Votive Picture

The Latin inscription explains that this picture was a thanks offering from a sick woman in Verona, Italy. She believed she had been restored to health by the Virgin Mary. Votive paintings were often made to gain favour with spiritual or supernatural forces. The painting is very damaged but has been skilfully designed, with a convincing depiction of space and depth. The condition makes it difficult to define an attribution. It may be an early work by Raphael, one of the most famous painters of the Italian Renaissance. The date 1495 or 1496 in Arabic numerals can be seen in an old photograph suggests a restoration and could record an older tradition or incription. This is one of the artworks presented by the Liverpool Royal Institution. Liverpool’s economic development grew directly from Britain’s involvement with transatlantic slavery: the kidnapping, enslavement and forced migration of people from West Africa to the Americas and many to the Caribbean. Many members of the Royal Institution made their fortunes directly through the trade or indirectly through the wider economy. This wealth was largely how they were able to bring rare art and treasures, such as this, to the city