Visual Networks of Healing in Renaissance Italy

Sandra Cardarelli, Valentina Živković (eds)

Pages: xviii + 260 p.
Size:216 x 280 mm
Illustrations:18 b/w, 98 col., 5 tables b/w., 6 maps color

Language(s):English
Publication Year:2026

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ISBN: 978-2-503-61892-0
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Through a wealth of archival material and relevant images, Visual Networks of Healing in Renaissance Italy expounds the complex layers of meaning in visual narratives of miraculous healing, hagiographies of healing saints, and votive culture, to reveal how society in major centres and rural communities experienced disease and appealed for miraculous healing and salvation.

Subject(s)

BIO

Sandra Cardarelli is an Art Historian specializing in Late-Medieval and Renaissance Italian art, working on visual imagery of sanctity, healing, and disease. She holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Aberdeen that was sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Valentina Živković is a Principal Research Associate at the Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. She graduated with a PhD in Art History at the University of Belgrade. Her interests focus on the relationship between art, religiosity and society.

Summary

Visual Networks of Healing explores the visual culture of healing in Renaissance Italy. In looking at contemporary understanding of disease and healing practices, these chapters discuss the role and importance of visual imagery in seeking and appealing for cures. This volume provides a new understanding of the practice and representation of healing, giving a fresh insight on visual healing narratives, on the protective and curative powers of healing saints, miracle-working images and relics, by looking at the manifold ways in which they fostered spiritual and physical healing, shaped devotion and cultural traditions in main urban centres and rural communities.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

About the Authors
List of Illustrations

Introduction
Sandra Cardarelli and Valentina Živković

Section I Healing Saints

Beheaded Saints and Lost Icons: St Anastasius at the Tre Fontane Abbey in Rome
Laura Fenelli

Narratives of Healing in the Contado of Florence: Medici Commissions Depicting Sts Cosmas and Damian
Sandra Cardarelli

St Angelus of Jerusalem’s Healings: The Frescoes at Santa Maria Traspontina and Worship in Sicily
Marco Papasidero

Section II Healing Miracles and Votive Culture

Memorialising the Healing Miracles and the Votive Culture of “La Nunziata di Firenze”
Megan Holmes

The Votive Church of St Roch in Draguć (Draguccio) in Istria and La Nunziata da Fiorenza
Valentina Živković

Community and Contestation in the Tuscan Countryside: The Miraculous Image of Santa Maria delle Grazie al Calcinaio in Cortona
Shannon E. Kuziow

Section III Franciscan Healing through Compassion and Devotion

Art, Compassion, and Healing at the Tomb of St Francis in Assisi
Theresa Flanigan

Healing through Penitential Devotion: The Haemorrhaging Woman and St Francis of Assisi as verae īconēs at the Sacro Monte di Orta
Kathleen Peters

Section IV Topographies of Healing

Topographies of Salvation: The City Model in Renaissance Plague Paintings
Louise Marshall

Marian Shrines, Healing Practices, and Natural Landmarks in Early Modern Tuscany
Michele Bacci

Giovanna of Signa between City and Countryside: Healing Miracles, Local Ecology, and Everyday Life
Diana Bullen Presciutti

Delimiting the Space for Sacred Healing: Wooden Statues of St Sebastian in Renaissance Camerino
Francesca Casamassima and Giuseppe Capriotti

Bibliography

Index

Index of Diseases, Ailments, Illnesses, and Medical Terms Used in This Volume