Statue of the Virgin and Child

A statue that never reached the chapel for which it was intended

Among the five statues commissioned to Antonello Gagini in 1524 by Ettore Pignatelli, Duke of Monteleone (Vibo Valentia) and viceroy of Sicily, there was also the one of Saint Joseph. It was part of the ornamentation of the family chapel-mausoleum in the choir of the church of Santa Maria la Nova (then Santa Maria del Gesù) in Vibo Valentia. 

In 1534, Pignatelli decided to modify his request to the artist asking him to create a second Virgin and Child, instead of the figure of the saint, to be placed in the chapel dedicated to San Michele in the city's castle-palace. 

The choice probably reflected a significant change to the plan for the choir which at that point was meant to accommodate not five, but four sculptures in marble aedicules. 

The death of the duke in 1535 and that of the artist the following year did not extinguish the agreement, upheld by Gagini's workshop via the creation of the sculpture which was delivered to the new duke, nephew and namesake of the viceroy, Ettore II. 

Ettore II, however, proved not to like the work, opting for the creation of a new statue, probably commissioned to the Neapolitan sculptor Annibale Caccavello, or to his colleague Giovan Domenico d'Auria. 

So the statue from the Gaginesca workshop remained in the family chapel until, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was transferred with the other works from the chapel to the Cathedral of Vibo. 

After being left in the large chapel of Saint Basil in the mother church with the statue of San Luca, from the same commission, in 1988 it became part of the collections exhibited in the Valentianum.