Miraculous Image Motion: Multiplication and Dissemination of the Virgin Mary throughout the Hispanic World

Nora Guggenbühler, M.A.

During the early modern period, the global dissemination of miraculous Marian images and their copies significantly expanded and solidified the veneration of the Virgin Mary across both the Old and New Worlds. Since Freedberg (1989) and Belting (1990) first highlighted these images, their significance in art historical research has grown, yet the role of their copies in transregional cult topographies remains to be systematically outlined. My dissertation examines the dissemination of miraculous image copies across the Spanish Empire during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, focusing on the Madonna di Trapani. Copies of this revered marble statue were actively distributed between Sicily, Spain, and Latin America. By tracing the journey of the Trapanitana and other miraculous images, my research will investigate the development of globally interconnected cult topographies, addressing issues of center and periphery, as well as the relationship between original and copy. I will explore the routes these copies traveled, the individuals and institutions behind their spread, and the functions they served. This study reveals how these replicas, simultaneously anchored in both their new environments and original contexts, not only followed but also reinforced religious, political, economic, and artistic connections across the early modern Hispanic world.