is depicted in stained glass in the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris). In the Speculum Historiale (1264), the Dominican friar Vincent de Beauvais tells of a boy consigned to the devil by his mother. When she grew fearful for her child, she sought out a holy man. The hermit called on the Virgin, who appeared and fought off the devil. In 1306, the Friar Nicollo Bruni, head of the Augustinian order in Palermo had a vision of the Virgin. She healed him of illness and instructed him to call her Madonna del Soccorso. A later legend records an apparition of the Madonna del Socorrso on the streets of Palermo to save a child from the devil when his mother cursed him. In another version of the legend, the mother does not curse the child with words, but conceives the child during Holy Week which was considered a sin.

The Madonna del Socorrso is a variation on the Marian type known as the Madonna della Misericordia. Mary’s cloak is a well-established feature in this instance symbolizing the protection she affords the faithful. The Madonna della Misericordia image, however, is symbolic, while Madonna del Soccorso is active and aggressive. It is unusual because female power in art of this period often has a negative and malicious tone. There are about fifty surviving paintings of this type of Madonna. The Council of Trent in 1545 decreed this image heterodox, and many images of this kind were removed or effaced.

Children were in need of protection from many kinds of dangers. The Black Death in 1348-51 killed more than one-third of Europe's population. Children were especially susceptible making up 70-80% of plague deaths in a resurgence in 1430. El-Hanany argues that the motif of the Madonna del Soccorso first appears in 1485 in Umbria where a wave of the plague had reoccurred. She further argues that another danger for children, sudden infant death syndrome, could be a factor since it was thought to be of demonic origin in the medieval period. Kidnapping of children was a worry and fear of the devil stealing the soul of a child was also high. She explains that the blending of the spiritual and physical worlds was such that if a child was found dead, mothers were sometimes accused of witchcraft. The Madonna del Soccorso was a devotional resource for parents worried about their children’s physical and spiritual well-being.