Das Gnadenbild von Maria Radna. Anmerkungen zur Ikonographie
The Miraculous Image of the Virgin Mary in Maria Radna. Observations regarding the iconography

Summary/Abstract: The miraculous image of the Virgin Mary in Maria Radna – the latter, once a Franciscan convent and most important Catholic place of pilgrimage in the Banat region up to the present – represents a rather special case within the larger group of Christian miraculous images. Contrary to the presumption hitherto, it is not a product of the Remondini's print studio in Bassano del Grappa, but very probably that of the Carmelite Order’s own office in Rome. As scholars already pointed out, the central image clearly shows a depiction of the Holy Virgin holding the scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. For a better understanding of this image, it might be useful to point out its connection with to the most important representation of the Virgin, done by Girolamo Massei, and kept in the Carmelite chapel in San Martino ai Monti in Rome. Responding to the post-Tridentine demand to show the continuity of the Catholic faith in the arts, the painting belongs to a specific type concerning the representation of the Holy Virgin, tied to the origins of the Carmelite Order: the Eléusa. However, in contrast to the painting by Massei, the representation of the Holy Virgin from Maria Radna is surrounded by painted frames. The frame below the central picture shows the sinners in the purgatory, a scene which refers to the Sabbatine Privilege, consisting in the prerogative for early liberation from the purgatory, owned by the confratres and consorores of the Carmelite Order since the 14th century. The fifteen scenes framing the other three sides of the central image are referring to miraculous interventions of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, collected and disseminated during the 17th century in handwritten or printed compilations.

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