Madonna with Child and Savior

The Madonna of the Challenge

Located behind the main altar of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore, the panel depicts the Madonna and Child on one side and, on the reverse, the blessing Savior. It is, therefore, an opisthodomous table, meaning it is made to be seen from both sides.

Traditionally identified as the "devoted figure of the Madonna" before whom, as sources say, the thirteen Italian knights who took part in the Challenge prayed, the icon is therefore also called the Madonna of the Challenge.

Signed at the bottom by the Modenese painter Paolo Serafini, the Madonna and Child refers to the Byzantine iconography of the Hodegitria Dexiokratousa, that is, holding the child with her right arm. In the lower part there is an inscription taken from a laud to the Virgin of San Bonaventura. The inscription under the Savior, however, heralds the advent of the Kingdom of light evoked in the writings of John and enphasized by the gold background of the panel.

The iconography of the Savior with the long tunic and a gold band at chest height has been linked to some verses of the Apocalypse.