Flavio Gianassi is proud to announce that the Madonna of Humility  by Bernadino del Signoraccio (Pistoia, 1460 ca. - 1540), will be included in a major group exhibition at Palazzo Franchetti, during the 2024 Venice Biennale.

The exhibition Breasts, curated by Carolina Pasti, showcase the works of more than thirty emerging and established artists from around the world, spanning the fields of painting, sculpture, photography and film from the 1500s to the present day. 

 

The works in the exhibition explore how the breast has been understood and represented in art across different cultures and traditions. Reflecting on a range of themes from motherhood to empowerment, sexuality to body image and illness, the exhibition investigates how the breast acts as a catalyst to discuss realities socio-political realities, challenge historical traditions, and express personal and collective identities.

Reflecting on a range of themes from motherhood, empowerment, sexuality, body image and illness, it explores how breasts act as a catalyst to discuss socio-political realities, challenge historical traditions and express personal and collective identities.
Breasts, providers of nourishment and epitomes of sex appeal, stand out as among the most intricate components of human anatomy. They carry a plethora of meanings and possess the ability to evoke deep emotional responses. Serving as the most conspicuous symbol of femaleness, breasts are entwined with two contrasting and arguably conflicting narratives of womanhood: the breast as a locus of sexual desire and with the breast as a symbol of motherhood.

 

The subject of this little panel is known as Madonna del Latte, because depicts Christ drinking from his mother's breast. The iconography of the nursing Madonna is connected with the cult of the Madonna of Humility, because the Virgin Mary was represented as a humble woman of the people.

In medieval and Renaissance Europe (and even into the 20th century), breastfeeding was something only working-class people did: they breastfed their own children and were hired as wetnurses for middle and upper-class families. The idea that Mary would have nursed her own child, the son of God, was revelatory. The Catholic fascination with blood found resonance in another fluid of the body: milk.

The breast, functioning as a cultural signifier, occupies a space of profound personal and political significance.