La Disputa sull’Annunciazione di Visgnola e l’iconografia in Italia di Alberto Magno

This article focuses on an early sixteenth century canvas now housed in the church of Santa Maria Annunciata in Visgnola, near Como. The painting features saint Albert the Great, a German Dominican friar who died in 1280, standing on a pulpit below which are sitting four members of the Mendicants order, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Egidio Romano and an unknown Carmelite. All these friars are depicted with books, and are calmly arguing. However, Albert is pointing to the upper section of the painting, where an Annunciation can be faintly seen. Four other man are also depicted in the background. Up until now Visgnola’s canvas has received little scholarly attention, and has always been considered a depiction of Saint Albert preaching. I will argue that the painting’s imagery should be connected to Albert’s fame as a learned man and that it actually shows a scholarly debate on the opic of the Annunciation. Finally, I will argue that the canvas was not painted for Visgnola, but for the most important Dominican church in the area, San Giovanni Pedemonte in Como, and will discuss its possible function.