The Miracle

The painting depicts a miracle that occurred in June 1505 in the village of San Polo Sabino, near Tarano, in the province of Rieti. This event was meticulously described by Friar Arcangelo Giani in his 17th-century annals of the Order of the Servite Fathers.

On June 9 of that year, a young girl named Giovanna was working the land when she saw a man appear, dressed in the black habit of the Servants of Mary, holding a rosary. He greeted her, saying, "Ave Maria." The friar, alluding to the damage that storms would inflict on the upcoming harvest, told the young girl that God was angered by the sins of men and asked her to warn the local population to fast and do penance. Giovanna, however, still incredulous, kept the vision to herself and said nothing.

The next day, June 10, while she was washing clothes, she heard a voice call her from a walnut tree. Looking up, she saw the weeping Virgin, seated on the branches and dressed in black like the Servite tertiary nuns. Mary, uncovering her chest and knees to show the wounds caused by humanity's sins, commanded her to immediately run to the parish priest. He was to gather the inhabitants of San Polo and preach to them to confess, fast, honor religious holidays, and perform processions in order to appease the Lord's wrath and the Virgin's suffering.

Following this apparition, the faithful decided to erect a small sanctuary dedicated to the Madonna della noce, which still stands today, nestled in the greenery of San Polo, just outside the town.

The artwork was painted for the high altar of the sanctuary, which was maintained by the Servite fathers until the suppression of their order and the dismissal of their convent in San Polo in 1652. It remained there at least until 1899 and was then transferred at an unspecified time to the church of San Barnaba, in the same municipality, where its presence is attested in 1932. Subsequently, it entered the Roman antiquarian market. In the 1950s, the panel was acquired for exhibition in the Civic Museum of Rieti and was later placed on deposit at Palazzo Venezia.

The painting illustrates the various episodes of the miracle, depicting the young girl both in the background and in the foreground, where the intensely expressive figure of the Virgin stands out on the tree.