Two Marian Iconographic Themes in the Face of Islam on the Adriatic Coast in the Early Modern Period

Abstract

This paper analyzes the Islamic presence in the paintings of Marian iconography between the 16th and the 18th centuries on both sides of the Adriatic coast, or more precisely the iconography of Disputation over the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of the Rosary, two themes equally and frequently represented in the above mentioned territory. In the first part of the paper we discuss the presence and the role of the famous Arab astrologist Albumasar, active in the 9th century, and the Prophet Muhammad in the context of the iconographic theme of Disputation over the Immaculate Conception, as well as the origin and the meaning of the inscriptions on their scrolls which serve as the interpretative key to understanding the role of the two Arab figures in the context of this particular Marian iconography. In the second part of this essay we analyze the iconography of Our Lady of the Rosary which, after the Battle of Lepanto, acquires a clear political value (when representatives of the Holy League are inserted into the paintings) to become explicitly anti-Ottoman in the 18th century.