Una bomba di Madonna

At a time of clashes of civilizations and fratricidal wars, it is quite a shock to discover that just a stone’s throw away from home in an ordinary church there is an anonymous 400-year-old fresco showing a Madonna dropping bombs on a Muslim fleet and claiming,

Director’s Statement

Impressions of a virtually unique and perhaps intolerably scandalous church fresco In an age of “clashes of civilizations” and “fratricidal wars,” it makes quite an impression to discover that just a stone’s throw from home in a very ordinary church there exists an anonymous 400-year-old fresco where one can see a Madonna throwing bombs at a Muslim fleet and bloody reaping many victims.
But how? Since when does the most holy mother of Jesus handle explosive devices? Shouldn’t she always just be a bringer of peace? This warlike depiction seems almost blasphemous. Whether it is a joke? Or a Banksy-style satirical painting? (Small spoiler: this is not a Banksy work…)
It is actually a mural depiction of the Battle of Lepanto that took place on October 7, 1571 present inside the Church of Santa Maria di Pazzalino in Lugano, Switzerland: here the historic (and temporary) victory of the Christians over the Ottoman army is explained through divine and dynamite intervention.
From what should be a simple tale of a fresco, lightly conceived, springs a ramshackle reflection, a little bit amused and a little bit pained, on the mysteries of the creative process and on doing historical popularization and cultural journalism: “The problem is that a war has broken out in Ukraine, my last name is Bilenko, and my paternal grandparents were from Odessa: and I realize-even if it is initially as if unconscious-that I can no longer smile in front of a 400-year-old drawing where Our Lady is dropping bombs on men’s heads when a war is raging 2,000km to the northeast.”

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