Premessa La Chiesa cattolica ha fatto sempre uso delle immagini per indottrinare e catechizzare i fedeli. Per molto tempo nelle immagini che raffiguravano il diavolo prevalse l’aspetto didattico ed ideologico piuttosto che quello estetico. Il diavolo e conseguentemente il suo carattere maligno e negativo furono rappresentati in modo da impressionare e spaventare i peccatori con la paura dei tormenti infernali; nel medioevo la sua figura associata al male divenne importante ed essenziale nella sua figura in contrapposizione con l’Angelo Custode egualmente presente affiancato all’uomo. Nell’iconografia cristiana il Diavolo acquisisce importanza solo a partire dal XI secolo in cui esplode la sua presenza nell’iconografia. Gli artisti che si apprestavano a riprodurlo si pongono sempre il problema su come rappresentarlo, dato che non si conosce compiutamente la sua natura e si sceglie di...

THE ETCHING OF SAN PARIDE When my grandmother and my father came to America, they brought along an etching of San Paride. He was the patron saint of their town, Teano, Italy. Every August 5th, when Dad announced “Today is the feast of San Paride,” we prepared to celebrate. I can still see the sacrificial eggplant as Mother (Grandmother had retired from the kitchen) prepared the meal, slicing the eggplant into wafer-thin slivers which were fried crisp, drained and placed in tomato gravy flavored with grated parmesan and sweet basil. An August day in Llanerch was hot as an August day in Teano. After Dad set up the fan in the kitchen near Mother, he went to the State Store a couple miles away to buy wine, a white handkerchief tied around his neck to catch his sweat. He walked instead of driving his bedraggled car. Finally, we feasted, savoring that delicious food, Grandmother...

THE BLACK MADONNA OF TINDARI The Black Madonna of Tindari in Sicily took gentle vengeance on a woman who came on a pilgrimage, her baby in her arms. On climbing the shrine’s wind swept cliff, the woman exclaimed “I traveled so far to see somebody blacker than me!” In an instant, her child disappeared transported to a spot of dry sand below in the midst of the Mediterranean Sea the woman screamed, a boat was sent to rescue her child she realized that The Black Madonna of Tindari taught that racism is a sin.   – Maria Famá