A Printed Icon in Early Modern Italy
Forlì's Madonna of the Fire

Lisa Pon examines the cultural biography of the city of Forlì's miraculous woodcut, the Madonna of the Fire.

Lisa Pon (Author)

9781107491113, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 July 2022

308 pages, 99 b/w illus. 4 colour illus. 1 map
25.4 x 17.8 x 1.7 cm, 0.542 kg

'As a contribution to the history of Renaissance prints, Pon's unique microhistory of the Madonna del Fuoco situates the printed image in the rich context of miracle-working images in various media, modes of enshrinement and the culture of relics, civic pride and political rivalries, monuments, chronicles and festivals, and even the practices of Renaissance fire brigades.' Evelyn Lincoln, Art in Print

In 1428, a devastating fire destroyed a schoolhouse in the northern Italian city of Forlì, leaving only a woodcut of the Madonna and Child that had been tacked to the classroom wall. The people of Forlì carried that print - now known as the Madonna of the Fire - into their cathedral, where two centuries later a new chapel was built to enshrine it. In this book, Lisa Pon considers a cascade of moments in the Madonna of the Fire's cultural biography: when ink was impressed onto paper at a now-unknown date; when that sheet was recognized by Forlì's people as miraculous; when it was enshrined in various tabernacles and chapels in the cathedral; when it or one of its copies was - and still is - carried in procession. In doing so, Pon offers an experiment in art historical inquiry that spans more than three centuries of making, remaking, and renewal.

Part I. Thing: 1. Iconography: Madonna and child
2. Imprint: paper, print, and matrix
Part II. Emplacement: 3. Miracle: the fire of February 4, 1428
4. Domestic display: Lombardino da Ripetrosa's schoolhouse
5. Ecclesiastical enshrinement: the cathedral of Forlì
Part III. Mobilities: 6. Moving in the city: the translation of 1636
7. Mobile in print: the procession on paper
8. Multiplied: the Madonna of the Fire in Forlì and beyond.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Religion & beliefs [HR], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD], Renaissance art [ACND]