2019 Essays

The Cappella della Madonna del Latte in Ugento and the Iconography of the Rosary

Querejazu, Lucía

The Cappella della Madonna del Latte is a tiny chapel within the Franciscan convent of S. Maria della Pietà in Ugento (Puglia), built in the last decades of the fifteenth century. There is very little information regarding the construction of the convent and the frescoes of the chapels. The convent was not finished until the end of the century due to the siege of Otranto by the Ottoman Empire, a time when all construction was devoted to fortifications and new defenses for the cities. It would appear that it was Aghelberto del Balzo who decided to dedicate the convent to Santa Maria della Pietà in the 1480s. Aghelberto, son of the Duke of Andria, Francesco III, had taken possession of the fief of Ugento in 1463, as part of the dowry of Maria Conquesta, daughter and heiress of Giovanni Antonio Orsini del Balzo.