{"id":372402,"date":"2026-01-16T01:39:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T01:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/372402\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T01:39:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T01:39:21","slug":"van-dycks-plague-inspired-masterpiece-in-row-over-its-true-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/372402\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Dyck\u2019s plague-inspired masterpiece in row over its true home"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a young and gifted Flemish artist received his first significant commission in Palermo in 1624, he must have believed his luck was in. <\/p>\n

Upon his arrival, however, the 25-year-old Anthony van Dyck<\/a> was promptly quarantined because of the plague. He was inspired to paint La Madonna del Rosario, a gesture of thanks to Santa Rosalia, the city\u2019s patron saint, who was credited with freeing the city from the disease.<\/p>\n

Depicting a gazing Virgin Mary with a string of rosary beads in one hand and baby Jesus in her arm, the painting<\/a> was destined for the church of Santa Caterina, a Renaissance landmark decorated with dazzling frescoes, stucco details and coloured marble.<\/p>\n

\"Painting<\/p>\n

It was kept at the church, home to relics including Santa Rosalia\u2019s bones, until 1922, when it was provisionally relocated to Palazzo Abatellis, a regional-run museum 750 metres down the road, for safekeeping.<\/p>\n

It remained at the museum for more than 100 years, until last month, when the painting was temporarily returned to Santa Caterina. Its stay was supposed to be limited initially to the church\u2019s grand reopening after a year-long restoration that cost \u20ac900,000, but a row has broken out over the painting\u2019s permanent location.<\/p>\n

The custodians of Santa Catarina have argued that La Madonna del Rosario should remain at the church, which has 300,000 visitors a year, about 8.5 times more than the estimated 35,000 of the Palazzo.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Santa Caterina, Palermo, Sicily<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

Giuseppe Bucaro, the church\u2019s rector, said the work should stay where large crowds could enjoy it. \u201cThe church is safe,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to put the painting at the heart of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

FEC, the state body that owns the painting and administers many of Italy\u2019s religious buildings, agreed that La Madonna should remain at the church. However, Sicily\u2019s regional government has called for it to be returned to the museum.<\/p>\n

Mario La Rocca, director-general of the region\u2019s heritage division, said the church was entitled to display the painting exclusively for two periods each year: a month starting on Christmas Eve and during the \u201cMonth of Mary\u201d in May.<\/p>\n

Bucaro said he opposed the work being shuttled back and forth. \u201cIt\u2019s not very respectful of the painting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He has won support from Marilena Volpes, La Rocca\u2019s predecessor. \u201cThe Santa Caterina complex is part of an indivisible whole,\u201d she said. \u201cEvery element within it has a meaning that is lost when taken out of context.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Self-Portrait<\/p>\n

Bucaro was confident a compromise would be reached regarding Van Dyck\u2019s painting. The regional authorities did not respond to requests for comment<\/p>\n

Another Madonna del Rosario painting by Van Dyck, showing the Virgin Mary surrounded by saints including Rosalia, is displayed at Palermo\u2019s Oratory of Rosario di San Domenico.<\/p>\n

The city has a long history of art security concerns. In 1969, Caravaggio<\/a>\u2019s Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence (1609) was stolen from the Oratory of Saint Lawrence. Investigators have long suspected the Sicilian mafia is responsible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a young and gifted Flemish artist received his first significant commission in Palermo in 1624, he must…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-372402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}