The painting represents the Virgin as Advocate (Madonna Avvocata), without child, and hands interceding with God.
Tradition generally ascribes the portrait to St. Luke, though Pope Sergius III termed it
"acheropita," not made with hands; art historians date it to the 500s, making it one of the few such images known to have
survived Byzantine iconoclasm.
After Emperor Leo III banned the veneration of religious images in 730, many
artisans, monks, and nuns fled Byzantium for Italy, bringing their beloved icons with them.
In the church of S. Gregorio Nazianzeno in Compo Marzio, founded
by refugee nuns, a fresco depicts Christ directing three brothers to carry the
Madonna Avvocata from Constantinople to Rome. Legend held that an exile named Tempulus, living
near the Greek monastery of Santa Agata on the slope of the Celian Hill, donated the icon and with it his
name to the monastery chapel, which in honor of the icon, became known as alternatively, Santo Maria in Turn and
Santa Maria in Tempulo. Confirming parts of this medieval legend, modern historical study has
indicated that this Madonna is of Byzantine origin and was venerated at least by the end of the fifth century.
In 905, Sergius III moved the image to the papal basilica of St. John Lateran,
but before morning it returned unaided to Santa Maria in Tempuli, where it remained
until 1220 with the nuns.
When Saint Dominic was charged by Pope Honorius III to establish
a reformed Dominican community of nuns at San Sisto in Rome, some of the
nuns of Santa Maria in Tempulo became part of the new community at San Sisto.
The mere possibility of the nuns moving from their monastery
into a stricter community caused their relatives and friends
to protest vociferously. After further entreaties from St. Dominic,
most of the nuns agreed to join the new community of San Sisto.
However, the nuns placed one caveat on their promise: that the miraculous
image of the Madonna in Santa Maria in Tempulo should also come
with them. This was no ordinary request.
St. Dominic was not daunted by the challenge. On the First Sunday
of Lent, February 28, 1221, he gave the habit and
received in his hands the profession of the nuns entering San
Sisto. During the following night, in the presence of two cardinals,
St. Dominic solemnly transferred the image of the Madonna to its new
home at San Sisto. The painting
did not fly back on its own accord, thus bestowing the divine
seal of approval to St. Dominic's foundation.
The miraculous Madonna remained at San Sisto until 1575, when
it was transferred to a newer building nearby, San Domenico e Sisto
where the nuns had relocated upon the urging of Pope Saint Pius
V.
In 1931, when the monastery became the home of the present day "Angelicum", the
icon was under the care of the Dominican friars for a short time and then again
the Icon of our Lady, Protectress of the Monasteries in Rome, was moved to be
with the Dominican Nuns in their new monastery chapel of Santa Maria del Rosario, at Monte Mario.
Today the icon remains under the care of the Dominican Nuns and is an object of
great veneration.
When the painting was restored by Dr. Carlo Bertelli in the 1950's
a discovery was made which took the most eminent art experts by surprise.
On a thin board of lime-wood is represented a "Virgin in prayer," her body
turned towards the right while the face looks towards the beholder.
The right hand, regarded by the Greeks as having mysterious capabilities,
is not painted but formed of a thin sheet of gold. Later on, the left hand
had been gilded, and the hands and forehead were adorned with
precious byzantine gems of the 8th-9th centuries.
The head is painted on wax, the greater part of the body on a layer of gesso
and the remainder directly on the wood. A technique of this sort corresponds
to that used in Egypt for the portraits on the coffins of mummies during
the first centuries of the present era.
Beyond any doubt this is a Greek icon of the early Middle Ages, but its precise
date cannot so far be determined. Most probably it served as prototype for
all the so-called "St. Luke" Madonnas which, according to legend, were
painted by the Evangelist.
Actually it is much older than that of the Aracoeli which was the model
for similar representations of the Madonna in the West.
The icon offers a work of the highest quality and of singular beauty and is
without example in the history of art.
Along, with the perfection of the features there is gentleness and devotion,
whilst a certain veil of sadness,
even melancholy, gives to the Madonna an air of dignity and worldly detachment.
Her eyes rest gently upon the suppliant who invokes her with a
look of sweetness and sympathy.