«Portavano pitture della disgrazia sofferta». Divagazione sulle continuità e sulle trasformazioni degli exvoto figurativi

The painted ex-votos are a cult object with a long history. Examples of this type of ex-voto, widely used up to the end of the 19th century in Southern Italy and in other regions of Southern Europe, are in fact already attested in the classical world (pinakes, tabellea pictae). In the passage between the «pagan» world and the «Christian» world, in the changing of the divine referents and theologies, we observe a continuity of the ritual symbols and votive practices and, more generally, a significant persistence of forms, functions and meanings in the religious field.