Women and Madonnas of the Sacred Mounts of Piedmont and Lombardy

The Special Natural Reserve of the Sacred Mount of Oropa inaugurates the photographic exhibition entitled “Women and Madonnas of the Sacred Mounts of Piedmont and Lombardy” in the ‘Sala della Dottrina’ of the Sanctuary of Oropa, on Thursday the 20th of May at 7 p.m. The exhibition, realized in collaboration with the Documentation Centre of European Sacred Mounts, Calvaries and Devotional complexes and inaugurated by the Ente di Gestione delle Riserve Naturali Speciali del Sacro Monte di Orta, del Monte Mesma e del Colle della Torre di Buccione on the 5th of March in Novara, will be inaugurated at Oropa with a recital for two voices, guitar and percussion, entitled ‘Women and Madonnas’, created by the Gruppo del Cerchio from Turin and interpreted by Susanna Paisio and Igor Piumetti. The performed texts make reference to such as Santa Teresa d’Avila, Pseudo Evodio, Rainer Maria Rilke, Jacopone da Todi, as well as Gustave Flaubert and Antonio Machado. The songs are inspired by the international popular music, the Italian pop and songwriter music and the classical tradition (examples include a Berber lullaby, ‘La sposa’ by di Giuni Russo from the Song of Songs, “Madre” by G.L. Ferretti, “Ave Generosa” by Ildegarda di Bingen…).

The Virgin of the Sacred Mounts has been the object of profound veneration also within the precincts of those devotional complexes that were consecrated to other saints, such as Orta and Arona, respectively dedicated to Saint Francis and Saint Charles. The cult of the Holy Virgin has ancient origins and finds expression in the form of an homage to the exceptional dignity and holiness of Mary, Mother of God, as well as the invocation to Her for the intercession, her Son being the only mediator between God and man. In her role of Mother of Jesus and of every Christian, Mary stimulates feelings of tender love and trust; she understands, welcomes and empathizes with human suffering.

Carola Benedetto, curator of the exhibition catalogue, thus comments: <<We can easily understand how the ancient pilgrims could venerate the austere Madonna assumpted into heaven, or the dark-tinged immaculate Virgin, and yet recognize something of them in Her; how they could identify themselves in the anguished Virgin at the foot of the Cross lamenting the death of her son, or in the graceful young Virgin timorously receiving the Annunciation, or even in the woman busying herself with the household chores, just like one of them. The principle of femininity pervades the Sacred Mounts; it confers distinct features to each chapel, whose art encompasses the mysteries of the sacred as well as the profane. The Virgin is the manifestation of that principle, embodying the Mother as well as the Gipsy holding her son in her arms, Magdalen torn by suffering, the young woman learning to saw whilst perhaps dreaming of being somewhere else... >>.

What, therefore, distinguishes the Madonnas from the rest of the women in the context of the sculptural arts of the Sacred Mounts of Piedmont and Lombardy? By capturing the colours, the celestial as well as the torn draperies, the eyes and gestures full of earthly holiness, the thirty-six photographs by Pier Ilario Benedetto precisely suggest that the boundaries between sacred and real are fictitious.

Opening hours: 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.

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