Comprehensive study of Iconography of the Madonna dell'Albero in Italy

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This study is about an iconography called Madonna dell'Albero (Madonna of Tree), unrecognized among the art historians. To grasp whole picture of the devotion to this type of Madonna from the Middle Ages to Early Modern period, I researched in Italy and southern part of Switzerland where a large number of pilgrimage site is dedicated to Madonna dell'Albero. In result of field work and research based on documents, it was confirmed that there are over 120 pilgrimage sites in these area. Analyzing their legends of foundation, tendency of the local distribution and the images of their Madonna, indicates the reason of surviving of the devotion and image of this type of Madonna is explained not only because of the remains of paganical imagery in rural areas, but also because the visualization of this Madonna is interrelated to Christian canonical iconography.