ASTRACT
In the broad panorama of sacred iconography, there are various depictions of the Madonna del latte (Madonna of the milk), made mainly between the late Middle Ages and the 17th century. Painted or frescoed in churches, abbeys and votive aedicules, the images of the nursing Mother, derived from the more stylised Byzantine models of the Galaktotrophousa, were widely represented throughout the peninsula, becoming object of prayer and veneration. The aim of this essay is to describe this type of Marian iconography, characterised by a profound symbolic and evocative meaning of the figure of the mother. From the earliest depictions of nurturers in the Greco-Roman world to the numerous Christian images of the Virgin nursing the Child, the work explores the various figurative changes in sacred representation over time, also through the limits and prohibitions imposed by the Council of Trent and the subsequent evolution.