Madonna And Child With Souls In Purgatory, First Half Of The 19th Century

First half of the 19th century
Madonna and Child with souls in Purgatory 
Lacquered and gilded papier-mache with polychrome wooden base
cm 96.5 x 37.5 x 28

"At that time I asked the Lord Jesus: 'For whom do I still have to pray?'. Jesus answered me that the following night he would make me known for whom I had to pray. I saw the Custodian Angel, who ordered me to follow him. At a moment I found myself in a foggy place, invaded by fire and, in it, a huge crowd of suffering souls. These souls pray with great fervour, but without effectiveness for themselves: only we can help them. The flames that burned them, they did not touch me. My Guardian Angel did not abandon me for a moment. And I asked those souls what their greatest torment was. And they unanimously answered me that their greatest torment is the ardent desire of God. I read the Madonna who visited the souls of Purgatory. The souls call Mary 'Star of the Sea'. She brings them refreshment ". 
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska p. 11)

A Polish religious, Saint Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938) reinterpreted in the pages of her testimony the ancient role of the Virgin as savior and supporter of the souls of Purgatory.  The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council established that, assumed into Heaven, the Mother of God should operate a continuous intercession in favor of those children waiting for Paradise who were in the place, quoted for the first time by Pope Gregory the Great in his Dialogues, in which to await atonement from earthly sins. Saint Bridget of Sweden, born in 1303, testified how the purging souls felt relieved to hear the name of Mary while, a little later, San Bernardino da Siena (1380-1444) recalled how the main intent of the Virgin was to mitigate the pain of souls waiting for eternal life. Many later theologians have reaffirmed the rightful importance of the role of the Virgin in the process of salvation within the boundaries of Purgatory, among them all Saint Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori (1696-1787); the help offered by the faithful, that can recite the prayer of the Rosary in suffrage of the deceased, remained equally useful according to the later interpretation. In this sculpture, the souls are depicted within the canonical flames of Augustinian remembrance, adopting an iconographic practice used both for paintings and for sculptures of every era: remember in this regard the works of similar subject by Luca Giordano (Basilica di San Pietro di Castello, Venice), Ludovico Carracci (Pinacoteca Vaticana, Musei Vaticani), Orazio de Ferrari (Chiesa di S. Ambrogio, Voltri) and the statuary group made with the same material of the present, the papier-mâché, work of the Leccese school of the twentieth century (Mother Church of Santa Maria di Licodia).

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