SCIPIONE DEGLI ERETIMI


In the Madonna della Pace chapel, the first on the right aisle of the basilica, if we look closely we can see him still having on his hand a dagger. Scipione degli Eremiti is in fact the subjet of the cotto statue of the XV century, located on the left side of the chapel.
Scipione was a soldier that in 1405, shocked for losing a lot of money in gambling, knocked himself towards the Virgin’s icon, scuplted in Istrian stone by Giovanni Ferabech for the facade’s base. He hit her with a dagger, destroying two fingers of the child, making the latter fall down disfigured.
His outburst was about to cost him much. In fact, Scipione was condemned to hang, but after making a vow to God and the Virgin Mary, he was pardoned. So the soldier arranged the artwork inside the basilica.