The Lives and Afterlives of Shrine Madonnas

Abstract

This article explores uncertain histories of three fourteenth-century Shrine Madonna statues. It focuses particularly on the unfixedness of these statues' identities, which, already socially determined, loosen over time and become semiotically exposed. All three started out as cult statues, and all subsequently became suspect, inspiring clerical distrust. One Shrine Madonna transformed from a monastic thaumaturgical image into a mutilated puppet in the theater of politico-religious struggle, and then from a forgotten curiosity into an agent of cultural authority. Another Shrine Madonna changed identity through geographical and denominational shifts: it began as an indulgenced performance object, showered with annual gifts, and became a symbol of a Catholic community, its ideology and its values, finally developing into a visually ambiguous memory. The third Shrine Madonna stayed roughly in the same place for centuries, but transformed outwardly, masked and unmasked, glued shut and dressed, undressed and undone, while retaining its perceived agency with hardly any change—until, that is, its recent removal from the church.