The Altarpieces by Bernardo Zenale at the Getty and Denver Art Museums: two Case Studies for the Iconography of the Immaculate Conception

The essay summarizes the most important results of the last sixty years of research on the iconography of the Immaculate Conception, arguing that two crucial aspects have become progressively clearer, namely the issues of “invention” and “caution.” As for “invention”, the two liturgical offices which Pope Sixtus IV assigned to the feast of December 8th have been identified as the main source of inspiration for most representations of the Immaculate Conception in Italian Renaissance art. “Caution”, on the other hand, refers to the need for prudent propaganda felt by the supporters of the Immaculate Conception, especially by those living in major centers, where ecclesiastical authorities might easily have reported any form of excessive immaculist propaganda to the Inquisition. The essay argues that the altarpieces painted by Bernardo Zenale for two Franciscan churches, one in Cantù (1502), the other in Milan (1510), well represent the issues of “invention” and “caution. First, both paintings visualize concepts and figures that the liturgical office by Bernardino de’ Bustis, a Milanese Franciscan, had made quite popular, particularly in Lombardy and Milan. Second, most of the concepts and figures here visualized do not refer to Mary’s exemption from Original Sin in an obvious way: on the contrary, they require some decoding. This is especially true for Zenale’s altarpiece for San Francesco Grande in Milan, which is highly cryptic, confirming that the need for cautious propaganda must have been stronger in Milan than in peripheral Cantù.