I missionari e l’iconoclastia: la tela del Ritiro San Pellegrino

Abstract

The article focuses on the study of a painting conserved in the collection of Ritiro of S. Pellegrino, depicting an iconoclasm scene occurred in American continent by missionaries, as the long inscription specifies. Some religious are seen to baptize and to convert likely Indians, dressed as Europeans of the Sixteenth Century, and to break down the idols. The article is composed of four paragraphs. The first one is focused on the few historical hints which have been able to find on the painting and the collection. The second paragraph continues with the transcription, the translation and the interpretation of the complicated latin inscription, in gothic characters, which is on the low part of the canvas, in which stands out the figure of Benedictine Bernardo Buil, missionary in the New World. The third paragraph is just dedicated to him, who was an important catalan monk and followed Colombus in the second travel in 1493. The fourth and final paragraph of the article deepens, as a result of have thrown light on the inscription and the historical data gathered, the iconography and makes some proposals about the style and the provenance of this interesting painting.