Palmiro Vezzoni, a specialist in the fields of Holy art and decoration of many of the churches in the Diocese of Cremona, had the habit to make visitors of his atelier in Rivarolo del Re linger in front of this Christ’s head, proposed as a natural prodigy; that is, an image that miraculously generated itself from a mold stain on a wooden plank.
The pattern of prodigy actually traces back to a precept codified by Leonardo da Vinci in his Treatise on Painting, which itself recaptured the notion of “interpreting” shapeless shapes as an attempt to unleash the imaginative process that was already known to the Ancients. What marvellous shapes do we spot from times to times by looking at the clouds or at a stain? … “By looking attentively at old and smeared walls, or stones and veined marble of various colours, you may fancy that you see in them several compositions, landscapes, battles, figures in quick motion, strange countenances, and dresses, with an infinity of other objects. By these confused lines the inventive genius is excited to new exertions”…
Donated by Maria and Luisa Vezzoni, 2007
