Giammaria Morlaiter
Virgin and Child

18th century
Church of Sant'Alvise, Venice, Italy

This piece is unexceptional, but it is interesting that someone has altered the ceiling of the niche to add the words assumpta est, "she was assumed," and the date, I-XI-MCML, for November 1, 1950, the date when Pius XII proclaimed the doctrine of the Assumption. The statue does not, of course, picture the Assumption; but the modern inscriber must have felt that it would do well enough.

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Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.