Iconografia e devozione all’Immacolata Concezione nello Stato di Milano tra Sei e Settecento: modelli europei e comunicazione politica

The cult of the Immaculate Conception has ancient roots in Milan, and various texts collected in the volume entitled L’Immacolata nei rapporti tra l’Italia e la Spagna, edited by Alessandra Anselmi (Rome 2008), indicate its continual growth and spread in the modern era. The article discusses the reception of the cult in Central Europe and the associated imagery from the perspective of new iconographic models propagated by Franciscan and Capuchin circles and the compositions and approaches promoted within other congregations devoted to the cult, mainly active in the capital of Lombardy between the rst half of the seventeenth century and the rst decade of the eighteenth century. As indicated by in-depth historiographic studies, the political situation in Milan in that period was complicated by the uncertain conclusion of Charles II Habsburg’s endeavours to assume control over Spain. These circumstances further fuelled the Marian cult, already present in Europe following the events of the papacy of Innocent XI, such as the lifting of the siege of Vienna in 1683—the Austrian-Polish vic- tory at Kahlenberg—and the subsequent expedition against the Turks between 1684 and 1687.