The Making of an Icon: the Madonna Bruna del Carmine in Naples (13th-17th centuries)

The icon of the Madonna Bruna del Carmine is the most famous cult image in Naples. Its immense devotional status has earned it a place on the high altar of the fourteenth-century church situated in Piazza Mercato, the bustling hub of Neapolitan social and economic life for more than seven centuries. Venerated as miraculous since the sixteenth century, its prodigious healing powers have continued to inspire the devotion of all social classes. The icon as we see it today is an enigmatic artefact. Its format and iconography testify to medieval origins, while its current appearance dates to 1975 when the overpainting of earlier restorations was removed, and it was almost entirely repainted. This article hypothetically reconstructs the material history of the Madonna del Carmine and explores the social dynamics that gave rise to its veneration. A close examination of the painting and its restorations allows a better understanding of the icon’s history, style, and iconography. The possible dating to c. 1280 links the icon to the early history of the church and convent of Santa Maria del Carmine in Naples. Founded in 1270, the church was rebuilt at the beginning of the 1300’s but its importance in the city emerged in the second half of the 1400’s when it was incorporated into the city walls and became a destination of processions and the site of public rituals. Textual and visual sources testify to the events that determined the affirmation of the icon as a cult image in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when it became a formidable tool of propaganda and social control.