Figurae Mariae: Iconography of the Virgin and of Her Biblical Prefigurations in Early Modern Decorative Cycles in the Republic of Genoa

Abstract

In the last years of the 16th century and then in the 17th century, the Republic of Genoa became an advanced laboratory for the dissemination of Marian images, in some cases reinforced by the association with the biblical heroines who were considered to be the Virgin’s prefigurations in the Old Testament. The richness and complexity of the typological parallels between such crucial iconographies as Mary’s Assumption and her Immaculate Conception on the one hand, and the figures of Eve (a negative typus), Judith and Esther on the other hand, developed in post-Tridentine literature and homiletics, found a persuasive visual translation in frescoes by prominent Genoese painters such as Andrea Ansaldo, Giulio Benso, Giovanni Battista Carlone and Domenico Piola, often commissioned by religious orders, as militant art aimed at asserting Catholic doctrines.